December was a fun month: our student came for his Christmas break (3 weeks), we went to South California on a road trip and celebrated a New Year, first with the family and then with friends!
The main event of December, of course, was the road trip. I will have a dedicated post to that trip, but in short, we spent eight days traveling, four of which were dedicated to long drive to South California and back. The other four days were filled with fun, visiting San Diego Sea World, exploring San Diego downtown, walking through Joshua Tree National Park, soaking on hot springs of Palm Springs area, and enjoying the light display of Los Angeles botanical gardens. In the evenings, as always, we played board games, including a new one we got specifically for the trip.
The New Year celebration unexpectedly turned from a typical dinner with parents into a surprisingly fun event with friends. Originally, we planned to celebrate the NY at our vacation house with the parents, yet as we came back from the road trip and discovered that the roads in our state are still very snowy and not well maintained, we decided to stay home. Which is when I proposed to my DH to visit friends who decided to get together for the NY celebration, after we spent some time with our family. We decided to keep our visit a surprise, we also unearthed the costume of Santa Clause and got some small presents for all of our friends. Well, the surprise turned out to be a hit of the entire evening! DH, dressed as a Santa Clause with the sack full of presents walked into our friends home, congratulated everyone with the NY and demanded that they perform for their presents – sing a song, do a card trick, say a short festive poem – anything to celebrate the festive holiday! (It’s a typical Russian tradition that a Santa Claus actually visits people and brings presents). That was a blast! Everyone participated, had a lot of fun, and our surprise visit was the most remembered and discussed event during the party 🙂
Credit card hacking:
I would also like to provide an update on our Credit card hacking progress, as this is my new hobby, which provides both financial benefits and entertainment for me.
In December, DH continued to work on his Sign Up Bonus (SUP) for Capital One Venture card. I, continued working on SUPs for Southwest credit cards without actually meeting them in December. Needed to meet both SUPs in January to receive SW Companion Pass!
No additional booking was made in December – we were enjoying the trip we planned a month before 🙂
Conclusion:
All in all, December has been filled with fun events and celebrations, as well as taking advantage of savings made possible with credit card awards (about $900 worth of value).
How did your December look like? What changes happened in your life?