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Coping with Holiday Travel Stress

Part of the upcoming holidays includes travel. Travel is stressful even under ideal circumstances, but when you throw in stormy, seasonal weather patterns including snow, wind, rain and ice – well, as you can imagine travel can get pretty unpredictable. There are the long lines at the airports and of course, the high price of gas (though over the last month – that’s also come down so that’s a good thing.)

So here are a few tips for you and your spouse to help you cope with the upcoming holiday season and the potential travel associated with it:

  • If you and your spouse are going to be driving more than two hours away for a holiday meal or to spend time with family, make sure you have the route planned in advance and prepare an alternate route in the event of construction, weather or other delay
  • For the kids, pick up a few car games they can play whether it’s letting them bring along a Nintendo Gameboy or bringing a book to read
  • For you and the spouse, consider some books on CD if you can find one you can both agree on or spend some time putting together a few compilation CDs that you can both enjoy listening to
  • Make a compact to not discuss problems during the drive, in fact there’s no surer way to make a holiday trip miserable than to be arguing all the way
  • Give yourselves plenty of time whether you are driving or flying – most airports want you to arrive at least 3 hours a head of time which means you need to find a way to entertain the children and yourselves for the 3 hours you’re waiting
  • Before traveling to your in-laws or your parents where siblings and their families will be meeting you, talk to each other about any potential problems you may encounter, for example, if your husband and your brother-in-law really don’t like each other – -make plans for coping with it in order to diminish the tension
  • Be prepared to present a united team effort and do your best to not play the opposition to your spouse
  • Ground your expectations and plan to just enjoy yourselves – hopefully once you’ve arrived, the hurry up and wait will be over and you can just enjoy the food, the conversation, the decorations, the gifts and the experience of being with the family over the holidays

What other tips can you think of to enjoy the upcoming holidays?

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About Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago. They have a beautiful daughter who just turned five years old. She is learning to read and preparing for kindergarten in the fall. An author of more than 300 articles and 500+ web copy pieces, Heather has also written three books as a ghostwriter. Empty Canoe Publishing accepted a novel of her own. A former horse breeder, Heather used to get most of her exercise outside. In late 2004, early 2005 Heather started studying fitness full time in order to get herself back into shape. Heather worked with a personal trainer for six months and works out regularly. She enjoys shaking up her routine and checking out new exercises. Her current favorites are the treadmill (she walks up to 90 minutes daily) and doing yoga for stretching. She also performs strength training two to three times a week. Her goals include performing in a marathon such as the Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness or Team in Training for Lymphoma research. She enjoys sharing her knowledge and experience through the fitness and marriage blogs.