Happy New Year’s Eve! The idea comes from Stephany and Lisa who did their own annual surveys.

2025 certainly had ups and downs.

1) What did you do in 2025 that you’ve never done before?

A renovation and a new kitchen

A 33-day France roadtrip.

Receiving caps on two of my upper back teeth.

Trying watercolor.

Visiting Outer Banks, North Carolina.

Visiting the Longwood Gardens.

2) Did anyone close to you give birth? My colleague, a French teacher, gave birth to a precious baby girl – Lucille (Lucy).

3) Did anyone close to you die? Nobody close to me.

4) What places did you visit? 

New York City: February and November.

Spring break took us to Chincoteague, VA, Outer Banks, NC, and Kennett Square, PA (road trip).

Summer brought an unprecedented trip to Russia via Istanbul.

Summer also took the kids and I on an extended road trip to France: Provence, Dordogne, Loire valley, Burgundy, Alsace, culminating in Paris where our husband met us for one week.

5) What would you like to have in 2026 that you didn’t have in 2025? More regular date nights with my husband. We are in the weeds of parenting and date nights are complicated to arrange to say the least, not to mention, expensive ($100 for sitter, then another $100 for dinner, then maybe a movie). Regardless, not an excuse. We were doing well up until June, then after we came back from France, we both got busy and overwhelmed.

6) What dates from 2025 will be etched in your memory forever? June 1st: received a call from Russia that my dad had a stroke. I remember I was scrambling, having to make decisions and to make them fast. Plan kind of a last-minute trip to Russia at the end of June. Last time I visited Russia was in 2007 and a lot has changed.

7) What was your biggest achievement this year? Not glamorous but: holding it together (sometimes quite impressively, sometimes not) when solo parenting. And, of course, our second, extended trip to France. It was my bucket-list dream and I did it. Oh, and tenure!

8) Did you suffer from illness or injury? Just my two back teeth needed caps. In November, I went to the dentist for two regular fillings, and he discovered they were deeper anticipated. After much drilling, not much was left to hold a filling. So now I am the proud owner of two shiny and porcelain teeth caps (in the back).

9) What was the best thing you bought? Plane tickets: Newark-Marseille, Paris-Newark. A mobile toilet for dad. A long wool winter coat.

10) Where did most of your money go? Mortgage, investments, travel (plane tickets, accommodations, car rental). Birthdays and birthday dinners.

11) What did you get really, really excited about? In spite of liking teaching, I get really, really excited before any break we have: winter break, spring break, and, of course, summer break.

12) What authors did you discover in 2025? Kate Baer, Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Demick, Scott Thomas, Cathie Pelletier, Emily Giffin, Kaveh Akbar, Nicole Chung,and Rifi Thorpe.

13) What do you wish you had done more of?  Have more fun. Cut myself more slack. Ignore certain obligations. Have more time with friends. Have more time with T. More time for hobbies. Time to determine what those hobbies actually are. More exercise. More rest. More books.

14) What do you wish you had done less of? Stress less. Overthink less. Work less. Less overwhelm.

15) How did you spend Christmas? We were up around 6 am and by 7 we were opening presents since patience is not one of my kids’ virtues. We then played with new toys and the kids brought down ten toys they need to give away since they got new toys this year. The day was spent bumming around the house, eating, playing, napping and reading.

16) What was your favorite TV program? Two shows: Baby Reindeer and The Pitt.

17) What did you want and get? I wanted to see France, as thoroughly as possible, and I did it 🙂 I wanted to have a civil relationship with mom and that happened, kind of haphazardly, after my dad’s stroke.

18) What did you want and not get? Monthly date nights. Better reading stats. Regular exercise.

19) What was your favorite film of 2025? Hmmm… The first one that comes to mind is Emilia Pérez.

20) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 44 and it was a Friday! I went to work, celebrated with some students who somehow knew it was my birthday so they brought balloons and and cookies. On Saturday we had a very memorable dinner, with my husband and my sister-friends. I felt so special!

21) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Can I make Russo-Ukrainian war go away?

22) Who kept you sane? HIM!

23) Who did you miss? I missed Apollo and Athena (my two cats) who passed in 2020 and 2024, respectively. I missed my dad. I even missed my mom albeit our relationship being difficult.

24) Who was the best new person you met? I met my youngest nephew for the first time this year. He was the one who reached out about my dad’s stroke. I also met Maya! She was an absolute delight.

25) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025. 

Delight in the little things.

A very specific memory to illustrate the above. For five mornings in a row, the smell of baked goods was waking me up at exactly 5AM. My bedroom was in a gorgeous AirBnB, located in the middle of medieval Sarlat-la-Canéda, and the bakery’s vent happened to be under my bedroom window. Waking up to the smell of fresh pastries is so much better than waking up to an alarm clock.

26) Show us one of your favorite photos from the year. 

On the front: R on the beach in OBX