Christmas Trip 2025

At the beginning of December, we heard that Doug's son John would be coming to the Bay Area for his high school reunion, and only staying for a couple of days. All of the rest of his 5 kids live in the East Bay. Doug kept talking about us driving up from Palm Springs to perhaps spend Christmas with them. I hated the idea of driving the 8 and a half hours in holiday traffic, since we just started feeling at home and rooted in Palm Springs, and I tried to ignore his suggestion.

I sent out the calendars that I had been working on, boxing up 7 of them to send to daughter Grace's house, (to save on postage), and a box of bags of family Christmas ornaments, so the others could go to her home to pick them up. When Gracie announced that she would have a pizza party at her house so all the siblings could see John and pick up their calendars, that was a game changer.

I went out one day to put some more solar Christmas lights on our hedge, and when I came back in, Doug said, "Where have you been? I've got an idea to present to you." He then whipped out his phone with plane reservations displayed on it.

Sitting down, sweating (it was still 86 degrees) and tired, I leaned my head back onto the chair to listen. He saw my attitude, and said, "You know, if it was you wanting to be with Your kids back East, we'd go, or I'd encourage you to go. All 5 of my kids will be together on Friday, and I may never have an opportunity to see them again before I die!" (Oh God), I'm thinking, (It'd be so hard with the wheelchair....)

"Look!", he said, "Southwest has roundtrip tickets from PSP to OAK for two for only $333.! And it's a direct flight. Only an hour and a half!"

"Well, I have to admit that is pretty amazing." I said.

"We don't have to stay long...... just about 4 nights.... till Monday." (Hmm- then we could still be home for Christmas and appreciate our little decorations.) (and I could work in a visit to my sister!)

When we looked closer at the tickets, it seemed confusing, so we decided to call to make sure. The Southwest assistant, Kelman, was very helpful, but it turns out that the $333 was for a one way ticket for one person.....and in order for us to sit together, we'd have to fly into SFO. Seemed okay, if not quite a bit more to pay than we expected. But if not done, Doug would have been in a great Funk!

On the 18th, we arranged with our neighbor Mike to drive us the 10 minutes to Palm Springs airport. When he let us out, a nice security guard noticed us struggling with Doug in the wheelchair, holding on to the rolling bag and his little bag on his lap and me with my backpack on, pushing him while I held the walker, and she rescued us. She brought us into the line to check in, and after she left I realized I hadn't gone over to the kiosk to start the process. I left Doug in line to do so, and when I got back realized that he had moved himself forward with his feet and was first in line! We finished checking in, and a wheelchair pusher was ordered. Then I remembered that we were hoping to change Doug to a window seat, so when other people boarded the plane he wouldn't have to get up again to let them through. I went over to Doug to tell him that he was offered a new seat on the other side of the plane, but I had to stay in my original middle seat. the good news was that we still had good foot room, and it was only for 1-1/2 hours.We could be apart for that long. I think he half listened, but agreed. "Sure, whatever you think..."

So I trotted along beside Sam, pushing Doug along quickly to security, where they dusted off our shoes with a little wipe just in case we had some explosive particles on us. Then on to gate 18. We were early, so we sat doing our puzzles on our phones together, Connections and Wordle. Then we were entertained by a small spectacle advertising the inaugural flight between PSP and Newark airport. People arriving were greeted by a drag queen scantily dressed as the Statue of Liberty and waving a flashlight shaped like an orange torch. Everyone who wanted one, received a cupcake. Welcome to Palm Springs!

Our gate was moved over to 17, and another wheelchair pusher found us. She informed me that I should check our wheelchair at the gate. As I was standing there for that, she waved at me and told me she would wheel him up the ramp and help him get seated. A couple of minutes later while I was standing in line, I saw her coming back down. In anticipation, I had put $5 in my pocket, and asked if he had given her a tip. She said, "He sure did! And, just so you know I put his bag and your jackets just above him in the bin."

So in I walked, followed by a throng of passengers, through 1st class, and on to row 7, where I waved at Doug, seated by the window on my right. "I don't know where my bag is!", he said. "I see it's right up here above you." I said, blowing him a kiss. I threw my backpack into the overhead bin, since there was no place to store it in front of me on the floor, and took my seat across the aisle from him in the center seat. I leaned forward to try to catch his eye, but all the people boarding with their suitcases blocked my view. When it came time for us to take off, I fondly remembered that Doug and I always hold hands and say a little prayer for our safety. I tried to wave at him, but he was gazing out the window.

