2025 is rapidly coming to an end, and we hope that this Christmas Season you are surrounded by family and friends. We celebrated Christmas a little early (December 20th) with Bryn and her family, because Charlie will be with his Dad and we’ll be in the DC area. Joel made one of his usual delicious meals and lots of gifts were exchanged; and, surprisingly, almost everyone liked what they unwrapped or opened—smiles and wows instead of meek little “thank yous.”

Bryn & Joel moved into their first home this April, finding a lovely house in south Denver with views of the Rocky Mountains and space in the backyard for cookouts, picnics and family gatherings and only 15 minutes from us. Bryn has just completed a year as Comptroller with a Denver nonprofit, Focus Points, which has provided services to immigrant families in the Denver area for more thirty years. She loves the work, although it is quite challenging managing 28 separate grants and budgets. Joel is a now partner in his company and fortunately it is very successful.

Erin & John are finishing up what has been a difficult two year posting to Cuba with the State Department. Food & fuel shortages present daily challenges for the average Cuban and visitors alike. They just found out that their next posting is Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean, which they hope will be a lot less stressful than Cuba. We weren’t able to visit them in Cuba but we are already make out plans to visit them in Barbados.

Charlie will be 14 in January and half way through the 8th grade. He continues to love, breaking, surfing, and basketball, and excels at them all. We see him at least once a week, usually when we pick him and his best friend, Dylan, up after school. These days they like to come to our condo to workout in our exercise room or occasionally play cards with us; whatever, we do, there’s always a few minutes to catch up on what’s happening in his life—though I have to admit that a 14 year old boy is not the best of communicators, but we keep at it.

Now we are back east with Sue’s brother John & sister in law Bonnie at their lovely home on the Eastern Shore. John spends weeks pulling out all of the Christmas decorations, and it seems like every room has its own Christmas tree—of course, it takes almost an equal amount of time to put it away! We love visiting with John and Bonnie at this time of year. Christmas morning was incredible—lots of presents for everyone.

We’ll be in the DC area until the 29th of December when we fly back to Denver—where the Christmas Day weather forecast is 75 degrees and bright blue skies. As Thomas Friedman says, Global Weirding!

2025 has been a good year for the Boyers, featuring good health, time for family and friends and some travel. I have been dealing with a detached retinue for the last 18 months; five operations later, the doctors are hopeful that one more operation will be able to restore sight to my left eye—we’ll keep you posted. Just last month, Sue had a double cataract surgery which looks to have been successful, with good clear vision in both eyes and only the need to resort to “readers” for the smallest of print. Hurray!

We made it to Mexico early in the year, with a week at the beach in Sayulita with Mart & Bob Larson and time in San Miguel de Allende where we were joined by Lenore Grunko and Patrick McGlamery. We finished our visit in Mexico City, an incredibly rich cultural city where it is impossible to see and do everything even if you visit again and again—art, museums, music, shopping, history, food. Carole Reedy, a native Chicagoan but now a proud Mexican citizen, is always the best tour guide & pal.

Here’s hoping for a peaceful and prosperous 2026!