Sounds like a great year in wetshaving for you!
IMHO, face lathering (or head lathering in my case) is vastly superior to using a bowl. I was always bowl lathering because I believed it was more traditional. A Reddit challenge made me try out face lathering and I was an instant convert: being able to adjust things on the fly much quicker, having the most direct feedback of the lather quality on my skin, finally enjoying the process of building the lather with my brush instead of using it just like a paintbrush and last but not least fewer things to store in the bathroom.