Three months in five minutes.

Hi, everyone. I'm Brittany and I have a blogging consistency problem.

Once upon a time, I actually blogged with regularity. It seems impossible to believe, given my track record the last couple years. Nevertheless, here I am and I've made it my personal goal to finish blogging about our trip to Spain. You know, before a year has elapsed since the trip...

Fun fact: I never even blogged about my own wedding. Oops.

First, I'll catch you up on life in general. Baby steps, folks.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year happened. My whole family celebrated Thanksgiving together a week early, but it was a welcome change to have all of us crowded around the dinner table. With my sister in Arizona and Wheat in Texas, Christmas was tamer than usual. Still, it was glorious to have a week at home in Ohio with family and friends. New Year was spent in our typical fashion, with me and Wheat staying in and making fun of the painfully awkward ball-dropping telecast.

Christmas REALLY happened. I didn't really mean to, but I went hard on the Christmas festivities this year. My mom and I explored the Christmas Ranch in Ohio. Wheat and I attended a friend's Christmas cocktail party. We admired the incredible displays and performers at the Chinese Lantern festival at the Indiana state fairgrounds, which I hope becomes a yearly tradition for us. We ate delicious raclettes (cheese melted onto a baguette with dijon mustard, pickles, and green onions), drank hot chocolate, and checked out the German vendors at the Carmel Christkindlmarkt. I organized our company Christmas party with bowling and lunch at Punch Bowl Social. We had our eighth annual Central Perk gift exchange and a few of us ventured to Columbus for a fun evening of bowling and bar hopping with some of my best friends. In other words, I could have used a break from my break.

I turned 30. Yikes. As I'm sure you can guess, it feels the same as 29, but man, it doesn't sound good, does it? Fortunately, my actual birthday celebrations were wonderful, thanks to my awesome friends and family. Wheat surprised me with tickets to watch the Bengals beat the Browns, 30-16. Several of my friends came to Indy to do an escape room with me for the first time (we didn't escape - hmph). I watched competitive eater Joey Chestnut defend his St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail eating title by downing 10 pounds, six ounces of it in eight minutes. I mean, if that doesn't make your birthday, I don't know what will.

...and lots of other things happened, too.

My sister and Denny got married in a small ceremony at a courthouse in Tucson. Denny was deployed to Iraq and my sister moved home to Ohio. My brother-in-law paid us a visit in Indy and my family continued our Christmas Eve fondue tradition. My mom's cancer has continued to evade her chemo and my brother got a ridiculously, almost impossibly cute puppy. I tailgated with Jenn, Paul, and LP before watching the Bengals beat the Lions, 26-17, on Christmas Eve. I drove to Toledo for CJ's baby shower, hosted Kate in Indy for a night, and explored the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton.

I did my best teenybopper impression (which isn't very hard to do) while watching the Backstreet Boys, The Chainsmokers, Zedd, Hey Violet, and Maxx. We cooked some HelloFresh meals and realized that, with a little effort, we can cook, too. Wheat and I attended our second consecutive Indianapolis BaconFest and I regretted nothing, especially not the bacon s'mores and donuts. We made strides trying to watch all of the Oscar-nominated movies, binged Mindhunter on Netflix, and visited Veal's Ice Tree before it melted in unseasonably 60º weather. Wheat and I supported each other's alma maters when we traveled to Muncie to watch the Miami Redhawks play football and to Dayton to watch the Davidson Wildcats play basketball.

Mostly, I've felt overwhelmed - sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad. Sometimes drowning in sadness, other times floating with joy. I suppose the benefit of getting older is realizing that that's life.

Coming at you with more Spanish goodness soon...