It happens to us all. We book tickets before Christmas to see the family. And then we get in the car to head to the airport…

1)Your bags can barely zip.

Not only do you have presents for all of the cousins and mom and dad, you also are indecisive on what to wear. Should I wear the black dress to the candle light service or is that not jolly enough? Should I bring a scarf? (We might go ice-skating,) I will bring two!

2)The security lines are longer than Santa’s beard.

Once you’ve booked your luggage and paid the overweight fee, you make it to security. It’s a maze. No one is happy and you just realized you wore a belt and you’re standing behind a man who looks like your grandpa.

3)Your flight has been delayed due to the Winter Wonderland outside.

You’ve made it past security. And to Gate D7 only to see a bright red word: DELAYED. There’s a storm coming, you’ll at least have to wait another hour if not five.

4)You could really go for a Peppermint Mocha Latte.

While you wait for your plane to arrive, you get thirsty for your favorite holiday beverage. You have already decided to splurge for that $5 Peppermint Mocha Latte, but you get to the cashier and they ring it up: $13.25.

5)You are sitting alone with a Peppermint Mocha Latte, no significant other, and no outlet insight.

You look around you and find strangers holding hands and sharing ear buds, while you sit alone. You realize that the only one to greet you upon your arrival home will be your dog, Bruno, and your mother and father.

6)Your plane arrives and you get a middle seat next to a crying baby.

You’re seat is in the back of the plane next to the bathroom. You’re stuck in the middle seat, sandwiched between and old man covered in gold rings and a poor mother and her screaming toddler. You feel sorry for the mother, but lack any knowledge of how to help.

7)You arrive, but your baggage doesn't.

You get off the horrid plane. And find yourself at the baggage claim. It never comes. You talk to one of the airport clerks and they tell you it somehow got stuck in Ontario, Canada. All your presents and scarves unaccounted for.

8)You arrive home to a Christmas tree: front and center an ornament with a picture of your naked baby self.

You decide you need to cry in your room for a while…

9)Your room has been turned into an office space.

No bed insight you lay on the ground mourning the day lost to the smelly airplane, mobbed security lines, and lost luggage.

10) Your bags arrive on Christmas Eve.

You didn’t need that black dress after all because you had to borrow one of your mother’s for the candle light service, and now you are stuck wrapping presents until dawn, at least Bruno will know you thought of him.

Happy travels! And Merry Christmas!