Happy Friday! Today is National Oatmeal Muffin Day (I prefer blueberry and corn muffins over oatmeal) and National Hard Candy Day. (“Lord, it’s like a hard candy Christmas, I’m barely getting throooooooooooooooooooough tomorrow…”)
It was a pretty good week. Yesterday our little Membership team had our holiday lunch at Osteria Ama in Philadelphia and I filled up on bruschetta, crab bites, and capellini nestled in a PILE of seafood. We hadn’t been out as a group in a few years and it felt good to be back. Warm and collegial and ugh how I love the city at Christmastime.
You: Speaking of? Are you ready for Christmas?
Me: Thanks for asking! Nope. I need to bake cookies tomorrow, I have gifts moving through the postal system so slow it’s like they’re crawling, and I decided at the 11th hour to cross-stitch something. But the wrapping is about 80% complete and the Christmas Eve menu is planned.
I was off today to take care of family things. I’m working Monday and Tuesday next week, and then I’m off until January 5th. Russell Sloth Week (observed Dec 26-Jan 1) is on the horizon and I’m running toward it with arms wide open.
Today was WM’s last day of school for the year, and he joins me for this week’s Friday 5. The theme is Superlatives, part 2. Part 1 was last Friday.
- What brought you the most joy in 2025? If your answer this year is the same as it would have been last year, what brought you the second-most joy in 2025?
WM: Our cruise.
K: (writes down “write cruise blog post”) Travel in general. We traveled a lot this year and I enjoyed every day of it, even the day we had to drive home from Florida because of the government shutdown. - What’s the best discovery you made in 2025?
WM: Finding out what exactly was wrong with my knee and having surgery for it.
K: Cherry vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper from the Wawa fountain. - What’s the best feel-good story of 2025?
K: A feel-good story? In 2025? I enjoy when content creators succeed based on being their own authentic selves. Seeing people who were just regular Joes and Josephines being able to pay off houses and meet celebrities warms my heart. I’m especially enjoying Jordan The Stallion and Holly Nichols.
WM: I’m a fan of Chef Reactions. Here’s my story: The green sea turtle was reclassified from being close to extinction.
K: Did you learn about that from a Tiktok video?
WM: I might have!
K: Oh! this is another one, probably a better one than content creators: Jamal and Wanda had their 10th Thanksgiving together! - What was your best small win in 2025? If it’s the same as your answer to #5 last week, what’s next on the list?
WM: I lost a goodly amount of weight!
K: That was a big win. Everyone’s going to hate this, but I’ve been utilizing ChatGPT to make me more efficient. It’s better for coding questions than search engines, it’s great at keeping me from overthinking how I write emails, and it’s excellent at helping me prioritize my workday. - What was the kindest thing a stranger did for you in 2025?
WM: In March, the Disneyland cast member let us lead the Sh-Boom parade in Cars Land.
K: Back in April, Mom was hospitalized after a fall. I don’t think I ever mentioned it here1, but that’s a thing that happened. It was two days before I had to leave for TNP’s Annual Conference in Las Vegas. I was crying in the parking lot. No surprise there, I feel like I spent half of 2025 crying. A woman saw me, came over, and prayed over me. It was kind and comforting and may her pillow always be chilly.
Take us home on this National Hard Candy Day, Dolly.
- Remember this: when I start mentioning “nonbloggable things” either someone is sick/hurt or things are going down at work. If I’m REALLY lucky it’s both at the same time. ↩︎
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