Travel Itch

I bought my tickets for Christmas vacation last week. I'm excited for Christmas (although a little alarmed by how soon it is coming and how much I have to finish and accomplish before then) for a number of reasons.

First (and these are NOT in order of importance), I haven't seen my maternal grandparents for over a year. By the time Christmas comes, it will have been a year and a half. They haven't had an easy year, health wise, and I wasn't able to make it to the family reunion last summer, so I'm looking forward to seeing them.
Second, they have an old house in New England where there will probably be a white Christmas, and while I don't enjoy the snow or winter in my daily life, a few weeks at Christmas can be nice (as long as I get to head back to the warmth within a reasonable time).
Third, I'll get to see my brother, who I last saw for a brief 10 days or so in May in Cape Town. I miss my family often, so vacations are a good time to be sure I get to see them.
Fourth, I love Christmas, though the earliness of the sales and music (Really Walmart? A week before Halloween?) drives me batty. I love Christmas shopping for other people, music, smells, baking... all the secular stuff for the season. But I also love Advent and anticipation and celebrating the Nativity.

Finally, and this may be most relevant to the airplane tickets, I've got the travel itch again. Sunday, on my way to church on the edge of town, I had an almost irresistible urge to just keep driving. Instead of coming home afterwards, I almost turned the car the other direction. I haven't really left my town since the first half of July (a quick weekend trip to a wedding and then a 2 hour drive to take my parents to the airport). I'm getting antsy, fidgety. I want to go somewhere. I've arranged an overnight trip for a week from now to hold me over, but the tickets -- the promise of airplanes, flights, real travel -- are helping to keep me focused on what I need to do this week. And the next. And the next.