Merry Christmas from Travel with Teens and Tweens
With the holidays on the way we’ve been decking the halls, sending cards, baking cookies, making our lists and checking them twice, throwing holiday parties and planning for winter skiing at Vermont’s Burke Mountain and Smugglers’ Notch as well a summer cruise to Alaska with Royal Caribbean on the Radiance of the Seas.
The teens have even more travel coming with school-sponsored trips to New York City and Washington DC, a church ski trip and a Habitat for Humanity Service trip. And of course, we are making the rounds of various seasonal hockey tournaments which gave us an opportunity to visit the Newport, RI Breakers Mansion at Christmas.
As a result, its only just now, a few days before Christmas, that we are catching up on some of our favorite travel mom blogs. They represent families with babies, toddlers, tweens, teens and even grown kids but we thought our readers might enjoy a quick round-up of family travel blog holiday links.
To all you ladies who share your adventures and tips throughout the year, thanks for every time you brighten our day!
Celebrations Around the World
As always, travel mom bloggers are on the move. The Soul Travelers 3 team shares lovely photos in their article Tropical Christmas Abroad in Asia. Although the weather feels like an America July, the Asian malls are all done up for Santa!
Kristy of Vagabond Kids reminds us that no matter where kids travel, they want to make sure Santa can find them. Read her Monday Dreaming: Santa in Singapore article to see a great photo of happy, and relieved, kids with Santa.
Lisa Bergren of The World is Calling reminds us that the story of the baby born in the manger has stood the test of time and was news long before Santa and shopping took center stage. Read her article, The Church of the Nativity to see some great photos and video and get insight into how a centuries old church still serves as a focus for Christian pilgrims.
Ciao Bambino guest blogger Monique Rubin, shares photos and tips for finding the Best Christmas Markets in Europe, including ones in Düsseldorf, Prague, and Paris!
Mara at Mother of All Trips takes a bitter sweet look back at a long ago Christmas in Paris in Mondays are for Dreaming: Paris at Christmas and reminds us to savour every travel experience, in case it turns out to be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
ColoradoGal at The Vacation Gals describes Elf Magic: Timeless Christmas Tradition at Home and on Vacation. As her kids have begun to move on from Santa Claus, Magic Elf Drew brings a new element of surprise to our home this holiday season. Like a traveling gnome, Drew turns up in the most interesting places – we love this tradition!
Christmas Comes to the United States
Colleen Lanin of Travel Mamas shares some dazzling pictures from Holidays in Phoenix at Zoolights where 3.5 million lights create 600 light sculptures! We loved the gorilla and the dancing trees.
Welcome to Winter
From snowy Tahoe, Amy at Pit Stops for Kids gives us some recommendations for a holiday get away and has pictures to prove that the snow is in the air, and on the ground in her article Home (Away) for the Holidays: A Tahoe Winter Wonderland.
Also in the holiday spirit we had to highlight the mom travel blogger’s Christmas Ornaments Around the World photo essay complied by Two Kids and a Map. Each shows a little bit of the blogger’s personality.
We also want to tip our hats to all the travel experts at Best Family Travel Advice who have been dishing out holiday travel tips and recommendations since before Thanksgiving. Whether its holiday travel traditions, hints on how to survive a family holiday get together, or recommendations for family friendly getaways they have it in their Holiday Travel Blog Carnival.
Give Thanks for Giving Back!
Finally, as we settle in to enjoy the holidays with friends and family at home and on the road, we’d like to give thanks to all the wonderful travel bloggers, readers and sponsors that made Passports with Purpose so successful this year. The program exceeded its fund raising goal and hit a total of $58,000 to help build a village in India. Our prize – a $100 credit towards car service transportation, provided by our generous sponsor Groundlink, was won by Tim Liffel of Cheapest Destinations Blog.
Happy Holidays to all our readers and a special thanks to the Passport with Purpose organizers: Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby and Michelle Duffy of Wandermom, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View and Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick as well as all the prize donors and the Passport with Purpose sponsors: BootsnAll, LiveMocha, Round the World with Us, HomeAway, Traveller’s Point, Hostelling International, Quintess, Raveable, TravelPost, and Uptake.
