Seriously. January 1, 2026. I turn 40 in 9 months.

The holidays were great this season. On the 20th, we hosted my family- a smaller scale foodwise than Thanksgiving, but the same crowd. Lots of laughs and gifts and fun and love, which again, makes me just thrilled that we have a home this good for hosting. All I want is to be able to provide that space for my family and it warms my heart so much that we can.

On Christmas Day, we went to New Hampshire to see Sam’s immediate family, which is always nice. On top of the basically guaranteed white Christmas, it’s a small gathering, just 6 of us, plus a few sweet pets.

The drive wasn’t bad, there or back, and we spent a nice few hours catching up and eating (his dad’s a turkey expert and his mom makes these amazing ginger cookies…) for an overall excellent day.

Other than holidays…we did end up taking in Milo, the Amazon parrot I mentioned in my last update. He is a she, as we were informed by Dr. Holmes, who’d been her vet with her previous owners and was overjoyed to hear that she was going somewhere that she’d be able to stay her veterinarian. She said she’s “terribly fond of this bird”, which was funny when Milo decided to bite her at her checkup on the 29th. Dr. Holmes, being an avian vet of many years, barely flinched. We spent $1000 (yes, you read that right- add cost to your list of why I caution folks against having birds as pets without serious consideration and planning!) on a number of tests, as she has a history of infection, heart troubles, and so on. We’ll see what they say, and we’ll keep working on her diet to see if we can get her healthier (she was very clearly fed junk with her previous owners, and will try to beg food off of your plate, and throw tantrums if she sees potato chips or fries…). She’s been very sweet overall, and Dr. Holmes actually said she’s hormonal right now (her ovary was QUITE large on x-ray), so she’s apparently even sweeter normally, being described as a cuddlebug. I don’t know how that could be possible, but we’ll see! She’s 21, so if we can get and keep her healthy, she’ll be here for…the rest of our natural lives.

My ASL classes ended for the season a few weeks ago, and I’m taking a break for now as I was feeling a bit overscheduled overall, and because I’d want to repeat ASL 1 but it doesn’t fit with my dance schedule this session. Right now I’ve had a bit of time to slow down, since dance is on break during the school break, starting up again next week. There’s a beginner tap class that was tried for a few Saturdays in December that they may continue, so I may get up to 4 hours a week- we’ll see! Beginner is below my level, but it’s something to get me moving and I’ll take it. I’ve told them that if there were adult classes daily, of whatever level, I’d be there, and that was not a lie!

That leads into the part of this that needs a content warning- intentional weight loss talk in the next paragraph.

I wrote in October about my NAFLD/MASLD being worse than it had been, and how my doctor told me to lose 7-10% of my bodyweight. Well, I hit that 7% in 2 months, losing 18.4lbs in that time. I’ve just been being more active, eating lower fat/sugar and high fiber (and being conscious of getting more fruit and veg), tracking so I get an idea of what my “normal” should be but not “restricting” really- those 2 months included plenty of weekend or holiday days where I didn’t stick to any kind of “diet”. What I’m trying to do is vaguely Mediterranean for now, and once we do bloodwork Jan 17 (3mos since I started focusing on this) and see where things fall, I’ll go from there on how strict or not I want to be, how often I actually want to step on a scale, and so on. I refuse to have my life revolve around my weight, but I obviously want to be sure I don’t end up in friggin’ liver failure in 10 years or anything, you know?

AND FINALLY, if anyone wants a TV show recommendation, OBVIOUSLY I’m going to tell you to watch Heated Rivalry. Yes, it’s For Grownups. Yes, it’s Gay. But it’s also just a really good show independent of those things. I was really surprised by how much I liked it overall, and how great the acting, lighting, sound design, cinematography, and editing all were. I may have watched the whole series 3 times within 24 hours. It’s fine. That was how I ended 2025 and rang in 2026, on the usual quiet night in, and it was great. :)

Wishing you all a lovely start to the new year!

<3

Val