Bob says: At the end of last year's letter, I mentioned that I had crushed a disc in my lumbar spine, and the injury was unresponsive to non-surgical treatments. I continued to hesitate until a fellow senior, whose aging Windows XP computers I had kept alive despite my better judgment, told me that he had had the same issues. Surgery to repair them was relatively straightforward, and New England Baptist was the place to have it done. So I decided to follow his advice and have my first operation under general anesthesia since I had my tonsils out seventy years ago.
   After getting multiple opinions, Martha and I decided to go to the head of the Spine Unit at the Baptist. He did day surgery on my ruptured disc on March 11, and the result was miraculous: I woke up pain free and went home that afternoon. But my joy didn't last. By the weekend, I had developed intense headaches and nausea and had to lie down on my side to get relief. The following Tuesday, I went to my primary's practice. The doctor there immediately diagnosed a cerebral spinal fluid leak and packed me off to the Lahey emergency room. After a hellish stay on a cot in the aisle of the overcrowded ER, I received an MRI that confirmed the leak. Fortunately, it was localized, and all the doctors involved agreed I should go back to the Baptist for follow-up. So I had my first-ever ambulance ride across Boston's potholed roads to get from Lahey back to the Baptist.
    Once there, I was put on bed rest to see if the leak might close up on its own. When it didn't respond, the surgeon decided to go in and repair it. On Thursday, I was back in the OR. The surgeon found the leak and closed with stitches, glue, and a Gortex patch. (He wasn't taking any chances.) On Friday, I was able to sit up without consequences for the first time in a week, and on Saturday, I went home. Martha lost a tire to a Boston pothole while retrieving me, but that's another story.
   The aftermath of the two surgeries was good. The back pain was gone. The incision healed up on schedule. I restarted personal training after eight weeks. I recovered all my lost strength in time for vacation at Timberlock. And then...
   Sailing is my favorite activity at Timberlock. I love their Hobie Waves, which are relatively fast and quite well behaved. Unfortunately, they're also very heavy. During the first week, Ben and Jon helped to haul the boats out of the water onto the beach. But in the second week, we were alone, and we tried hauling the boats out ourselves. On Thursday, August 14, I crushed another disc, and by the following week, I was in serious pain. Déjà vu all over again...
   After trying to wait it out, and seeing what a cortisone shot would do (nothing), I had a third surgery on December 2. (I told the surgeon that he might as well put in a zipper.) This time, the relief was not total. This injury had been more serious, with muscle weakness as well as stenosis pain. The surgery alleviated the pain, but the muscle weakness is taking more time, although it is improving. My goal is to be strong enough again by Timberlock, where, I can assure you, I will ask the staff to wrestle the sailboats. I am on the BLT regimen (no bending, lifting, or twisting) from now on.
   Now, the year hasn't been a total downer. I bought a new car, a Camry hybrid with four-wheel drive, in February. It's a bit spooky to drive, as it starts its motor or goes silently electric of its own volition. I've put almost no miles on it. My anime team had a banner year, doing more projects than almost any other year in its history. We subtitled quite a few anime movies set in World War II, all of them vehemently anti-war. When I was physically able, I helped my local seniors with their ongoing computer travails. Unfortunately, my second back injury meant that I couldn't provide hands-on help at the Windows 10/Windows 11 transition. (Windows 11 sucks, but there's not much choice.) And I kept tabs on the SimH simulation project, which is occasionally featured in industry news.
   So I'll take a leaf from one of my anime projects, which was called Ashita Genki ni Naare (Tomorrow Will Be Better). Family, friends, anime, helping neighbors, renewed travel, and not watching the news are all on the agenda. Next year will be better.

