A mum to 12 kids has explained how avoided a 'Home Alone mishap' on a £61,000 festive trip to New York City.
Teachers, Alicia and Josh Dougherty, aged 42 and 43, have become TikTok sensations after documenting the pandemonium of their lives as the Dougherty Dozen over lockdown.
After getting married in 2003, the New York couple experienced infertility and 11 miscarriages, so they made the decision to foster.
READ MORE: Foster family with a dozen kids spend £8,000 each year on Christmas presents
Over the years, they managed to get pregnant but continued to foster other children, seeing their brood grow to a dozen, including Alex, 16, James, 15, Patrick, 14, Bree, 11, Zoey, 10, Dash, Jordan and Jason, all aged 8, Bodhi, 6, and Harlee, 4.
Over the 11 years since they started growing their family, they have developed their own Christmas traditions – including going on trips to celebrate.
This year, the family-of-14 flew to New York City for the festive season, which took a month to plan and cost an eye-watering $75,000 (£61k).
Videos of the trip sent fans wild on Instagram where fans said it gave them "Home Alone vibes". But mum Alicia has a system to make sure that blunder never happens to her brood.
Speaking to the Daily Star, she said: "I think it's funny when people say we give Home Alone vibes. We have a pretty good system in place to stay together as a group.
"First of all, we all wear matching outfits, which makes it so easy to spot each other in a crowd, and not get separated. We bring my parents with us so we have more eyes on the kids.
"My older ones are amazing with our little ones. We all work together like a team to make sure everyone is safe. It takes me over a month to plan and prepare for a vacation for our family of 14.
"From finding accommodations to fit a large group, booking plane tickets for so many people on one flight, to buying and packing outfits, toiletries and we can't forget the snacks!
"We've always wanted to see NYC at Christmas Time. We saw The Big Apple Circus, The Music Man on Broadway with Hugh Jackman, The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular and a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Plus we have friends in NYC we like to visit."
However, the family will return home to spend Christmas day together – with a traditional McDonald's on Christmas Eve.
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"We stay home on Christmas and have friends and family visit us throughout the day," she added.
"Eight of our children are adopted from foster care, or with us through kinship placement, and have biological families that want to see them for the holiday, so we set out a ton of food and have a revolving door of visitors and gift giving throughout the day."
Despite having such a large family, Alicia said the doors to her brood haven't closed as she said she will always open her home to a child in need of a family.
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