<p>paying3, I think the most important thing in this thread is something you mentioned much earlier:encourage your child to make some close friends. Mine was able to spend Thanksgiving and Easter with other families. He was able to get off campus to visit other students from his CA High School who were also in school in the Boston area. Even with that, at one point he called and mentioned that a friend had her family visiting and that he felt like he was missing his family after they left. This from a kid who had travelled internationally without family, who has never been a homesick type kid.<br>
Aside from the practicalities of winter boots vs. flip flops this is the one thing that we found is really important.</p>
<p>One thing that we saw the girls wearing on our Spring Break trip were Wellies.
<a href="http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/category.jhtml?id=cat180218&navAction=jump%5B/url%5D">http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/category.jhtml?id=cat180218&navAction=jump</a></p>
<p>Flights
For kids that have to fly, the Thanksgiving flights are the toughest to coordinate. The kids usually have a limited timeframe to work with, so if you plan to bring them home for the holiday, book those flights very early.</p>
<p>Yes ^^^^ (those were the White Mts. for our New Hampshire Poster above).</p>
<p>Honestly I've read that the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving Day is the single busiest travel half-day of the year, even more so than anything around Christmas which has several mildly busy days leading up to it. </p>
<p>Thanksgiving is so concentrated, and involves both students and non-student families trying to travel. Highways also fill and gridlock that Wednesday night.</p>
<p>So if a student can skip (oh no, but it's true) one day of classes all year, I'd suggest skip classes that Wednesday and book flights on Tuesday instead. </p>
<p>Better yet, know the policies of your college for holidays. Some schools require all kids except internationals vacate dorms, while others let anyone who wish to stay in place.</p>
<p>ebeee, we just chatted with S tonight to seek out Thanksgiving buddies since we'll be waiting until Dec. to bring him back midyear. Well, I'm realistic: freshman midyear. After that, I'd expect he'll develop more exciting plans than "us." Mexico vs. Mom.. hmmm, time will tell. But honestly, if he could see San Diego or San Francisco through a friend, what could possibly be nicer?</p>
<p>Thanks for the great tips. Here's one more: When going to California, kids from the east coast try to 'put away their summer clothes' in the dorm storeroom. Not neccessary, as in a couple weeks, it might be summer weather again.</p>
<p>One more piece of advice for going to California. While the weather is definitely much hotter than other places, it gets cold at night. I know some people my freshman year who didn't think that they would need anything other than t-shirts. Several sweatshirts at least are necessary.</p>
<p>"Several sweatshirts at least" - this is going to be sooo easy</p>