We had the absolute best time over winter break — we ‘adopted’ a couple of the international boarders from Shug’s school, and took a couple of trips: one to Gulf Shores so they could have some beach time, and Av took the older boys to New Orleans while Shugie and I did things closer to home.
There was no problem finding places to eat outside, and of course since we were at a condo, I did a LOT of cooking for all of us there. Also, one of the kids is a vegetarian (I was a vegetarian some in high school, too), so we tried some of the plant-based meat substitutes. Some are much better than others, which probably goes without saying. I did make a lasagna, and I promise, if you didn’t know, you’d never know it wasn’t made with real ground beef.
We stayed at the Seaside Beach & Racquet Club on Orange Beach, Alabama; it wasn’t the nicest condo we’ve ever stayed at, but was certainly fine for this stay and had a really big balcony.
Christmas Day lunch — both our international students celebrate Christmas — was at the Flora-Bama (Av likes to do the New Year Day Polar Dip there), and it was fun because it was a covered-dish affair, where everyone brought something to share. There were ALL kinds of different people there, and we got a table outside, which was great.
When Av and the older boys went to New Orleans (we took two cars to the beach since there were so many of us), they stayed at the JW Marriott because we like their concierge lounge and knew the boys could use it a lot, and it’s right on Canal so easy walking everywhere.
They went everywhere, and of course I asked for gingerbread pics — here, from Windsor Court
and the Ritz-Carlton
They got back in time for New Year Day, and we had the traditional spread
We really never wanted the boys to go back to school! We’d had such a really terrific time — days going non-stop and a couple of just lazy, Netflix-filled days. We’re making plans to be with them to do things on the weekends altogether now, too. So nice and so grateful for the boys having these and such a terrific group of friends. We’ll remember this special winter break forever.