I’m endeavoring to make my monthly recaps a thing. They probably won’t be my most popular posts, but I want to have some way to look back at life, and see what happened each month. Especially because I often get months behind in blogging weddings, and although I love blogging summer weddings in the dead of winter, it’s nice to keep some things current. 🙂

2015 ended in a whirl, and 2016 started with a cold that I’m trying to kick to the curb. Ugh.

At the beginning of Barbados, we packed up our bags and headed to Barbados. A lot of people have asked me why we picked Barbados over other islands. Well, there were two reasons! First, as a kid, I read a book about a girl who lived in Barbados during colonial times and it talked about how she swam in the clear blue ocean with turtles. No, I don’t remember the name of the book, but that has always stuck with me. Second, we knew we wanted a warm vacation, and we were using up some airline miles* that H had racked up, and we happened to find a killer deal that fit our travel dates. So, boom. 6 days in Barbados. It was the most lovely vacation full of rum punches and beach time and swimming with turtles.

After we got back from Barbados (and the pup realized that we hadn’t left him forever), we dove right into the holidays. It was all tree decorating, cookie baking, and holiday partying. I’m still exhausted. We did Christmas with both our families, and enjoyed all the crazy snow that has fallen. I’ve been working to get the last bits of prep done for the bridal show, all while fighting a cold for the past few days.

So, of course, being sick right now, we’ve just started tearing apart the bathroom to do a little work. It should only take us a few days to do the work, but full disclosure, the living room isn’t finished yet, since the next bits of work require a good amount of time with the table saw (which, conveniently, our neighbors let us borrow all the time). So we’ve decided to work on a few indoor-only projects until the weather gets a little better. Because I don’t think H wants to be out in the (unheated) garage in these freezing temps. I know I don’t want to be out there!

That said, here’s a plug: I’ll be at the Spokane Bridal Festival this weekend. I’d love it if you’d send your engaged friends my way! I’m in booth #342, and I’d love to hear about your wedding plans, or just get a hello from the people I know. 🙂

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*We are HUGE Alaska Airlines fans. I cannot tell you enough about how much we love them. A few years ago, we made the decision to spend all our flight time on one set of airlines, and picked Alaska for our FF accounts because they are based in Seattle, and we fly a lot around the Pacific Northwest. They’re also partners with KLM and Delta, who we regularly fly on our trips to Germany. We have the Alaska credit card, and last year we used our companion fare to fly to Alaska. Flying to Barbados used less miles than flying to Hawaii, for example, so it was totally worth it. I am in no way a FF expert, but I do have a few friends who are, and they’ve lent me some of their knowledge. If you’re interested in getting the Alaska card, feel free to ask me any questions you have!