Spice the Love No.4

Goodbye and Hello! ❤️

How fitting that the fourth letter we send your way begins with a farewell to 2025 and a greeting to 2026. As I write these lines, I’m sitting at the familiar table in the middle of our home—the place that quietly connects the kitchen to the bookshelf, the sofa, the record player. In front of me is a small vase of ginger flowers, their deep red petals simple and unassuming, the kind that often grow in clusters in home gardens. It feels like a gentle coincidence that not far from our place, there’s a flower-and-fruit stall that regularly sells this very bloom.

The flowers bring back memories of unhurried walks along familiar streets, of stumbling upon something quietly new. Lately, my husband has taken to waking up early, camera in hand, wandering through downtown Saigon to catch the sunrise. On one of those mornings, he even managed to “tempt” his sleep-loving wife into joining him for a joyful start to the day. We’d like to share with you a small photo series from those moments—early sunlight spilling across the river in a soft shimmer, nudging awake buildings still drowsy after a long night, lifting footsteps along stairways and through narrow alleys with a sense of lightness and delight.

Looking back, 2025 seems to have passed so quickly that I hardly had time to fully register everything that happened. At times, it even felt as though I hadn’t done very much at all. But upon closer reflection, I realized that time only moved so swiftly because I had been living fully in my own state of “flow”—when the mind is constantly absorbing new things, when joy, curiosity, and focus outweigh moments of boredom, anxiety, or waiting. It is precisely these emotionally rich and energetic experiences that made the year feel strangely short, even though it was, in truth, filled with so many meaningful moments.

If we were to draw a chart of our 2025, it might look like a circle—made up of repetitions: familiar habits, places we returned to, people we met, work we carried on with. Yet we believe that the end of that circle is also the beginning of a new one, growing naturally from the last. As we step into 2026, may we do so with unhurried steps and open hearts, ready to welcome what’s new and continue tracing the next circle of our own journey.

🎁 And here’s a small New Year’s gift from us to you—a charming 2026 calendar. You can download it HERE and use it as your laptop wallpaper. Each image is a memory we’ve gathered across seasons and places, and we hope it will bring you inspiration in abundance throughout the year ahead.

With love,
Nhà Có Hai Người (House of Two)

If this letter resonates with you or brings you something meaningful, feel free to share or forward it to friends and loved ones.
All stories are available in Vietnamese. You can switch languages directly on our website.
You are also welcome to share your own stories or send feedback to help us improve the “Spice the Love” newsletter. Write to us at: imeo@nhacohainguoi.com

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