Dear Addie,
As this year continues to test our adaptability, some things remain unchanged. We have officially made it to my favorite meal of the year, Thanksgiving! Bring on the turkey! Num num num num num.
With suggestions not to gather in large settings, we decided to head to our home away from home happy place at the beach. With it historically being a bit of a ghost town this time of year, and it being a place where small businesses tend to thrive off of tourists, we wanted to do our part to show our gratitude for the kindness we’ve been given over the past year (and some change), even if that meant just ordering take out. No gesture is ever too small. Nags Head NC here we come!
Now a trip to the beach wouldn’t be complete without (multiple) trips to our favorite pizza place, Lucky 12’s Tavern. We all love pizza (I mean your priorities have always been straight, even with minimal language “make a pizza” was & still is one of your go-to phrases) and it really is the best at this particular place. So much so that Clara even used this tavern for a school art/math menu project! True story! Many miles from here back home in 2019 at a school in Apex, NC hung a make-shift menu, complete with a logo in a classroom for all to see. I guess you could say she’s a super fan 😉 but I digress.
You might think it’s silly how I like to talk about certain places, particularly restaurants on our autism journey, but the truth of the matter is our predictably unpredictable lifestyle and public dining don’t exactly go hand in hand. So a restaurant that we can go into and feel welcomed and not just like an exhibit for all to see of your unexpected but consistent noises and stimming is beyond heartwarming for families like ours.
Now as if their kind & patient waitstaff to our chaos and amazing food wasn’t enough, they also do a super special thing for Christmas every year – you know my other favorite holiday. Are you ready for this (because this is super cool) Addie? They literally close down their restaurant to the public to transform it into a Christmas spectacular! They even go as far as to change the name from Lucky 12’s Tavern to Jingle 12’s Tavern! How fun is that?! Talk about the holiday spirit! Awesome right?!
You see Addie, on the heels of Thanksgiving they begin this great transformation into a winter wonderland, showcasing an abundance of classic and as they put it “zany” Christmas décor collected from around the country. In addition to the truly spectacular ambiance, an amazingly delicious (I can speak from experience here) Christmas cocktails menu is rolled out for all the mommy’s and daddy’s to enjoy 😉 not to mention its tried and true appetizers are generally on special – your brother could live off of the mozzarella sticks I swear! The public is even welcome to dress in their own festive attire if they feel so called by all this Christmas spirit!
Now, this is all awesome stuff and something many look forward to every year, but life has its way of keeping us on our toes, and packing a tavern full of people coming to catch of glimpse of this Christmas extravaganza isn’t exactly pandemic friendly. So now what? Did a virus really just put an end to the holiday cheer we’ve all come to know and love here? Nope! Did it get the creative juices flowing to figure out new socially distant, safe ways to continue their tradition – that might be a "heck yeah!"
This brings us to this past week when much to our surprise we got a sneak peek at some of the brand-new winter wonderland additions for what will be Jingle 12’s Tavern this year!
We decided to indulge in some great pizza for a late lunch (or was is it an early dinner?!) With the time being what it was, we thought it couldn’t be too super busy, Lucky 12’s being super diligent about masks and distancing, we decided to continue our work on our greatest autism advice of “exposure is key” with restaurant dining skills while supporting local and headed on out. With masks on (and for you mittens too – all part of your new Addie chic ensemble), we were ready to go!
When we arrived, we fully expected to be ushered to a table or booth within the restaurant per usual, but today we were thrown off guard and were offered a new dining option of outdoor igloo seating! Wait what – a new dining experience in our own space?!? No worries of bothering anyone, time to work on table and social skills and in our own, personal bubble…this was kind of a no brainer, um yeah, we’ll take that and maybe you knew something we didn’t when you put mittens on to come here???? Clearly you wanted this experience to be authentic.
We were escorted past the bar, through the porch dining, too, I kid you not, our own, personal igloo – not exactly something you get to do every day. In addition to the two igloos, there was also a makeshift ice fishing hut and ski lodge! So fun! It was like a life-sized storybook winter village! I literally said “this is so cool” about 100 times, it really was cool Addie!”
*These are actual photos from Lucky 12's Tavern Facebook page*
We got to enjoy our favorite pizza, Christmas ambiance, socially distant, in a giant igloo with no snow or ice! For someone who loathes being cold – this was perfection in my book. I mean seriously how lucky were we to be able to test this out?!
*Note the mittens on the table in front of me - it was almost 70 degrees this day but you wouldn't leave the house without them*
I’m happy to say that the Outer Banks is still holding up to its bargain of never disappointing. We got to spent our day supporting locals with a brand-new experience at one of our favorite places. Score!
Addie the great children’s book author Lemony Snicket (or Daniel Handler as his real name) once said: “What might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey.”
Maybe it took Covid messing up life as we knew it to have imagined up such a dining masterpiece? Perhaps? Or maybe it was already in the pipeline and just got an added push from it? We may never really know the answer to that, but whatever the reason may have been, I think this whimsical, personal outdoor dining space is a fantastic new addition and should be a permanent fixture.
As if their Christmas experience wasn’t already awesome, they didn’t let Covid stop them, they used it to really kick it up a notch! Bravo Lucky 12’s Tavern, bravo.
I’m not sure if eating in an igloo was on your life’s bucket list Ad, but hey we can check it off!
Another great experience here in our happy place.
I love you, Addie.
Mom
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