Family Christmas Vacation...Simple Style

     I know Christmas was over a month ago, but this is how long it has taken me to fully process and complete this year's festivities. I must say that this was our most successful holiday ever. The girls were excited and thankful and the adults got to enjoy the part everyone always says "is the most important part of the season": family.

     I have always loved traveling and have garnered so much from it. Anyone who has ever traveled anywhere knows what I mean. Not only do you learn about a new place but you inevitably learn something about yourself too. I love it and I have always talked about making sure our kids are travelers too. My dream has been to take a family vacation every year at Christmas. Not to take a trip as an extra frivolity but instead to travel as a family, discover new things, and celebrate Christmas with memories and experiences rather than things and stuff. Well, this year I made good on that dream.

     Being that the girls are still small, we started small. This year we headed off to Boston, MA. My goal was to make it memorable and fun, to do things they'd never done before, and to not miss anything. On top of that i had a budget...a tiny, little budget, but that was ok because I like the idea of frugality. So I started planning.

     I knew I didn't want to wait to the last second so I started researching online and making inquiries in late September, early October. The name of the game was utilizing my resources. My mom was coming along on the trip and had a stockpile of "Marriott Rewards Points" that she was willing to part with. That narrowed down the hotel search. Jumping on the bandwagon (my mom's great like that), my mom contributed what she would have spent on "supplementary gifts" (she still gave them one meaningful gift each) to the travel fund and essentially covered the room. Bonus!

     Next I focused on travel. I know I hate finding long term parking in the city and it's quite expensive. Besides, this was to be an adventure! So I looked into traveling by train. We are lucky enough to have various Amtrak lines that run from Portland to Boston and make several stops in between. We opted to head to my mom's house, pick her up and get dropped at the train stop near her house.  Round trip for 3 adults, and 2 children was roughly $110. That included space for a LOT of luggage (we were traveling with kids for crying out loud) and the freedom to move around a bit. If we had left from Portland it would have been roughly $160. In any case that was way better than spending money on gas and being cramped in our minivan the whole way down.

     Finally the boring plans were over. I could make my way to the fun stuff. I knew I wanted to hit up museums and parks and make it as amazingly awesome for kids as I possibly could. A helpful, little known fact, is that many "suburbs" of major cities participate in various "museum pass programs" through their local libraries. We happen to own a home in southern NH and our library participates in just such a thing. Through this program I was able to access discounted tickets to the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science, Boston and other museums. Though, not through my library, many also have passes for the Boston Children's Museum. Don't worry if you don't own a home outside Boston and you want to access these benefits. Like I said, utilize your resources. Do you have a friend or family member in that area who may be able to help out? Even if the answer is still no, look over the websites for discounts and deals. For instance the Children's Museum had a $1 entry fee every night after 5pm. That would have been a wonderful second option, for closing out each day, especially if we had been traveling in the summer when there is light longer.

     Beyond museums, I also wanted to make our way to a park or two, and maybe do or see something unique to the city and the season. I remembered "Make Way For Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey and how much I loved seeing the duckling statues in Boston Common. That sent me off in our final direction. I looked into Boston Common and found that they have the Frog Pond that serves as a skating rink in the winter, with a cute little outdoor cafe. Through my wanderings online I also found out about a lights show done at Faneuil Hall in conjunction with the Boston Pops known as "Blink". Finally it seemed I had all the pieces. All I had to do was put everything together.

Day 1: Travel on train. Ride taxi. Check in to hotel. Attend the free lights show and recorded Bostons Pops concert, "Blink" at Faneuil Hall and take a horse drawn carriage ride (it was Daddy's first train and carriage rides too...whoa).  Head back to hotel to swim in the pool.

Day 2: Boston Children's Museum- ALL DAY. -Bonus- The Boston Tea Party Museum is right next door and it was fun too. The kids and the adults loved this extra stop! Back to swim in pool and watch movies.

Day 3:  The Aquarium...but it was a bust because our concierge told us it was 80% closed for renovations. So we had a "wander around town, explore shops, and have brunch" kind of day instead. Of course there is always the pool.

Day 4: Boston Common to skate, then to sit with the ducklings and read "Make Way For Ducklings" which mom happened to bring. Then, of course, to the pool. *Grammy is so awesome she threw in a special date night for my hubby and myself. It was so nice to have a meal with just the two of us.

Day 5:  Back on the train to go home, but it's Christmas Eve, and mom just happened to bring "The Polar Express" to read and hot chocolate in new mugs!

     All in all the entire trip cost me under $275. That was for a vacation and all the Christmas gifts and such I would have spent. Again, my mom was helpful in covering the hotel but she also refrained from spending more money on gifts. We also saved money by taking a trip to the grocery store once we got there and stocking up on snacks, lunches, a quick dinner, and some in-room adult beverages so we could keep the cost down. After the trip I went to Snapfish and created a photo book of our trip for $35 (then I searched and found a 60% code online making it even less). It is beautiful! My oldest brought it to school to share and it was a big hit. She is so proud. Both girls talk about the trip still constantly and neither one complained or seemed to even miss not having a mountain of toys they would have quickly forgotten about.

I feel very lucky to have had this experience. Already the whole family is discussing where we should go next year. My oldest says Australia...I was thinking Canada.

Simple City Sam