Sarah's CHRISTmas Letter // 2025

Years have themes by which they are remembered. 2007 was the year my co-op started and my cousin was born. 2010 was the year I got sick. Some years are characterized by good things and others are remembered as bad. The truth is that all years have elements of both, but most tend to have a few big things in one vein or the other. Unfortunately, 2025 is going to be remembered as a not-s0-good year for me, but I'm going to do my level best to find as much good as I can to help balance out this letter/recap!

January
I don't have a Roundup post because I don't typically blog in January. A lot of the month was spent on various tasks for our family business. I did go play in the snow with some of my little friends and had dinner with a sweet friend who was in the midst of planning her wedding! I was sick twice; once was anxiety related and the other was a weird one that came on literally in just a couple of hours and lasted about 24 hours, though I was not myself for almost a week. It was a bummer because my two "big plans" for the month were canceled as a result. Kind of a rough way to start the year!

When I paged through my planner for this year, I was actually surprised at how many days I had plans with friends. Movie nights, Bible study events, one-on-ones, and even video chats! I'm truly blessed with some amazing friends and they were especially important to me this year. 

I can't neglect to mention one of the highlights of the whole year which was having my cousin spend two weeks with us in February and getting to celebrate my birthday while she was here! She has now gotten to meet pretty much all the special people in my life and that is something that means a lot to me. 

July/August
As I've shared in detail here, I spent most of July sick from an anxiety attack. So not much to share, although it was one of my busiest editing months! In August I started getting back to life with a lunch and river floating with a friend, the baptism of my friend's baby girl, and a worship night. I learned how to make bagels (not too hard just a bit complex with all the steps) and we had two days with having guests over. One family had never been here yet and the other we had not seen in almost three years! 

September/October
Wow, a lot more happened in these months than I remembered! From a friends and family perspective, my brother and I hosted friends two different times, I got to attend my cousin's horse show, and I went our local Depot Day with friends who have two young boys. They had a BLAST! These months also featured going to the zoo during Homeschool Days with my friend and her two youngest, hosting my four oldest nieces and nephews for a weekend, going to Oval Beach as a family, taking a field trip to a local cider mill with my niece's preschool class, and spending the day in Grand Rapids with my friend!

I've been meaning to photography Downtown Brighton with my camera (not just my phone) as a location option and that finally happened! I also started attending a class about prayer at a local church that helps you process things with the Lord. My "date days" with myself started happening more but are still not the regular habit that I want them to be. 

The annual banquet for our local pregnancy center was amazing! I've never seen or heard of so much action after a banquet with people saying the Lord was calling them to get involved in local government or asking how their church can join in the fight to protect life. 

Finally, one of my favorite things from this year was getting shiplap put up on one of my walls! Our neighbors gave us some boards they took out of an office and I decided that I wanted to make an accent wall with them. It still brings me a lot of joy!

November/December
These months were lighter but still held some very sweet moments. I got to see a friend in her senior play (which was absolutely hilarious!) and my cousin hosted her annual Zoom birthday party! 

A new tradition has been formed with a friend of mine and her girls where we make gingerbread cookies and watch Barbie Nutcracker :) We do it in November because December is usually packed full!

Thanksgiving was very nice and I got to go to the Bible study Friendsgiving this year! We packed around 30 people into a tiny apartment but it was so special even crammed together. 

The sad thing in November was the death of one of my dearest friend's grandfather. He was like a third grandfather to me as well. I'm so thankful my mom and I got to go for the visitation and funeral. 

So far, December has been blessedly light and slow. My Bible study has been trying to do prayer and worship nights about once a month but I haven't been able to go yet so I was very excited to make this month's event. It is a very special thing to pray and worship together. I've also been loving the snow we've had (even as I type with frozen fingers :)

I'm going to end with what is my favorite verse right now: 

"I REMAIN CONFIDENT OF THIS: I WILL SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING. WAIT FOR THE LORD, BE STRONG AND TAKE HEART AND WAIT FOR THE LORD." ~ Psalm 27:13-14

May you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Blessings,
Sarah

P.S. I'd love to hear about your year! 



Read the highlights from earlier in the year!
February
March
April
May
June