Jon Gosselin Reveals Thanksgiving Plans With Kids Amid Recent Family Drama

Jon Gosselin is hoping to put his custody battle with ex-wife Kate Gosselin on the backburner while he celebrates Thanksgiving with his family. The former Jon and Kate Plus 8 star said he hopes to spend the holiday overseas with his girlfriend Colleen Conrad, his children Hannah and Collin, as well as Conrad’s children. The trip he has planned is “amazing.”

“It’s amazing, our trip is amazing,” Gosselin told InTouch Weekly on Oct. 25. “It’s like the first time I get to go away with the two kids, Hannah and Collin.”

Gosselin would not say where exactly they plan to go, but said they will definitely need passports. “So it’s Colleen’s family and us, me, Hannah and Collin. But it’s our family,” Gosselin explained. “I always consider me, Colleen, her kids, Jordan and Jesse. Jesse lived in Manhattan and Jordan goes to Temple in Philly and Hannah and Collin. That’s our family. We’re very blended, racially, whatever.”

Gosselin and Conrad also celebrated Christmas together last year and the Fourth of July this summer. Hannah and Collin have also come to love Conrad, Gosselin told InTouch last year.

“They love her. She’s a great parent,” Gosselin said in December 2018. “They respect her as a mom, too.”

The holiday season will provide Gosselin with a welcome reprive from his ongoing issues with Kate. While Gosselin has custody of Hannah and Collin, their six other children all live with Kate. They are also parents to 18-year-old twins Cara and Mandy; and 15-year-old sextuplets Hannah, Collin, Joel, Alexis, Aeden and Leah.

In October, Gosselin told The Daily Mail he was “furious” after learning that the children appeared in TLC‘s Kate Plus 8 special “College Bound,” which focused on Cara and Mandy preparing for collage. Gosselin pointed out that the judge overseeing the custody case and the Department of Labor both agreed that it is not in the children’s best interests to be filmed.

“There is no reason my kids need to be on television anymore, it doesn’t benefit them in any way. It is very confusing for them,” Gosselin said. He later added, “I just want them to experience high school, kind of like I experienced high school – just as normal as possible.”

Gosselin later told InTouch Weekly that custody is “really up to the kids,” adding, “if Hannah wants to go, she goes. If Leah, is on Kate’s side, supposedly, if she wants to come, she comes.”

Gosselin said he does not have much contact with Cara and Mandy. He has reached out to them privately, but appears to be fine with whatever they decide. He said he was discouraged from making public pleas after the twins told PEOPLE in August 2016 that talking about them on television would not help repair the relationship.

“Their last interview or whatever … it was like OK, I’m just not going to say anything,” Gosselin told InTouch Weekly. “I get it, OK. Maybe I shouldn’t say anything or post anything anymore. Let them live their lives. I know they’re happy.”

Gosselin and Conrad have been together for about five years, although they knew each other as children.

Photo credit: Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Brooke Lewis and Mark Bellas