What’s the cutoff for saying Happy New Year?

I’m genuinely curious about this because I know a lot of people have a cutoff date. But I'll tell someone Happy New Year well into January, even two-thirds of the way through the month, if I haven’t seen them since before the holidays.

Which is why I’m saying it to you now, Reader—Happy New Year!

I spent Christmas and New Year’s in Pamplona with my husband’s family. I taught my niece how to play Tenzi (and then she taught her grandparents—it’s such a great all-ages game), and ate the 12 lucky grapes with Iñigo’s parents on New Year’s Eve. The grapes were particularly seedy this year, and I had to spit them out … I hope that doesn’t mean I’m going to have a terrible year!

We also took a semi-spontaneous, one-night-only trip to Madrid for dinner with a bunch of our friends who were in town for the holidays. We had so much fun catching up, and now already have plans for September 2027, when two friends announced that they’re getting married!

That quick trip was totally worth it, but it wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t left time in our calendar.

Whether it’s with our travel plans or in our day-to-day lives, it’s so easy to make a ton of plans and cram our days and weeks full. But then there’s no room left for spontaneity, adventure, or exploration.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I’m more about goals and plans, and one of my goals this year is to get to know Paris better.

To actually do it, I’ve planned “exploration days” and “excursion weekends” throughout the year. The dates can move, and I don’t know where I’ll go yet (I may even end up making spontaneous, game-day decisions), but I’m being intentional about leaving space in my calendar to make it happen.

And it's already working.

It snowed here on Monday, but I stayed snuggled inside … then regretted it when I saw everyone’s beautiful Paris-in-the-snow posts on Instagram.

So when I got another chance yesterday, I scrapped my plan for the morning (which was to write this newsletter), threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera, and ran out.

And I’m so glad I did. I found some new corners of the neighborhood, and got a whole new vision of others.

I watched men in suits and ties shoveling sidewalks and dogs heading home drenched and happy from their powdery playtime.

The highlight was the Place des Vosges. Classes let out at a nearby high school while I was shooting, and suddenly the park was full of teenagers having a snowball fight (a good chunk of them were also just standing around smoking, of course).

And I got to experience all this because I left space in my week. I knew I could take a couple hours off and it wouldn’t derail me.

The lesson here is that while pure spontaneity is great, it’s not often realistic—which means we need to plan for it.

Leave space in your calendar for exploration.

Leave time in your itinerary for wandering.

Because otherwise, life fills up, work fills up, trips fill up. And suddenly, all you’ve done is check a bunch of boxes without really experiencing anything.

So here’s my challenge for you: Can you get more adventure on your calendar?

It doesn’t have to be a big trip (although you know I love that for you). It could just be a few open hours a week or one day a month blocked for a museum visit or a day excursion.

Big chunks or small, near or far, the specifics don’t matter—what matters is making the space.

I’d love to know—are you already doing this? Or is this something you want to try this year? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear what you’re thinking.

P.S. Speaking of plans—I’m hosting a brand-new packing workshop on February 7th! Even if you don’t have any trips planned right away, improving your packing game now means that when you do travel, you can spend less time agonizing over what to bring and more time on those spontaneous adventures. You can get on the waitlist here.

P.P.S. And if you need help packing in the meantime, I made a free guide for that!​

• Seriously, get yourself a Tenzi set—it’s compact enough that you could even throw it in a suitcase for entertainment during your trips. You can also buy a deck of card with a ton of variations, but we had a great time making up our own variations. I’ll be grabbing another pack of dice so we can play with more people.
• For something more elegant (and play-on-the-beachable), I love these gorgeous, colorful backgammon boards from Sabah, who incidentally also make some of my favorite travel shoes.

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