Home For The Holidays

Happy 2026!

With it being summer in Mendoza, everyone heads out for vacation during the holiday seasons, so I had the opportunity to take a quick trip home to spend some sweet time with family and friends back in Minnesota. Although I was sad leaving my friends here for a little bit, my time at home was filled with so many exciting and fun moments that I am extremely grateful for. Here’s the recap:

Wedding Weekend!!

I truly hit the ground running as soon as I landed back state-side because I was the maid of honor in my sister’s wedding the day after I arrived! Although I was exhausted from traveling, it was so special to be reunited with my entire family and be able to celebrate my sister and her new husband. It was a beautiful, snowy, winter wedding in Minnesota and it couldn’t have been more perfect!

Family Christmas!!

With all of my extended family in town for the wedding, we had a lot of Christmas celebrations. We spent the day after the wedding showing our cousins around the Mall of America, before going home for a Christmas dinner and game night. It was so fun to be back and home doing all of the fun things that I grew up doing with my family. My sisters and I also have a tradition of going to the Mall of America every year on the morning of Christmas Eve with my dad, buying a couple last-minute family gifts and enjoying the rush of the holidays together. This year, each of these traditions felt a little sweeter after being away from home for so long. 

Christmas morning was full of so much childhood nostalgia. My siblings and I all opened our Christmas presents at our parents house (in matching pajamas of course). We hosted our extended family for a big Christmas lunch before we headed to our lake house for the weekend. It’s so much fun to spend time with extended family, but the time with just my parents and siblings is always so refreshing and special for me. So, having a few days to just enjoy time together alone was exactly what I needed before heading back away from them for a while. 

& So many sweet reunions!! 

Through all of the festivities, I was thankful to still have a little bit of time to see some of my friends from home that I haven’t seen in a long time and do all of our favorite things. The little bit of free time I had was full of coffee runs, quick dinners that lasted for hours, strolling through Target and Home Goods on a Tuesday morning, sweet Sunday mornings and church, and quality time laughing while I packed up to leave again. 

This time at home was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know I needed. While I love the life I am building in Argentina, there are a lot of things and people that I miss while I’m away. Being able to be back was truly a dream come true and the perfect refresh before heading back to complete the second half of my project. 

With love, Sarah