5 tips to survive Christmas on the road

Q:  What's the difference between a trip and a vacation?  A:  Simple, vacations don't involve children.

We are the only members of our family who live in Colorado.  It's kind of neat being on our own, but we do miss our families.  Every Christmas, we load the presents in the car and visit our families.  It's a long car ride, and once you get there, it's no guaranteed great time.  As you know, Christmas is so busy that if you're not careful when you get back you'll need a vacation from your vacation.  Here's some tips we have found to be very helpful as we make the trip each year.

1.  Presents in the car - Go to your local dollar store and pick up some little toys you think you're kids will enjoy.  These could be puzzles or little games (our kids favorites).  Wrap them up and put them in a basket.  Tell them that every hour they can open one of the presents and play with it.  They love it and the time goes by much faster without having to watch DVDs the entire time.

2.  Vocalize your expectations - Just like any vacation, even though you going to visit family, I think it helps for my wife and I to talk about our agenda before the trip.  What do you want to accomplish this trip?  See as much family as possible?  Relax and read a book?  Spend quality time with the kids?  Knowing this up front helps you both plan.

3.  Be flexible with your expectations - One of the quality pieces of advice we received when we got married was "almost all frustration comes from unmet expectations".  My wife wanted to catch up on some sleep this trip.  The day we arrive, the baby started coughing and wheezing.  We debated going to the doctor,  with out of state insurance the bill is painful.  Eventually we decided the piece of mind would be worth it.  Turns out the poor little guy had an ear infection in each ear and strep throat.  Needless to say we weren't catching up on our sleep.  Instead we changed our agenda to spending some quality time with our kids and especially the baby.    

(a side tip: my wife says to fill an anti-biotic prescription before you leave.  I don't think we've had a trip where we haven't used it)

4.  Don't be afraid to be the party planner - since we are the one's visiting sometimes we expect the "home team" to plan the fun activities and get togethers.  Although it is some trouble to plan activities - it's the best way to make sure they happen.

5.  Two words: free babysitting.  Take advantage of it!  Just because you're visiting family doesn't mean you have to be with them the entire time.  Take advantage of all the free babysitting and take time for yourself and each other.  This is one we haven't done so well on yet because of aforementioned baby in tip #3.

Do you do Christmas on the road?  What do you do to make it an enjoyable experience?