Happy New Year!
Our annual tradition is to take some time to reflect on the year past and share some highlights from each month. Thank you to all the family and friends that continue to make us smile.
Our previous annual look back can be found here.
We committed that 2025 was going to be a year of running / vacation. The plan we came up with was that Bryan would run one 10K race a month, but it would need to be a race neither Bryan or Cherish had raced before, and it would need to be in a different location than our hometown of Georgia.
Cherish thought twelve 10K races was excessive so she agreed to join in for all twelve mini-vacations, you know, for emotional support. Cherish also decided that each race location had to be somewhere warm, no running in the cold. We detailed that journey in our blog here so we won’t recap it but it turned out to be a wonderful experience.
In years past we tackled large home improvement projects. Cherish declared that for 2025 she wanted to spend money on memories, not stuff. So we tried that instead.
January
Mother Nature blessed us with snow in January. Milo was initially confused but quickly took to eating snow tossed to him by Cherish. The following week we grabbed Haley and took off to Miami for our first 10K of the year.
February
Barbara turned 75 years old.
Bryan and Cherish took a trip to the Atlanta Symphony Hall to watch the Rick Springfield and Richard Marx Concert.
We also went roller skating.
March
March is a popular birthday month for our family and friends. Jack, Allison, Jamie, and our friend Bryan celebrated another trip around the sun. March is a good month to party.
April
Cherish celebrated her 20 year work anniversary with the Georgia Department of Audits.
Jack began looking for his first job starting with the applying for jobs at grocery stores and fast food chains.
Our friend Janna took a trip around the sun so we celebrated at Top Golf.
May
Cherish’s birthday was celebrated in style in Colorado as part of our running series.
Jack accepted his first job offer from the gas station / convience store Quik Trip (QT) where he would be doing a little bit of everything, from cooking to cleaning to inventory and cash register, about the only thing he would not be doing is pumping gas for other people.
June
We celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary.
July
We attended a private movie screening of James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie thanks to our real-estate agents. Love you guys!
Jack passed his drivers test!
We decided July is Milo’s birthday so we celebrated him.
August
Cherish took off to Panama City Beach to hang out with her side of the family.
Bryan and Cherish attended a Braves Game, not so much for the Braves but mainly for the Batman Bobblehead giveway
Bryan travelled to Cupertino California and got to have dinner at Apple Inc’s Corporate Headquarters.
September
We took a trip to Gibbs Garden with our Aunt Onlee and cousin Jenny
October
Haley took a trip around the sun.
November
Bryan and Cherish visited Gas South Arena to see Pat Benatar and Bryan Adams perform.
Bryan and Dub took a trip around the sun.
Bryan and Cherish visited the Cumming Center Winter Market
Thanksgiving was chill
December
Cherish invited the family to sleepover.
For Christmas, Haley and Jack were off doing other things this year, leaving me and Cherish solo with Milo for Christmas. We took our annual tree photo with Milo without them.
Earlier in the year we had discussed taking a trip for December, but financially decided that was a non-starter. We also learned that going against all logic and common sense, mom scheduled what was described as a routine surgery for December 24th. She was going to need help recovering so all travel plans for the holiday were squashed.
The surgery was anything but routine. She almost bled out at the surgery center. She was eventually transported to the emergency room of the hospital where the botched surgery was fixed. As Alan and Allison rushed to the hospital to assist Bryan looked after Dad while Cherish and Milo held down the fort at home. Bryan spent the week at mom’s house while she recovered. We’re thankful to the surgery team who fixed her. We are thankful to have not lost her on Christmas Eve.
In Summary
On the job front, Cherish continued her career with the Georgia Department of Audits.
October marked a decade of Bryan having the same job. With the software industry the only constant is change and a big one was planned in 2026: Bryan’s team will be moving out of the sales organization and into the product management group. This change will bring an end to Bryan receiving sales commission pay checks and a move to particpating in the not-guaranteed-to-happen annual corporate bonus.
At this point 2026 is shaping up to be the year of stay-at-home-and-do-nothing and hope there’s enough money to pay the bills.