It’s “Leadership” Friday, the calm before the storm. Soon, I’ll be caught up in the hassles of the holiday, starting with a flight into Chicago on Sunday night. While my wife heads to the Garrett’s Popcorn store, I’ll load up on Bears Championship gear, providing the airport stores are still open. It will be close to midnight when we arrive, and we’ll lose another hour after crossing the Indiana border. Hopefully, there will be no hassles at Hertz like there were last year. Much is dependent on the weather.

I’ll wake up the next morning in Hammond and run through a neighboring park, extending a “high five” to Flick whose tongue is permanently stuck to a flagpole in front of the Indiana Welcome Center “Christmas Story” display. This little gesture has become a holiday tradition for me before we make the drive to pick up my 97-year old mother-in-law. Once she and her wheelchair are in the car, we’ll then immediately head to Indianapolis for my first glass of wine.

I will wake up the next three mornings and suffer through my runs as a result of overindulging, ultimately achieving 3,653 consecutive days (10 years) of streaking. In the meantime, baby Cole will have had help unwrapping hundreds of gifts. For once, it will not be a group of grown adults, and a few dogs, exchanging elaborate gifts. A new child will learn the meaning of spoiled. It will take a lot of wine to get through this experience.

During the course of the week, I have new relatives to get acquainted with, old friends to meet, and a quick rendezvous with my sister’s family. It will be a track meet, combining many miles of driving, handshakes & hugging, endless bottles of nerve-settling wine, and excessive eating before we ultimately end up back at the airport, wondering where the time went. It gives me a headache just thinking about it! I will have to get up in the middle of the night to get my run in before our early morning flight out of O’Hare. The good news for me is that I can come home and rest, but my poor wife will have to go back to work the next day. Ouch!