Week 52 of 2025 but 59 of these newsletters! Coming in for the finale of 2025. Thank you for sticking around and reading these and thank you for everyone who has reached out with comments and return emails. So nice to know these letters sometimes resonate with friends.

Our little family celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas in Utrecht and then we flew to Spain to spend the end of the year with Mercedes and her loved ones in Valencia and to hopefully see some sunlight in person. Pretty good last week!

December 22 – Day 408

Got the official results from my Doctor - in Dutch! - from a yearly check up of my thyroid and all fine. I will now just get yearly blood draws to see if there are any changes in my thyroid levels. Yay for good medical check ups and yay for doing that appointment in Dutch. As I was walking back through the lobby, this group of medical staff were setting up for a concert - I didn’t have time to stay for the concert, but it definitely made me smile.

December 23 – Day 409

Been doing DuoLingo for a long while now and I’m thinking of stopping and instead watching more Dutch TV (news). I think that will broaden my vocabulary and keep me better informed about current events. It’s a hard habit to break though.

December 24 – Day 410

We had a very Dutch Christmas Eve celebration of “Gourmet” even though none of us celebrating were Dutch. It was a very enjoyable evening with friends. Gourmet in Holland is where you have small portions of meat grilled on the dining room table along with sides.

December 25 – Day 411

Christmas day we woke up early and had presents opened by breakfast time. A beautifully cold and crisp day, we went out for a late morning walk around our neighborhood and the canals were starting to think about freezing in the shade.

That evening we watched a truly Christmas movie 🤣 “The Nightmare before Christmas”.

December 26 – Day 412

Boxing Day or “Tweede Kerstmas” we had to wake up early to get to the airport by 8:00 for our 10:00 flight to Valencia. The sunlight on the way to our gate was pretty.

December 27 – Day 413

We took a road trip with José, Mercedes to see the countryside. We were supposed to take a boat ride in the reservoir of Cofrentes, but arrived late, so instead we walked around villages, climbed castles from the 1200s and saw a fair number of cats. :) We visited Cofrentes and Almansa.

December 28 – Day 414

We spent the day hanging out with Jose and Mecha while the rain poured through the city. There was a brief code yellow alert, but luckily nothing severe happened where we were.

I was going through my music collection and found this song. I didn’t realize that Depeche Mode covered Moonlight Sonata and they managed to make it their own. Enjoy.

According to his website, Wilder did not intend for his performance to be recorded and released, as he was performing the song as a warm-up, but Gore stealthily recorded it. Wilder did not perform the piece perfectly, with a slight error occuring near the end of the song.