How was your Christmas? Ours was an absolute blast! We spent the holiday with my family in my home away from home, Florida, and I’m actually still here. James had to head back to Dallas to hold down the fort but I couldn’t resist spending a few more days at the beach with my parents and brother.

This year my family decided to treat our Florida trip as our mutual Christmas gifts, which I really loved. As much as I enjoy gift-giving (okay, and gift-receiving), I thought this was the perfect idea – truly, none of us need anything except more time with each other. But James and I were treated to a gift from our favorite airline, Southwest, that we are so dang excited about: a Companion Pass! This means that James and I will get to fly together for two for the price of one for a whole entire year. AMAZING. We earned this through our Southwest credit card, as points added up through a combination of purchases on our card, flights around the country, participation in the Rapid Rewards Shopping Program, and an extremely generous credit card sign-up bonus of 50,000 points. We are already plotting out the trips we want to take together (you can even apply your points to the fare, meaning that on some adventures, both of us can travel for free!), and we feel totally liberated and empowered by the fact that we have all 0f 2016 to plan more travel. Three cheers for Southwest!