I’m sitting in LAX getting ready to board my flight with my wife and youngest daughter to go spend Christmas with our other kids that are living in Europe at the moment. It was a year-and-a-half of planning to pull this off and our excitement on our family group chat is intoxicating.

Experiences. That’s what we decided to begin shifting our attention towards as a family. I have a son and his wife who are currently living in Spain, my older daughter who is currently living in Ukraine, and my youngest daughter who is currently in university in Phoenix, AZ. It is amazing to me that the greatest expressed desire of this rag-tag family is that we wanted to be together for Christmas. And experience over stuff…

With this in mind, I began devising a plan to pull this off. I calculated how many miles we would need for the three of us living in the United States to get over to Europe on an award ticket. I scoured Air B&B to figure out what we could get to house all six of us, and then we coordinated like crazy to make sure we could pull this thing off…and still didn’t quite get every detail right…but that adds to the experience! 😊

We won’t be doing a European Christmas every year, but it is amazing that we have this opportunity to do this one. We will take a family photo at the Eiffel Tower, take a River cruise, eat about a billion croissants, visit amazing architecture, play games together for an entire day, see the Louvre, and probably laugh so hard that it will hurt. We are going to maximize this week together because we are not exactly sure when it will happen again. That’s the challenge of raising adults that love to see the world…and my wife and I don’t regret it for one moment!

This is a blog about travel, and the main idea I wanted to convey today is that experiences with people we love may be the most amazing and beautiful part of travel. It doesn’t have to cost a ton of money to do it, but it does require a new way of thinking. Last night we had dinner with some friends that we enjoy eating Chinese food with every Christmas Eve. When one of the guys that was there asked what we paid for our airfare to Europe, he about fainted. His response? “Teach me how to do this!!!”

That’s one of the main reason I write this blog. I want people to BELIEVE that travel is accessible and that it requires planning and new thinking. I love helping people see the world and fall in love with the people and places I’ve been. And I love enjoying these people and places with my family that I love the most.

Merry Christmas 🎄 Wherever you are this Christmas, I pray that you are surrounded with people you love. I also want for you the joy that comes from creating experiences with people you love that comes as a result of learning how to travel hack. My hobby brings me joy-and I want that joy for you!