Life Lately - 2025 Christmas Break Trip
As many of you know, this fall my parents sold their home & are now living in a camper full time. We decided to use this to our advantage for Christmas break & do some traveling together. My parents picked Piper & I up an hour after we got out of school & we hit the road. Piper is a passenger princess & loved snuggling my mom.
We met up with my sister, Bethany, & made it to our stop for the evening in Webb City, Missouri (a Harvest Host at Wild Ivy Shirt Co.) Piper was really not sure what to think of the donkey named Hee-Haw. She did make friends with a farm cat though & the cat even thought it should hit the road with us the next morning!
Cheers to our first day of travel! Celebrating by grabbing dinner at Flat Creek Bar & Grill. The catfish bites were 10/10.
We hit the road early the next morning & made it to Russellville, Arkansas for a quick lunch at The Smokehouse Deli. Our sandwiches were delicious! We made it to our stop for the night after dark & left early the next morning.
Cheers to our last day of traveling! I thought I had made it to Christmas break without getting sick, but I came down with something two days before we left. It lasted the entire two weeks we were gone & I was kind enough to share it with half of my family members! ;)
We stumbled upon the cutest little Christmas town & grabbed lunch. My crawfish bites were delicious & the live music was a great addition.
We made it to our Airbnb where we stayed for the majority of the trip. It was so perfect for our family & truly helped us live “the good life”! Our views were amazing! We loved all the colorful homes in the area & we were SO CLOSE to the beach.
Piper & I went for a sunrise & sunset walk almost every single morning. It was such a simple thing, but brought me great joy every day. The views were truly extraordinary! Sometimes my sister or parents joined us, but most of the time we were on our own.
We are both going to miss these beach walks now that we’re back in Kansas!
Piper loved snuggling with my brother & sister.
We had fun exploring & finding new things on the beach. We saw lots of crabs, birds, coquinas clams, & jellyfish (the blue ones are man-o-wars).
I spent lots of time on the beach — reading, relaxing & soaking in the sun.
On the bookshelf during break!
How fun to get to take our annual family Christmas pics on the beach this year!
We went to a Christmas Eve church service, got coffee & watched the light show at The Wharf. We continued our tradition of getting matching pajamas for Christmas Eve.
Christmas day was super foggy, windy & cold, so we mostly stayed inside. We opened gifts, drank mimosas & ate delicious food (including lots of our traditional dishes), & played games.
Bethany & I went down to the beach at midnight to right in the New Year.
Then, we got up a few hours later to watch the sunrise. It was a great way to start 2026!
We also spent some time relaxing in the hottub.
Looks like I’m not the only one that’s sad our Christmas break beach trip has come to an end…
some places we ate in Gulf Shores:
At The Hangout, we got yummy frozen drinks & fried calamari for an appetizer. We were all starving, so I didn’t get a picture of the main dishes before we dug in, but this peel-apart shrimp was a big fav!
They had a wish wall on our way out, so I made sure to put one in there. ;)
We were big fans of Beach Girl Coffee.
Shebang shrimp tacos from Sassy Bass Amazin’ Grill.
Ice cream from Scoops.
Seafood gumbo & peel-apart shrimp from The Original Oyster House.
Friend cheese & jalepeno stuffed shrimp, oysters, flounder, stuffed shrimp, coconut shrimp, onion rings, & scallops from Bahama Bob’s. Bethany & I would get multiple dishes & split everything. There was so much we wanted to try!
Olivia’s Old South chicken salad sandwich from Chicken Salad Chick.
Stuffed crab & seafood basket from The Shrimp Basket.
Ice cream from Sweet Cone Alabama.
Lobster & shrimp roll from The Gulf.
This was our last night in Alabama & the sunset sure helped us go out with a bang!
On January 1st, Nick Jonas released a new song called Gut Punch. It’s SO GOOD! Bethany & I decided it will probably be our most-played-song of 2026. It was on repeat while we traveled home!
Our first stop was at Landry Vineyards in West Monroe, Louisiana. The scenery was beautiful! We snagged an early dinner at El Sombrero, a local Mexican restaurant, & went to bed early.
The next day we drove to Waco, Texas. Of course we had to hit up the Silos at Magnolia!!! The $2 sweet tea refills got all of us.
The next morning, we hit the road for HOME. Piper snuggled Avery the whole way home, even nuzzling into her arm for awhile.
We finally made it home. It feels good to sleep in our own bed again!
It was truly one of my most favorite trips. I’m hoping I can convince my parents to do this every year! ;)
Follow me on Instagram (@simplysmalltowncounselor) or on LTK (simplysmalltowncounselor) for more outfit inspiration!
Don’t forget to go to the home page & sign up for emails so you never miss a post!!
Simply Small Town Blog uses affiliate links & cookies within this site. Purchasing an item through a link from Simply Small Town Blog or Simplysmalltowncounselor social media (facebook, instagram & pinterest via LTK) may result in a commission. Currently this site uses rewardstyle, shopify & etsy creative collective links. Merely clicking on a link does not result in a commission, but if an item is purchased as the result of the link, a commission is earned. Sponsored posts & content will always be disclosed within the body of the post. Please know that I only accept & feature sponsored or gifted content that I believe matches my values & mission. I turn down many more offers than I accept. If you have any questions regarding my affiliate links or disclosures, please contact me at simplysmalltownblog@gmail.com.