Katie

Christmas is peak time in NYC and as such flights and accommodation will be expensive, but at the same time you get to visit the city lit up for the holiday season. There are other flight comparison sites I use from time to time, such as Skyscanner (you can submit a date and destination and it tells you the cheapest flights available), this is also useful if you aren’t fussed about flying direct as you can get some good deals. We decided that we wanted to change hotel during our trip and stay 4 nights in Manhattan and 3 nights in Brooklyn, just because we wanted to experience the more local, less touristy side to NYC as well. We knew we wanted to stay in Manhattan but didn’t want to stay in the touristy areas of Times Square etc, where room sizes are smaller (not great for a family of 5 as NYC rooms are small as it is).

I have always wanted one, but I didn’t want a traditional type one as I didn’t think it would go in our modern house. It was more than we had wanted to spend for a shower door but it completely completes the look and I couldn’t recommend it enough. We didn’t have a set budget in mind, but equally weren’t in a position spend an absolute fortune on the bathroom. We had done a more budget bathroom renovation in our old house and had a little more to spend this time as this is our forever home, so we just kept a note on our phones of what we were spending when to make sure we didn’t go too overboard.

But at the same time every time we set foot on a plane we are increasing our family carbon footprint. That means that approximately for each return flight we do (this is long haul short haul will be different) for a family of 5 we would need to plant 36 trees in order to offset our carbon footprint. We can donate to our grove as little or as often as we like, and best still family and friends can also donate too, I thought it would be good for when we don’t need Christmas or Birthday presents. Realistically we aren’t going to be able to completely offset our carbon footprint, however we can do as much as we can and I feel like this is the first step to trying to educate ourselves further.

When we found out about De Leon Springs State Park on the Visit Orlando website, we just knew that we would have to make a trip there. De Leon Springs State Park is just over an hour away from Orlando itself and is the perfect place to spend a sunny day. I can’t even begin to explain how tasty they were, and the fact that you cook them yourselves made it even more fun- our girls absolutely loved pouring the mix on the griddle and tending to their pancakes- then loading them up with chocolate chips, apple segments and banana. We didn’t end up going for a walk or doing any of the other activities De Leon Springs State Park has to offer, but if we are ever lucky enough to go back to Orlando it is somewhere we will definitely be going back to next time.