2025 was quite a year in many ways. I haven’t written much about it because it seemed to be quite chaotic. I’ll try to do an overview as much as I can.

I started the New Year in Virginia with one of my good friends and her mother. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, and I actually managed to stay up past midnight for the first time in years! We did have a good amount of snow in New Hampshire last winter. It was the first time in a while, although this winter seems like it’s going to be more along the lines of the winters when we first moved up here, and there was snow on the ground from the beginning of December through the end of March. We’ve had a number of mild winters here with more rain than snow.

In February, we took a Caribbean cruise on Princess with my usual gang. This was my first time on Princess, and I have to say that I was impressed. They are miles ahead of the competition when it comes to technology. We watched the Superbowl on deck, which was fun, even if it was windy and a bit chilly. Four of us had the 360 Dinner, which was expensive, but I felt like it was worth every penny. The wine they served had been fermented underwater. I just loved it all around and what we ate was so unique.

My son and I did an excursion where we went tubing on a river. I think that was his favorite, although he also enjoyed snorkeling. We were supposed to snorkel near a turtle sanctuary, but it was too windy that day. He still had a good time. We also went to our usual stop in Antigua, Nicole’s Table. She runs a Caribbean cooking class out of her home, and it’s such fun! This was the third time I went, and we’re going again next week!

At the end of March, we left with our camper for a month. We drove to Oklahoma City for my daughter’s 30th birthday. We went to a Renaissance Faire with them, as well as the Cowboy Museum, the Science Museum, the Oklahoma City Memorial, and a minor league baseball game.

You will see that baseball was a big theme this year. I’ve been a Mets fan my whole life. The 2024 season was such fun, even though they didn’t make it to the World Series. They didn’t fare as well in 2025, but there were still many great moments. They started out with a bang, and it was feeling like it did in 1986 until it all fell apart starting in June. I have no idea why. There’s some talk of problems in the clubhouse. If you’ve been following baseball at all, you know what happened this fall. I am very distressed right now. I don’t see them making it to the playoffs again for a while. If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly apologize to the owners and general manager. I’m really sad that Alonso is gone. They should have done whatever they had to do to sign him again. With him and Juan Soto back to back in the lineup, there was a bit of a conundrum of who they should pitch to. I think that’s why he had the great year he did this year. I think not being behind Soto will affect his statistics this year, but hearing that the Mets didn’t even make him an offer, I think he did the right thing for his career. I probably won’t go to CitiField this year, but I’ll travel to Baltimore to see the Orioles play. I haven’t been to Camden Yards yet, and I really want to see Pete.

I’ve been slowly working on visiting all of the Major League ballparks. Our trip home from Oklahoma was marked by stops in three cities to take in a game. We went to see the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Cleveland Indians. In Cleveland, it was Bark in the Park night. We really enjoyed this. Food was included with the tickets. I can’t say that Sansa was thrilled with the game, especially the fireworks at the end, but the patio was a good place for her. They also have a “doorbell” effect whenever an opposing batter strikes out. They probably should have used something else during Bark in the Park. Every time there was a strikeout, the dogs started barking.

From Oklahoma City we went to Tulsa and stayed two nights at a campground that was at a casino and racetrack. I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the horses on the track. It brought back memories from childhood when I lived close to Belmont Park. We saw Black Wall Street memorials and some Route 66 kitsch. There was also a quick pitstop at Mickey Mantle’s boyhood home. From there, we went to Springfield, Missouri. We had to stop at Lambert’s Cafe, and I bought some of their famous rolls with us after a great meal. We’d been there about 20 years before, and it was as good and fun as I remembered. Missouri also meant the famous Uranus Fudge Factory!

Despite my claustrophobia, I took my son up in the St. Louis Arch while we were there. That was something we also did 20 years ago when he was 5, so he didn’t remember it. Those elevators are tight, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we came back down and I was outside again.

From there, we traveled to Louisville for a couple of nights. My main focus was the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. We were able to hold some famous bats – I’m holding Daryl Strawberry’s and my son is holding Babe Ruth’s above – and see how the bats are made. My son made my year when he bought me a personalized bat for Mother’s Day. Due to a mix-up, I ended up with two bats, which are now proudly mounted over my front window.

In Cleveland, we visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It’s something that’s been on our list for a while, but we kept having weather issues or mechanical issues when we wanted to go there. This time we made it! For as large as the place looks, I was expecting more exhibits, but I did enjoy it.

Our final stop on the way home was Niagara Falls. I hadn’t been here since the kids were little, and Danny didn’t remember it at all. I do wish the Maid of the Mist boat had been running, but it was too early in the season for that.

We were home a few weeks when disaster happened. I wrote about it earlier in the year. My husband stepped out on our deck one evening, and the whole thing collapsed. Thankfully, all he had was a broken finger. It was a miracle. We’re still dealing with trying to find a contractor to put up a new one, after our homeowners dragged their feet, then said they wouldn’t cover it. Needless to say, we don’t have Liberty Mutual Insurance anymore. Maybe they should stop paying for all of those stupid commercials and actually pay out on their policies instead.

