I turn the water off at the meter and open outside faucets to drain the pipes. Not a complete drain but there in no pressurized water plus the pipes have plenty of air in them for any pocket of freezing water to expand and not break the pipes.
This sounds like a sensible way to go, unless you have a way of draining all the pipes.
the pipes have plenty of air in them for any pocket of freezing water to expand and not break the pipes.
———
Unfortunately that’s not how water expands when it freezes, you can have all the air space in the world, and it will still break just about anything. It expands “out” about as much as it expands “up”, ice doesn’t care a whit. Lots of engine blocks get trashed this way.