Shuffle off to Omaha, Now with Freezing Rain!

See above, car is packed and now I'm in the car! Joe is driving so this blog writing isn't unsafe or anything, I promise.

We are headed up to Omaha for holiday festivities including the traditional holiday over-eating (which I will be trying to avoid), possible weather hazards included simply to test Joe's impressive winter driving skills, gift exchanging with family while wearing pajamas, playing and cuddling with adorable nephews, great meals and conversations with wonderful family and friends and including a gaggle of spunky kids, the Eggs Benedict feast Christmas morning at the grandparent's, scene of an annual brutal battle where cousins vie to see who can scarf down the most in one sitting. The winner was Mandy, surprisingly, a couple of years ago. And then we will come home exhausted and happy, to wrap up Christmas with my family and more out of town friends. I love the holidays.

But on to a more important subject. In light of all the travel that takes place around the holidays I thought I would list the things that I require to make our road trips comfortable, entertaining and distract from the tedious scenery that makes up some parts of the Midwest. (Especially if you've made the drive to Omaha as often as we have. Only so many fireworks stores, ultra conservative religious signage and gas stations I want to look at for 3 hours.)

- iPod, this tool is vital in providing entertainment, audio books, music and now with the addition of the iPhone to our family, the internet!

- Podcasts- yes, I loooove these. We will certainly listen to these on the trip tonight: The Dan Savage - Savage Lovecast: sex advice call in show, informative and racy, not for children!!  This American Life : Public radio show with an intriguing mix of fiction and nonfiction stories about regular and not so regular Americans. And possibly one of Joe's photography podcasts, but only if I fall asleep in the car. This does happen occasionally.

- Joe, no road trip is quite complete without Joe. He likes to do all the driving, we both know exactly how much to talk in the car, which is vital. This reminds me of a great line from Best in Show. "We have so much in common, we both love soup and snow peas, we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking. We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about."

- The ability to remove my shoes and stretch out. This sounds silly, but when you are six foot tall you don't take leg room for granted.

- Layers, especially traveling in the winter, the temperature seems like it's always too hot or too cold in the car, so layers.

- This trip will also require two additional things: David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries and Six to Eight Black Men stories. We must listen to these when traveling for Christmas, it's tradition. If you haven't heard them yet then do yourself a favor and go buy them now. You can buy them here. You're welcome.

What makes your road trip must-have list? Do you sleep through them? Photograph scenery? Magazines? Dead silence? Elmo on the DVD player? I'd love to know how you pass the time in the car.

Now I'm going to go enjoy my road trip, and my holidays. You make sure to travel safely, have a lovely time where ever you are, eat some scrumptious food and hug someone you love right now, for no good reason, other than it's that time of year.