Hey everyone!

Can you all believe 2023 is coming to an end? We sure can't!

This past year has flown right on by - as it always does. And we are feeling pretty disheveled heading into the new year - as we always do.

This is always a wacky season for us. Between Christmas, New Year's, two birthday celebrations and general quality time with family and friends, there's a lot going on. And since I extended my visit to Amsterdam to be with my grandpa, all the festivities are now condensed into a two-week whirlwind.

We obviously don't get to spend much time with loved ones while on the road. So we are looking forward to the next two weeks here in the US. There's definitely an adjustment with the busier social calendar up ahead, but we are up for it! 🎄🍾🎉

Reunited in Florida 🤗

I flew from Amsterdam back 'home' to Florida on Sunday, and I documented the journey! Here's a behind the scenes of take-off and landing. Because who doesn't love good a 'wing shot' from the plane?

Here is Aimara's photo journal of her solo trip a few days before:

It came with a text message that read: "don't order the chicken"

If you didn't see last week's newsletter, I was alone in the Netherlands to be with my grandpa (opa), who was in the hospital. Aimara couldn't hang with me because she was almost at her 90-day limit for being in the Schengen Area (Schengen = group of most EU countries).

Unfortunately, opa was still in the hospital when I left on Sunday, but I am happy to share that he is back home now and getting some much-needed rest 🙏🏼

As for the Ways of the World dynamic duo, we are grateful to be together with the holidays approaching. We have been doing some last-minute Christmas shopping (who else is getting new socks?!?), enjoying the relative warmth here in Florida, and - wildly enough - getting ready for our next international journey ✈️

2023 year-in-review

We are amazed any time we look back and reflect on all the incredible moments we're fortunate enough to experience every year. We surely don't take this life we get to live for granted, and we are so grateful for the lifetime of memories we capture on such a regular basis.

Check out all the places we visited this past year - excluding layovers and states we drove through 😜:

• Lived as digital nomads in Mexico 🇲🇽
• Went to food heaven in Malaysia 🇲🇾
• Visited a friend in Singapore 🇸🇬
• Drove a tuktuk all over Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
• Got soggy in Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦 (travel series coming up later this year)
• Spent time with fam in The Netherlands 🇳🇱
• Tried to domesticate ourselves housesitting in Kansas City & Montgomery, Alabama 🇺🇸
• Volunteered and fundraised to help earthquake victims in Turkey 🇹🇷
• Ate our way through Italy for 11 weeks! 🇮🇹
• Spent time with the fam in The Netherlands (again) 🇳🇱
• Popped in to Florida, Kentucky and Chicago to hang with the fam. 🇺🇸

Who's ready for a 2023 photo montage?!?!

2023 was not only filled with unforgettable travel experiences, it was also such a massive learning year for us as we tried to grow our little work baby. And as you probably know, learning is another way of saying that 'we made a ton of mistakes'!

Our motto starting the year was, '2023 - we will fight you.' But it turns out we also had to absorb some counter punches. Thankfully we are aware that the challenges are all part of growth, and just like the year before, we feel like we are in a better position to chase our dreams in a smarter way in 2024.

Aimara wrote an entire blog post sharing the 5 lessons we learned, the mistakes we made and a little behind the scenes of our 2023. Here's a small summary of that blog post:

1. Full-time travel might not be for us.
2. We need a break.
3. Hitting rock bottom can be good.

We also wrote about some of the things we've been doing differently for the past couple of months, what we're working on for 2024, books & podcasts that changed us, and our phrase for 2024... are you ready?

'Milking it' - ok go ahead and read the post if you want to know everything!

What's next for us?

Our time here in Florida is whizzing by. On the 26th we'll be dragging our groggy, wine-saturated bodies onto an early morning flight to visit Aimara's sis and her crew in Kentucky.

And on January 3rd we have an absurdly early flight to Central Mexico, where we will be staying put for the first 3 months of 2023. If you want to know why we'll be slowing down, well... you'll have to read Aimara's blog post 🙃

Also, this will be the last newsletter of the year. Next time you hear from us we will be in Guanajuato, Mexico! We can't wait to have the time and space to refocus on Ways of the World.

Of course, thank you so much to all of you for following along with our journey. Whether you support us by watching our YouTube videos, reading our blog, getting personal on Instagram or reading our weekly emails, we are so grateful for your support! 😇 Without you, none of our crazy dreams would be possible or even worth it.

This newsletter has grown from only being sent to a handful of friends and family to over 1,500 people. And this growing community motivates us to keep going. We hope we're giving back to you, as much as you give to us.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! We love you ❤️

Happy Holidays! Be safe, be happy, and see you all in the New Year 😎

Thanks for reading!

Aimara & G

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Favorite travel newsletters!

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Giveaway Winner!

In case you're new around here, we have been doing small monthly giveaways as a way to giveback to you guys for watching our videos and supporting us. This December we wanted to buy you holiday lattes at Starbucks, so we gave away a $50 Starbucks gift card! Congrats to Grace M ☕️ We hope you're enjoying your prize 😇