Martha says: I've just gone through my calendar for the year to remind myself that there were many more happy events than hard ones.
   Though there hasn't been much natural snow in recent years, I still enjoyed downhill skiing near home where it's man-made. Jon, Elijah and I had lots of snow in the Mt. Washington Valley in New Hampshire for 3 days in February and Elijah (now 10) remembered to wait for me to catch up with him when Jon went off on a more challenging slope. For decades I told my doctors that I needed to stay healthy enough to ski with my grandkids. My endocrinologist now says she wishes her other patients were eating and exercising as well as I do so I don't need medication for osteoporosis.
   In the spring I chaperoned Elijah's class on a field trip to the Freedom Trail and saw sights I never got to before. I also did a field trip with a doll-collecting friend to a doll show in Sturbridge and met a woman who can repair the antique doll I got from Bob's mother when I have time to go see her. Bob's sister Lee had failing hearing aids that needed batteries for 8 years so we went to Costco and got her new rechargeable hearing aids that are great. She's also got a "palliative care" doctor who manages her medication for the chronic leg pain from her scoliosis.
From May through September we kayaked on the lakes near Ben's house, sometimes including Gabe (14) who is now taller than all of us and a great bird and turtle spotter. In August all the kids joined us at Timberlock for our first week and we enjoyed seeing old friends the second week. Our freezer is fully stocked with 2 flavors of fruity ice cream and homemade turkey barley soup and chili to keep us happily fed all winter. My volunteer work at the New England Quilt Museum library and the Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project continues. I've been meeting on zoom with several high school classmates to plan a Zoom reunion in March 2026. See the photos and descriptions of this year’s quilts here.
   The hard things this year included the election results last November resulting in our cousins Kate and Mark Reid deciding to sell their house in Carlisle and move to a chateau in France. We had our last huge Passover sedar with them in April and decided next year we'll keep the first sedar small and celebrate with our cousins at their house for a second sedar. In September on the way to a doctor appointment for Bob, my car got hit by a young driver in Boston. No one was hurt and it was still drivable so I used Bob's car for a few weeks while mine got repaired. We hoped to go to France to see our cousins in their chateau in October but that has to wait for next year because of Bob's surgery.
   On December 2, while waiting to rejoin Bob after his most recent ruptured disk surgery, I got a text from Lahey Hospital that my brother David (83) was admitted. He had become so frail that Carole could no longer manage his care at home. After a week in the hospital, he was transferred to a beautiful hospice facility in New Hampshire near their home where he got loving care until he died on Dec 19th. We sat shiva at our house and shared stories about him with friends and family. Now Carole will sell their old house and find a new one more appropriate for her situation. Watching him lose his struggle with metastatic prostate cancer and Alzheimer's at the same time and seeing friends our age dying or moving to assisted living facilities is making me feel really old this month. I'm hoping the sun sparkling on fresh snow and connecting with friends will boost my morale.

Ben says: This year marked the end of elementary school for us - Gabriel is now in high school and Ezra is now in middle school. I don't miss getting up for the early bus, but I did feel the finality of going to the last events back in the spring as Ezra finished 5th grade. The past is a country we can never revisit.
   But it is exciting to see how capable the kids have become. The year started with a kitchen remodel and we are now able to comfortably host the kids' friends for cooking projects. I am repeatedly surprised by how easy it is to have them make Sushi or noodles or pizza because they do so much of the work themselves.
   Lori continues to work at the FDA - mostly inspecting local US facilities, but she did also travel to South Africa for a 3-week set of inspections. I am still working on X-Plane - we weathered the storm of Microsoft's latest release and continue to make refinements. We now have a full time product manager (who isn't me), for which I am quite grateful.
   Our picture this year is from the biennial trip to the Adirondacks.

Jon says: Though 2025 has been stressful on a national level, our home life remains stable. We finished constructing our barn extension and new pasture, and now have enough sleeping and grazing space for our 3 horses, Duncan, Variable, and Shakira, who remain happy and healthy as they continue through horse late middle age.
   Gandalf passed away in the fall from kidney failure. He spent his final hours making friends with the emergency vet because that's the kind of cat he was. To keep Mittens from going stir crazy without a best friend, we adopted a new kitten Moxie, and the two of them have been getting along great together. Now all we have to do is figure out how to teach Moxie that Luna won't eat her and Luna that Moxie is not a snack, and we'll have a peaceful, balanced pet household. Wish us luck.
   Elijah's reading up a storm, learning about figurative language and long division in school, building a Japanese-style computer role-playing game as an extracurricular project, and learning to play the clarinet.
   Larissa's job remains stable despite a pretty difficult market in computer programming. Jonathan's still working at Demiurge Studios, but my current project is still under NDA (it's cool, though), and happy to be at one of the few game companies that's still occasionally hiring.
   We were saddened but not surprised when uncle Pres succumbed to cancer in December.