I found out later that Doug had another view of what happened during that time..... Evidently he hadn't seen me sit down across the aisle, thinking I had continued on, perhaps going to the restroom. He saw the seatbelt sign light up and worried that I hadn't been allowed to go to my seat. He tried to text me, but it wouldn't go through since we were both on Airplane Mode.

Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out my headphones and the screen in front of me. Finally the flight attendant came around to pass out drinks and snacks. I tried to wave around the menu that I found in my seat pocket to see if he wanted a cocktail. I saw that he ordered a Diet Coke and pretzels, so when she turned to ask me, I told her that I would like to pay for a Jack Daniels for my husband. She got it ready, and handing it over to him, pointed at me. I thought the relief on his face was just appreciation for the drink. With only an hour to go on the flight, I settled in with my Tito's Vodka and Tonic and my own pretzels and watched short subjects on the TV.

When we were landing at SFO, I tried once again to get Doug's attention to say a little prayer. Landing is the scariest part of the flight to me. He kept looking out the window. At landing we finally waved at each other to make sure, we agreed to wait for everyone to pass before we got up.

When it was our turn, the attendant said that his wheelchair was at the door, but Doug was having a hard time moving from one seat to the other. The pilot even asked if he'd like an aisle chair to deliver him to the door of the plane, but when it was discovered that there wasn't one available, Doug got up and used the backs of the seats to walk along the aisle. Getting into his chair, he suddenly heard a metalic sound, and when he looked down, his wedding ring fell down in the crack between the plane and the ramp to the ground. One of the plane cleaners ran over to look down, and said, "I see it! I'll go get it!" She ran out a door and down some stairs, as Doug was pushed more forward off the plane. Behind us, we heard the pilot say, "I see it too! Oh! Someone's got it!" Then the girl came running up and handed Doug his nice gold wedding band. As he was being pushed up the ramp, I thanked her profusely, and kept feeling nervously in all of my pockets for that five dollar bill that I didn't give to the wheelchair pusher. I couldn't find it! Frustrated, I appologized and told her that I thought I should reward her. She just smiled and said, "There's really no need." I gave her a hug, said thank you again, and followed Doug being pushed quickly in his chair.

Charlie, our new pusher, calmed our fears about our next step. He walked us over to baggage claim, where our one bag was sitting forlornly by itself. Then he knew to take us to another place where the walker was waiting. We had rented a car, so he generously offered to take us on the AirTrain to the Alamo rental place. Don't know what we would have done without him. He was probably an angel.

He made sure we got our Nissan Rogue car, which I had a little trouble starting, but eventually got used to it. We tipped Charlie from the pile of five dollar bills Doug had supplied in his pocket.

We drove slowly and carefully at first to find our way onto the freeway, passing both the old Candlestick Park and the Cow Palace. I remembered that I had seen the Beatles at each place back in the sixties.

There was so much traffic as we entered the onramp to the Bay Bridge. Both of us realized that we should have stopped to use the restroom before getting into the car. Just the thought of not having access to one made me squirm in my seat.

We decided to stop at the El Cerrito Plaza to get a few supplies. The drive to the airport had taken longer than the flight! Two hours! I confessed to Doug that I was going to go pee as soon as I got inside the store. He said that somehow his bladder must have expanded and that he was okay for a few more minutes. With relief, and a few groceries, I returned to the car and planned on zooming on over to daughter Charity's house to get Doug to the bathroom as soon as possible.

To our dismay, I tried in vain to put this foreign car into reverse to back out of the parking place, but I couldn't figure out how! We both tried pressing down on the knob, and every other trick we remembered from past cars. Finally, I resorted to going to Google to ask how to put a Nissan Rogue in reverse. (the weird thing is that by the time I typed Nissan, the rest of the question was typed in for me. Hmm. Looks like someone knows what we need...) There's a button on the side of the knob, it said, but we hadn't seen it in the dark. Anyway, it worked, and we were on our way!

Cha greeted us warmly and helped us rush Doug into our room and bathroom, through her garage in his wheelchair. Success!

The next day we relaxed, until it was time for the pizza party with all of the kids and 8 of the grandchildren.

Gracie provided the traditional Danish "nut in the pudding" treat, with two prizes.

You have to be careful when you're eating the pudding so you don't choke on the nut! (Just so you know.)

Then, I handed out family ornaments to everyone. Soji seemed to think she should get one too.

Next, were the calendars I make each year with everyones photos on them. I was so touched to hear the reactions everyone had, and realized that I had never really witnessed people actually sitting together to look at my little creation!

Well, it all worked out. Doug was so delighted to see his kids, and it couldn't have turned out any better.

The trip home after a couple of more days worried us a little, about the logistics, but it all happened smoothly, with all the angels around us.