For years, the holidays meant gifts under the tree and time spent at home with family and friends.
While that is a wonderful way to spend the most magical time of the year, I remember a time when it all changed.
It was the year that we decided to travel for the holidays.
My family went to the Great Wolf Lodge on Christmas Eve.
I decided on a whim to get away from the house, forget about my to-do lists, and enjoy time with family.
Yes, I was skeptical. After all, how do you make a hotel room look festive?
(Although there are a few select hotels that will help you or allow you to decorate your hotel room!)
How do you lose out on a couple of holiday traditions, because you are not in your home to do them?
However, I was also excited! We were about to make new holiday traditions and memories that we would remember a whole lot more than all those presents under the tree. I booked the trip for my family to the Great Wolf Lodge and…
A little backstory…
For a while after my son’s autism diagnosis, I was afraid to travel. We already had so much on our plate with therapy sessions, school, doctor appointments, and so much more.
Why would I want to add the stress of travel to all that?!
Of course, then I had to think of all the overstimulating situations we may have found ourselves in and the schedule changes.
Would there be any food my son would eat there? The list could go on and on….
But then my way of thinking began to change after I saw an ad for The Great Wolf Lodge.
I began to learn how I could modify different parts of our travel, so our son would love everything as much as we did!
We started small with the Great Wolf Lodge.
I am very fortunate that our local lodge is not even 10 minutes from our home. So, if my son wasn’t comfortable in the bed there or needed to tap out for any reason, I knew we could just go home. Before I knew it, our vacations were longer and the distances we traveled were farther!
Oh, the fun we had, as we learned everything we could about new places!
The best part was my son grew socially and his communication levels soared. All those therapy sessions were being put into practice and the results were huge! He was doing more than just practicing what he was learning. He was actually using it all in real-life scenarios! He was even willing to try new foods when we traveled and decided he liked many foods that he wouldn’t eat before.
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to travel with your family and take a break from life. My son was so thrilled about booking this trip.
Instead of exchanging presents, we exchanged memories.
I got to become a kid again, as I was riding with him down all the water slides. I was swimming with him and his younger brother in the wave pool. The fun I had dancing the “Cupid Shuffle” with them at a lobby dance party while we waited until it was time to meet Santa is one of the best memories from that entire trip.
Perhaps one of the most memorable moments for my son was when it “snowed” in the lobby minutes after story time. My son’s eyes lit up when he saw the snow falling all around inside.
The joy of the holiday couldn’t have culminated more completely when the boys found the presents we had stashed away until the morning.
It was such a magical trip that my son still talks about the fun of the Great Wolf Lodge and asks when we can go back to enjoy our time as a family. Perhaps the beauty in all of this is that I gave my boys a gift they won’t be able to stop talking about. Something that even as adults they can bring back to me and talk fondly about visiting The Great Wolf Lodge.
It is now a tradition (COVID-19 notwithstanding) that we go on vacation for the holidays and it’s even extended now to birthdays!
I will never regret beginning to travel again after my son’s autism diagnosis and I will never regret celebrating the holidays while traveling.
Travel has opened so many doors for my family and I know it will do the same for yours.
Are you ready to begin to travel?
I can help you by sharing what questions to ask and what to look for when planning your autism-friendly vacation. I became a Travel Advisor, Certified Autism Travel Professional for this very reason. So, no question or concern is too big or too small when it comes to making sure you have a wonderful family vacation that is autism-friendly!
Dina is also the host of:
The Special Needs Travel Podcast