The flight from Thanksgiving to Christmas was going smoothly. The sky was clear, and the sun was shining. I was enjoying myself, watching the scenery pass by under my wings. As my plane entered mid-December, the engines started to whine. The gauges indicated we had a problem, but a few quick raps with my fingertips restored them to normal readings, and I pulled my Santa hat down firmly to muffle the high pitched squeals coming from the wings.

To keep my mind off the turbulance caused by a 3rd birthday party for my youngest and two holiday parties for my older kids' classes, I hummed triumphant songs from the Rocky soundtrack. I pulled back on the stick and soared up into thin air, hoping to avoid any more shaking.

At altitude, we made our final turn and began the Christmas approach. Within minutes of radioing in our approach from a mere week out, the engines began to smoke and sputter. Frantically, I tapped on the gauges. The plane began to dive towards the earth. I could see the Christmas runway lights, but we were still too far, and we were coming in hard.

Screaming over the rush of the wind and the whine of the ailing engines, I told everyone to brace themselves into the crash position. I fought for control with the stick as the ground rushed up at us.

With a scream of frustration, I gave an almighty tug, and the plane leveled enough to skid belly first into a field outside the airport. Leaping from the smoking wreckage of the plane, I hauled all the passengers out and sent them scurrying away from the hull. We made it a safe distance before the whole thing went up in a spectacular, red and green explosion.

A caravan of emergency workers gave us medicine and calmed our nerves. They drove us the rest of the way into Christmas. Although we didn't make it with the plane intact, the holiday was still magical and full of wonder, if subdued. Days later, we are grateful that we didn't crash into the terminal, and that we were far enough from Christmas to recover somewhat before we arrived.

They hauled the wreckage of "The Perfect Christmas" to a hangar. We're hoping that it will be airborne for next Christmas.