We only did it once and it was near perfect. We would gladly have repeated the experience but it was too difficult to schedule vacation time over or near the holidays for all 5 of us.

We still exchanged gifts but kept it very low key since our trip was our gift to one and all.

If your DH and children are interested I think you should try it. You can always return to your traditional holiday the following year and traveling with adult children is so refreshing. I took one of my sons on a last minute trip to Ireland a few years ago and now I'm planning another trip with DD.

And as you mentioned - wives, girlfriends and grandchildren really changes things.

We did it once with our then 25 year-old son. Ours was a New Zealand trip and it was marvelous. No gifts except each other and the trip. Lots of wonderful memories and so very glad we did it.

We've done it several times but the most memorable were a driving trip to FL from Chicago to stay at a small resort, a trip to a farm B&B in WI when our boys were much younger and a trip to Belize for week of a rugged jungle adventure followed by 3 beach days at a resort. All of us FAR prefer those trips over the usual dysfunction at the in-laws. This year we flew them (and DS1's GF) to us for a late Thanksgiving early Hanukkah/Xmas - we just moved and had a wonderful week of hiking, movies, cooking, board games and generally chilling. And it's a darn good thing we timed it when we did - looks like O'Hare will get slammed with snow and holiday travel is going to be a nightmare!

This post was edited by dlm2000 on Wed, Dec 24, 14 at 17:48