Every year traveling has been a big part of our lives. It’s what we look forward to during our daily grind: a few weeks of escape in a different place, refreshed and enriched by new experiences. This year we haven’t even set foot in an plane. It’s probably the longest I’ve gone without flying in my adult life.

The silver lining–as we must acknowledge in all of this–is that it really made me appreciate what a safe, warm, cozy little home we have built for ourselves. Over the past month, we decked our house in handmade Christmas decorations, lit candles and twinkle lights, and consumed a dangerous amount of sugary baked goods. We spent Christmas taking walks on the beach and watching holiday movies projected on an old sheet in our living room. The small and ordinary things ended up being the most memorable this year.