When you and your kids live in three different states, you need to make every second count when you are all in the same place at the same time! Emma and her boyfriend Ed will be traveling to Japan over her holiday break from school, so there is no better time than the present to celebrate Christmas together! Luckily all of the stores are already stocked for Christmas, so I had no problem finding a Christmas tree, lights and decorations for our Airbnb. I decided to surprise the girls with the decorations that we can all put up together. Jim must have been excited too because he told Emma the next time we talked to her about the tree. My fault for not telling him it was a surprise for the girls! Well, at least Abby was surprised! I bought ornaments with each of our initials (including the boyfriends and the three dogs in the family), which we enjoyed personalizing.

When Abby and Thomas arrived at 1:00 am on October 14 it was officially Christmas! After a quick sleep, we woke up and had our traditional Christmas breakfast casserole. Christmas Day would be celebrated in Southport with a visit to The Christmas House. We bought 3 matching sailboat ornaments so we could all remember our whirlwind Christmas in October celebration.

No trip to Southport is complete without a visit to The American Fish Company, a “private” waterfront club. One of the kids’ Christmas presents was an annual membership to the club! It costs a whopping $1 per year to join! Fun fact–the club was featured in the movie Safe Haven as Ivan’s Fish Shack. We enjoyed cocktails on the gorgeous waterfront deck with views of Oak Island and Bald Head Island while we watched boats of all sizes go by. Next we went restaurant-hopping along the Yacht Basin feasting on crab dip, shrimp and grits, seafood pesto pasta, and fresh fish specials. Eating Christmas dinner outside in shorts and flip flops was a first for all of us, but I highly recommend it!!

One thing I wanted to accomplish on Christmas was a family portrait on the beach at sunset. If you know me, you know the importance of this moment! My expectations may have been high, but we raced to the beach just in time for the girls to throw on our matching sweatshirts and catch the sunset! It was perfect!

After sunset we went back to the house to watch our favorite Christmas movies and have hot chocolate and play Spam Yahtzee (you heard that right! I bought Spam Yahtzee for Emma’s 3rd Grade class–they eat lots of spam in Maui!) It was wonderful to have the time together to celebrate! However, it was short and sweet. We had to get up at 4:00 am on the 15th to take Emma to the airport to head back to Maui. We were very grateful for our 27 hours together.