I am a firm believer that a family that travels together, stays together. I have mentioned before that my husband loves to travel as well. It is strange since he grew up being a self proclaimed home body. As much as I love to stay on the go, my kids would rather be at home. I know, I know. How could this be! Well, it is in their DNA. My in- laws are from Miami, FL. Growing up, they would take my husband and his sister on trips to DisneyWorld, they would go to California and even take short day cruises to the Bahamas. Two to three days away from home was always more than enough for the family. Home was a comfortable place to be! Same goes for my kids. No matter how much money we spend on fun and entertainment, the question of the day from my son is “can we go home now?”
We have taken long weekend vacations together to New York and Savannah and we have all had a great time, but times are changing! I recently came across a nice deal to go to a country that I had never visited in Europe before. I shared it with my husband and asked him if he wanted to go. Of course he did! At first we were going to take the kids, we didn’t want to burden our parents yet again with the task of keeping them. I passed the deal along to my sister, sorority sister and my mom and he shared it with his parents as well. Why not? We never thought that they would bite. This is just not something that they do, but you never know. My mom passed but offered to keep the kids, all of them (THANK YOU JESUS) my sister and sorority sister are in, cool. My husband sent me a text message from work saying that his mom was interested in going on the trip. Word??? Word. You know the flight will be more than 2 hours right? All my husband has to do is convince his dad. He called his dad and presented the trip and his response was “sure, why not.” Just like that, we are all going abroad in January! Me, my husband, my sister, sorority sister, my sister in law, my mother in law and my father in law. The only people in the group that have crossed the Atlantic are me and my husband. This is going to be great!
Have you traveled abroad or on long trips with your in- laws before? What has your experience been? Leave a comment below!
I’m all about new experiences and adventures and this trip will be one for sure. I also love playing tour guide but we have never been to this country before either. Planning for this trip will be a challenge for several reasons, but I have come up with a quick guide for packing for Europe in the Winter that you may be able to use as well. We will restricted to traveling with a carry on suitcase and one personal item because of the airfare deal that we got. It will be cold so we will need to dress in layers and we will be gone for 5 days. Here is what we will do. You can click the links to purchase the items:
- 2-3 thin, long-sleeved shirts for layering
- 2 tank tops
- 1 thermal shirt
- 1 sweater or sweatshirt
- 1 thermal jacket with a hood
- 1 Toggle-front wool jacket
- 1 pair of snow boots
- 1 pair of sneakers
- 3 pairs of leggings
- 1 pair of loose jeans that leggings can fit under
- Enough winter socks and your comfiest underwear for a week
- 1 bag large enough to fit a camera, iPad, knit hat, and gloves
- 1 small clutch for daily use that fits inside your carry-on bag in transit
- 35 L or smaller carry-on bag/ suitcase
- Camera, Batteries die quicker in cold weather, so bring a back up battery and chargers for your cell phones and cameras as well.
- The standard European (220 volts) converter
- Scarf, gloves and travel sized umbrella
- Warm Hat
We will need layer up and wear the big coats on the plane. We will also have to leave room in our personal items to bring back any souvenirs that we may buy. I hope that this packing list helps you with your future trips. I am excited for this adventure abroad. We always have a great time on our family travels. This one will be even more special since we are taking the whole family to a new country and we will experience a new culture together. Follow our story on instagram and get the details on the blog when we return!
Wednesday on the blog, I will discuss a holiday shopping guide for the travel addict.
Alisha #LiveLoveTravel
