New Year's Day 2025

This year, for the holidays, my wife Abby and I spent 16 days in Massachusetts with her family. Tomorrow morning at 3 AM we head to the airport. We've visited them every December for the past few years, but this year's visit was particularly long. Going into it, I was pretty worried that I would have several days of long boredom. I was worried there wouldn't be much to do in general. However, I was mostly wrong. There were only a few long mornings before everyone was up, but otherwise we kept pretty busy. We visited both of my sisters and their kids, on different days. We visited an old friend of Abby's and got to meet their 3 month old baby. I held the baby and he cooed and slept on me, which was very precious.

Today is New Year's Day. I think at this point I've done New Year's posts to death. I'm not sure there's anything left to say about it. I'm not making any hard and fast resolutions, though we have a goal to finally get our apartment organized and livable by April 1. It might be a tough year, because in the past couple of months Abby has gotten some not-so-great news about her health. I'm worried, I'm anxious, but it is what it is. We'll keep going, keep trying, keep struggling and keep living. One foot in front of the other. One step at a time.

My wife's family is really lovely, did I mention that? They are sweet and caring and abundantly supportive of me and one another. They have graciously accepted me into their family and treat me like one of their own. Overall, it was a really amazing visit. There were lots of laughs, some great meals, and lots of one on one time with each member of the family. I can sometimes get really reactive with her parents, particularly her mother, and get frustrated when I think she's not listening or otherwise be mean to her. But looking back, I think I refrained from that for the majority of the trip, and not by any particular effort of my own. I think maybe I'm just in a better place mentally this year than I have been in the past, which is something to be truly grateful for.

So welcome to 2025. So far it feels a lot like 2024!