I love it when I reach the end of a day that was supposed to be stressful and difficult but ends up being smooth and pretty easy.  Not to mention eye-opening.  We added another flight to the tally for the goose yesterday.  It was a little different than our usual travel day: we had Christopher with us, we were flying a different airline and it was just a few days before Christmas.  I didn’t really know what to expect!  In a nutshell (which if you read my blog regularly, you know this is hard for me to fit ANYTHING in a nutshell) I thought flying on United was going to be a huge hassle, even though there were 64 people on stand-by for our flight we didn’t encounter a single problem and I gave up some “travel control” and let Chris help when I actually did need help.  That’s hard for me sometimes – I am the kind of person that wants to prove that I can do it all myself.

So the basics of “Operation: Travel Christmas” were just fine…but there were two VERY cool things that happened as well.

FIRST: We flew on a 777 (that is a huge plane with seating arrangement 2-5-2, meaning two seats, an aisle then five seats across the middle then another aisle and then two more seats) We were in the middle section: I was on the aisle, then Christopher and then Addison in the middle of the 5 seats.  I was a wreck thinking of all the bad things that could happen that would create problems for us: usually a carseat HAS to be in a window seat and I could picture us getting all set in our seats and then having a flight attendant tell us that we had to move, Addie was going to be seated next to a stranger who may or may not like kids and most likely didn’t want a two year old grabbing at him/her the entire 2 1/2 hour flight.

I was wrong…on all counts.  The flight attendants didn’t say a word about our seats (I still don’t understand that by the way, I’ve always been told it is FAA regulation to have a carseat in the window) AND, get ready because this is incredible…the woman who sat next to Addie played with her the ENTIRE FLIGHT!  And she loved it! Her name was Carol and she was so kind and sweet with Addie.  I am not going to guess at her age but she was a Grandmother to numerous kids and had recently become a Great-Grandmother (although she was quick to tell us that her “great-grandmother status” was achieved much earlier than anyone in the family thought it would happen courtesy of a teenage granddaughter.)  By the end of the flight Chris and I both told her how wonderful we thought she was and were both very thankful for her help and attention.

I saw her at the baggage claim with her husband who had been sitting elsewhere on the plane, so I approached them and told him that he was a lucky man to have Carol and that my husband, daughter and I had fallen in love with her on the flight.  She was beaming.  He loved hearing it, but wasn’t surprised and answered, “Oh, I KNOW how lucky I am.”

Next time someone does something kind for you, make sure you tell them how very much you appreciate it…most people don’t ever expect the compliment and it makes everyone involved feel better.

SECOND:  I am in awe of my husband.  Just when you think you’ve seen all the wonderful in someone he does something to prove that there’s even MORE wonderful in there.  I’ll make this quick because it’ll quickly become gushy.  Since you don’t know much about Christopher other than the fact he plays poker for a living, I’ll tell you that he is incredibly smart, to the point sometimes people don’t “get him.” He is a very rational, logical thinker (uh…poker player!) and in most situations values quick wit over “haha funny.”  He travels as much as we do (obviously) and has developed his own system and habits when it comes to being on a plane.  Now, to why he is wonderful, yesterday he chose to sit next to Addison, letting me sit on the aisle.  Not only did he take care of her the entire flight, but he chatted with the woman sitting next to Addie (we learned later that her name was Carol.)  Chris does not chat.  Especially not on a plane.  But he was kind and sweet and everything that I see everyday but the general public usually doesn’t.  Not only was I proud of Addie for being so well behaved on the plane, but I was incredibly proud of my husband for taking such good care of his family and the people around us!

What’s the point?  I guess the lesson I learned yesterday was that I get so caught up in my routine and the way I usually see things, that sometimes I need to be challenged. I need to be shown how different things are from my original perception and I need to give up some control and let people (especially Chris) help me more often.  I don’t think of myself as a controlling person, but every once in a while I need to open my eyes, admit that I try to have a hand in the way everything goes in my family and then I need to chill out.

Lesson learned.  Merry Christmas. Again.