Christmas vacation planning for cadets and parents

Our son accepted his appointment (yay!) and we are trying to plan ahead.
1) what do most plebes wish they could do? Just sleep and eat home made food, and be w family/friends? Do they have enough energy to go on a vacation (skiing or snorkeling?)
2) how long is christmas break typically?
3) any advice on how best to manage vacation and family time without stressing plebes out?

Two weeks. Sleep, eat, hang out with family, friends, & dogs. Ski or short trip. The calendar will be released soon. Assume your plebe is being released on the last day of exams (TEEs)-however the exact departure date will be known when the tTEE schedule is released. Also the return date has been known to change.

Also MESSY ROOM. Like a tornado. Let it be, your kid will be back at school and the room will be clean again.

Also depending on where you live and the football schedule, your kid might come home for Labor Day Weekend and Thanksgiving. So every other month.

My plebe was sick the entire Christmas break, so he slept most of the time. Though, I wish he had been healthy, I'm glad he was able to be home while he was sick. As much of his time that he spent sleeping, I'm grateful he wasn't at WP trying to keep up with classes.

O'sMom said:

My plebe was sick the entire Christmas break, so he slept most of the time. Though, I wish he had been healthy, I'm glad he was able to be home while he was sick. As much of his time that he spent sleeping, I'm grateful he wasn't at WP trying to keep up with classes.

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I second this. Be prepared to have more illnesses. Cadets are pushing themselves so sleep is tough to get enough of, they are close proximity to each other, and are often wet and cold.
Scheduling needs to be flexible. Do not overbook, and be prepared for changes. Their TEE schedule isnt rock solid and can change quite a bit. They may get a drop for a class, and no TEE. Even when a published schedule comes out, it can change. That happened this year for the return time for Christmas. The BTO changed his mind, and the schedule changed after the publication date. So, be flexible, and unfortunately things either have to have travel insurance, or booked closer to the time of travel.

One thing to also note (we are going through it right now with Spring Break) if you plan on taking your cadet out of the country they have to go through a process, and get approval. It takes some time, so make sure they are on top of it early. It requires a physical, country brief, and chain of command approval, etc. Dont take it for granted, its not "just submit this form" kind of process.