GeoWoodstock is an event where Geocachers gather from around the world once a year. I had been planning to go to Morgantown, West Virginia, for the event this year, but when the deck collapse happened I cancelled it. When I saw a couple of days later that my husband was okay to drive, I decided to go anyway. I had to stay a bit further out of town than I preferred, but at least I got to go. On the way there, I stopped at the Flight 93 National Memorial. I’ve wanted to get there for years since we know someone who was on the plane. There was a lot to see in Morgantown and the surrounding area. I enjoyed the event and would like to go to the one coming up in Kansas, but we’ll have to see if the universe cooperates.

Speaking of Geocaching, there was another milestone – 12,000 finds – that I made at Stephen King’s home in Bangor, Maine. That trip also allowed me to chalk up finding geocaches in 433 of 453 towns in Maine. Most of what I have left involves a ferry ride. But I am a lot closer to crossing off Maine. I worked a bit on Massachusetts, but not as much as I’d hoped to. This was a year of a lot of waiting around for people and things, so I was more of a homebody than usual.

My daughter and her husband drove from Oklahoma to visit his mother, who lives just north of us, and we all got together for dinner one night. She met her “mini me,” as I call my granddaughter, because there are so many things she does that remind me of her at that age.

Speaking of grandchildren (and when do I not?), I took my oldest one, who’s now 10 (how did that happen?), to the Alabama/Georgia area where my son and his wife and my #2 granddaughter live. It was a road trip that was fun. While there, we visited the Little WHite House of President Roosevelt and Plains, Georgia, where President Jimmy Carter grew up. They got to go swimming in the springs, not far from where FDR came to help alleviate his issues with his body following a polio infection. I took her up to Atlanta one day to see the Georgia Aquarium, and we all took in a Mets/Braves game in Atlanta. On the way home with her, we stopped at a Great Wolf Lodge for the night and then Hershey and Chocolate World. We had a lot of fun. Surprisingly, she also enjoyed listening to the murder mysteries I listen to while I’m driving!

This was after we’d sold my parents’ home. We had been renting it way under market value to give people a hand-up. I was tired of being a landlord, though, and the house would be 20 years old in 2026. I didn’t want to deal with the repairs I knew would be coming up, so we sold it. It sold the day it was listed for $5k over asking. I probably could have held out for more, but this was quick and painless. We thought we’d get an infusion of cash, but we ended up having to pay off our mortgage on our home for the sale to go through. Tip: always have separate deeds for separate properties, even if they are next to each other. Our new neighbors seem nice. They’ve been doing a lot of work on the house. We had to enlarge our parking pad to fit 3+ cars off the road, particularly in the winter. It was completed just before the snow fell and looks great.

Marc had to clean out my parents’ house. I am too sentimental and want to keep everything. I handled the paperwork side of things. After all was said and done, we needed a vacation and took a Royal Caribbean cruise on Symphony of the Seas out of New York. We managed to squeeze it in before the hurricanes caused a detour the week after our cruise. This was mostly a ship-only vacation just to relax and unwind after the whirlwind of getting the house sold. Since it was out of New York, we came down for a Mets game the night before. All totaled, I visited 5 Major League stadiums this year and one minor league. It would have been 6 as I was supposed to see the Mets play the Red Sox the evening after the deck collapsed, but I didn’t go.

We had a pretty quiet fall after that, mostly trying to coordinate contractors. In November, one of my close friends in Florida fell and broke her arm in 3 places. I ran down there for 2 weeks to help her out and drive her around. I also stopped and saw one of my closest friends from high school, who was my Maid of Honor. She has been diagnosed with a very rare and aggressive form of adrenal cancer. They have burned through their savings, and with the changes in healthcare, she doesn’t even know how she’ll pay her premiums in 2026, never mind co-pays and deductibles. They’ve depleted their savings, so I helped her start a GoFundMe. If you can help out we’d both appreciate it!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-allisons-fight-against-adrenal-cancer

In December, I went on my regular vacation with friends to Disney. This involves a lot of drinking and eating and a few rides. I got to go to Geo-82, the new bar on the backside of Spaceship Earth, which I loved. A good time was had by all, which included games of Cards Against Humanity back in the villa.

2025 was a rough year in many ways. I felt like I had to distract myself from the news because I would have been wallowing in depression if I kept watching what was happening to our country. I think I did a good job distracting myself. We end 2025 on a positive note in Fort Lauderdale, where we will go on a cruise to celebrate my 60th birthday in the New Year. I am hoping things get better on that front in 2026, but I’m not really optimistic. It’s a delicate balance of wanting to be informed and not being so overloaded that I feel hopeless and don’t want to get out of bed. The only “news” I get is what I read, and I’ve been listening to Molly Jung-Fast to get daily updates. I stay away from major media except for weather reports. Am I optimistic? No, but I do still have hope for our country. Bill Clinton once said, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what’s right with America,” and I believe that.

These are the diamond paintings I finished in 2025. I have one that’s *almost* done. If we were home one more day, I probably would have finished it, but it will get filed with the ones I do in 2026.

I hope that everyone had a great 2026 and can find something positive to say about 2025!