And that's a wrap...

...on the year 2025.

I spent the holidays with my family and friends.

But first, I visited some of the sights around Chicago.

Next, I met with my friend Elizabeth for our annual gift exchange. This year's theme, items from your home state. I had to remind Elizabeth I have called 5 states my home, so she received something memorable from each state (and so did I).

Can you guess Elizabeth's home state from the picture below?

I flew to Texas to see the Mac Daddy and Mom and spent time making all their favorite treats, cruising the HEB grocery store aisles (when the MacDaddy didn't revoke my cart privileges), searching Walmart for the illusive Hershey's Kisses, and monitoring the comings and goings of my parent's neighbors (that's what they do in retirement).

I returned home for less than 12 hours, first having dinner with Nella, Linda, and Jen - and attending a holiday-themed burlesque show. 

Then, I drove to Kristin's house for Christmas. My brother-in-law's parents joined us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I also spent time making cookies, but this time I had help from my sister's Mother-in-Law, Bonnie.

We had fun opening our gifts and I even got my brother-in-law's parents in on the head gear game for an expanded family photo.

We also played game and finished a puzzle.

We bought Finn a few new stuffies (a tree and a nutcracker...definitely on brand for us).

A good time was had by all (in our matching PJ's and head gear, of course).

Now, I have to say that the journey home from Kristin's house was a bit more interesting. I was about 1/4 of a mile from my turn off when all traffic came to a standstill. I sent a note to my sister to see if she knew of anything that was happening (mind you, this area has been a construction zone for the past year), and sure enough, she found that there was an accident. In fact, it was a semi accident and the semi was laying on its side across all three lanes of traffic, and the median. The semi also hit the concrete barrier and the lane going in the other direction was also impacted. To make a long story short, I was in pretty much the same spot for 4.5 hours. That was until a state patrol officer pulled up alongside my car (as he was doing to others) and provided me instructions to turn around, drive on the shoulder the wrong way, through a construction zone (mind you), and down an entry ramp where I'd be met by other State Patrol officers who would tell me what to do. Well, I did that. However the Patrol officers did not provide further instruction. Now, there is a first time for everything. And now I know what happens when you are stuck in traffic like this. I mean, I've seen it on the news and always wondered. Again, now I know and hope not to repeat the experience again.

Now, we are ready for what 2026 presents us. Happy New Year.