Let's Talk Tuesday: 2025 Holiday Recap

The boxes are back in the basement, the winter decor is on display, and I’m ready to eat my regular diet and get back into my routine. Also, I’m ready for summer. No more polar vortex, no more lake effect snow, and for the love of God, no more bomb cyclones! I now have huge branches to clean up, once they’re not buried in snow.

I did not take a ton of pictures over the holidays, but here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

Middle Child makes a gingerbread house every year and is always proud when people admire it.

My spouse always finds amusing things for the white elephant exchange at work. This year, it was a Spiderman bathtub set and 'Winter Wingman' Axe products. When my kids were in high school, Axe cologne was very popular, and you could smell those young men a mile away. We still laugh about it.

These are my mother's favorite shirts that I saved for my memory angel project.

I was happy with the way they turned out. I'm not very crafty, so the simple design worked for me. I ordered the wood angels on Amazon and made four for my grandkids and one for Middle Child, since she doesn't have any children. On the back, I wrote, ' In Memory of Great Grandma (first name) and on the wings I wrote her birth year and death year. I cried when I handed them out on Christmas Day. My kids seemed very touched by them. 

My son and his wife stayed for a week with us. They love to cook and eat, so we had an international food week. On Monday, I did Mexican with chicken fajitas, rice, and beans. On Tuesday, they made us a Chinese meal. It's so strange to see my son prepare traditional (what I consider to be intricate) Chinese food, as all he ever made when he lived with us was scrambled eggs. Here, he made fried stuffed tofu with a minced pork filling.

Other dishes were king oyster mushrooms, Chinese cauliflower and red peppers, stir fried beef, and scallion pancakes. My son took me to an Asian market to get some of the ingredients. It was my first time, and I honestly did not know what anything was. It's crazy how many different fruits and vegetables they use that are not found in regular grocery stores.

On Wednesday, my husband paid homage to his Italian heritage and made meatballs and manicotti. On Christmas Eve, we went with my German background, and I made pork tenderloin with sauerkraut and baked sweet potatoes. I was exhausted and full from those four days and we hadn't even begun to make the food for our Christmas buffet. I'll spare you the details of that. We tend to make the same thing every year so as to not induce a riot.

A gift I was most proud of finding this year was this Chinese Caucasian mixed doll for my youngest granddaughter. It was the perfect size for a two-year-old and I thought it really resembled her!

I received some very nice, framed pictures of my grandkids, including a photo shoot of the youngest one done in China in October wearing a traditional Cheongsam dress with a Mandarin collar. So cute! My oldest daughter gave me a canvas collage of her kids taken at a Christmas tree farm that was beautiful. She also gave me this Peanuts puzzle that I'm currently working on. Middle Child was proud to give me a huge variety pack of green teas. With 90 tea bags, I should make it through the winter!

As is our tradition, we hosted the Cousin Party for my kids' cousins. Please note: there are five not included because we do not speak to those families, so don't feel bad if you are in that boat.

The focus is on games, not food. My husband comes up with the entertainment every year and the favorite by far was this drum challenge. Each person got a turn watching a segment of the Whitney Houston video 'I Will Always Love You' and had to hit the 'drum' at the exact moment of the beat . It's a lot harder than it looks! My daughter-in-law won and her prize was a set of electronic drumsticks.

My husband and I spent a Friday night at Home Goods and Five Below picking up prizes for the games and items for the Santa Auction. Everyone receives $20 Santa Bucks that they can use to bid on wrapped mystery items. We buy everything from giant packs of Ramen noodles . . .

fake Labubu's (IYKYK)

and silly t-shirts. We get a lot of joy from seeing their faces when they unwrap the gifts and there's often trading at the end. We've found this to be more fun than having a traditional white elephant exchange.

Some of you may remember that our brother-in-law is notorious for leaving miscellaneous weird items around our house when he visits. This year, there was a 4 pack of aromatherapy candles hidden in my laundry room. And a few days ago, while packing up Christmas, I found this key ring under our foyer tree skirt. I wouldn't be surprised if something else turns up in February.

Happy New Year! I wish you all good health and much happiness in 2026.