Christmas Letter 2025

 

Merry Christmas to you all! We kicked off 2025 in Iceland where we celebrated my (MB's) 50th birthday with some of our closest friends and their families, which was a blast. Highlights include arctic snorkeling (not me), hot springs, snowmobiling on a glacier, amazing meals, skiing on New Years Day and northern lights and fireworks at midnight on New Years! Throughout the year, we enjoyed going to some amazing concerts as well as hosting some amazing house concerts. We also hosted a few screenings for the film "Sentenced" created by the Children's Literacy Project (and produced and narrated by Stephen Curry). (For those local in Ft. Myers, there will be a screening at the Alliance for the Arts on Jan 17!) And we were with about 30 of my extended family at our farm over the summer, which was lots of fun. We are also very thankful to have had a quiet hurricane year. According to the local weather man, this is the first time in 10 years where there hasn't been a Gulf hurricane or US hurricane landfall. 

L is 16 and driving! He is a junior in high school and is balancing prepping for and taking the SAT/ACT, taking multiple AP classes, and thinking about college and possible college majors. In his free time, he's working on finding the right first job, playing on the drum line in the pep band, and volunteering weekly at a nearby senior retirement home doing tech support. And he's also working hard to finish his Eagle rank in Boy Scouts by senior year. He has an amazing group of friends that we love and are thankful for; a huge group of them went to homecoming this year!

H is a 14 and a freshman back at Canterbury with L & R. She's having a great year with a growing circle of sweet girls. She plays the trumpet in the band and is enjoying all of the regular freshman year things...going to the movies with friends, the occasional sleepover, school football games and dances (homecoming!). She's enjoying easing back into clubs and school commitments. So far, high school is lots of fun (with some learning in there too)!

R is 11 and having a great 5th grade year at Canterbury as well. Middle school has been the best experience. (Better lunch options too, apparently!) He loves playing Minecraft and building Lego (the age 18+ sets) and playing in person with friends as much as humanly possible. He started taking golf lessons with some friends twice a week and (usually) likes it. We'll see what sports await in 2026. He went on his first overnight field trip to Kennedy Space Center where they got to sleep under a space shuttle!

K is still busy in every good way with Ball Project and just finished launching a new and improved website. He's also working hard on launching Pray For Peace. Check out the site and join the movement! He had great trips to South Africa and Egypt where he was able to connect with lots of friends and Ball Project partners. He restarted the Saturday morning paddleboard group over on Sanibel and is enjoying that.

 

I (MB) am enjoying watching all three kids thrive in this new season and am excited about a few new ideas of my own that are percolating. I'm restarting my master's degree program in Library and Information Science at Syracuse University. It's been fun to take some baby steps into these next "circles of light" (as Anne Lamott says) and watch what God does. I'm also really enjoying being a part of book club with a group of lovely ladies. 

Gus and Ginger the Wonderdogs are happy and healthy. They continue to amuse us with their antics, and we find such joy in their expressions and cuddles. For those who may be wondering about the guinea pigs, alas they are with a new family and are happy and doing great.

We celebrated 24 years of marriage this August, which feels surreal. We are entering a new level of connection and steadiness in our marriage that I am so grateful for. We are thankful for a church we love as well as deepening friendships with some amazing humans. The hurricane three years ago put us on a difficult yet beautiful path of healing. Some adventures you would never ask for but, if we let them, can lead us closer to God and each other. These last several adventurous years have been full of lots and lots of waiting. And waiting is hard. It's uncomfortable. It feels like a waste of time. (We need to be DOING something, right??) But the reality is we are always in a state of waiting, really. From first days of school to the first school break of the year, for braces to go on and come off, for all of the "firsts" in life, for sleep to come, for courage to keep moving forward... The list goes on. 

 

Henri Nouwen wrote a powerful piece called Waiting for God that I am linking here. I encourage you all to read it. Nouwen states that active waiting "means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, who believes that this moment is THE moment." This is so hard for me. And yet, it's in the present, in the waiting, where life is most fully lived. In this advent season as we await Christmas and the promise of Christ's arrival, may we all have the courage "to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our own imaginings. [To] give up control over our future and let God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God's love and not according to our fear."

 

These days, we are focusing our attention on loving God, loving others and ourselves, and being present in the moment. We love you all and pray abundance and blessing upon you in 2026!