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The inherent beauty of a RoadTrip is that you have the freedom to do what you want to do. We recommended the coastal route when you asked for a different route on the way home. If you want to take the same route and just take it easier and see things you didn't see on the way south, that's just fine too.
AZBuc
Kaul,
The only item which can't be predicted is the weather in the NC or VA mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway in late December. The BRP has essentially no snow removal budget so it's simply closed, segment by segment, when it gets a dose of snow and ice. That makes it a "game day decision" as to enjoying it in winter. There's a phone number on the BRP's website which is updated with road conditions and segment closures. That said, the segments northeast of I-77 at Fancy Gap, VA, are generally lower elevation and less prone to snow accumulation, and for that matter, I-81 northeast of I-77's junction is close enough to the BRP to allow for hopping over there at any of a number of points. Both I-77 and I-81 run at low enough elevations that winter weather is far less frequently an issue in NC and VA sections of those Interstates.
For that matter, the NC coast traverse is a day-to-day thing, too, where high winds can and do cause suspension of the longer runs of the NC Ferry System, and where the Cedar Island-Ocracoke and the Swan Quarter-Ocracoke are the regularly suspended long runs.
If you haven't seen the NASCAR shops in the Charlotte/Mooresville, NC area, they're amazing. Separated only slightly from the Mooresville location of most of them are the Welcome, NC shops for Richard Childress Racing, where there is not only a great shop to tour but the RCR Museum, as well. None other than Danny "Chocolate" Myers (Dale Earnhardt's pit crew "gas man") is the Director of the RCR Museum and I've run into him on the site each of the two times I visited. The collection of Dale Earnhardt cars and related items is amazing and brings back some great memories of old-style NASCAR. If that's not enough, you can continue on up US 52 to Winston-Salem and see the flat quarter-mile track within the old Bowman-Gray Stadium, where much 1950s and early 60s NASCAR history was made by the likes of the Myers brothers (Chocolate's father and uncle), Curtis Turner, and the like, and which is still in use by Modifieds as recently featured in the cable TV show "Madhouse". I stopped by there in May 2010 and the security guy let me take my truck out on the track! I turned a few hot laps, but an F350 diesel longbed crewcab 4WD lacks certain design features to really turn out good lap times.
Enjoy!
Foy
If your daughter wants to see the inland things that you mentioned, there's no reason you can't still do different routes. Instead of doing the mountains down, and coast back up, just reverse the plan and follow the coast south and go back north through the mountains.