2025 Holiday Letter

It’s your favorite time of year! It’s time for our annual holiday letter!

Do you know the best way to end an old year/start off a new year?  It’s to go on a double date with a couple of amazing humans to the Phoenix Zoo and ride Rideables, which is what we did with our dear friends the Johnsons.  I could tell you about the joy and fun we had zooming around the Zoo on the backs of lions, tigers, and bears, or I could show you.

         

Shortly after being the coolest people at the zoo, we celebrated my beloved’s birthday.  This year we had a super fancy dinner at Ocean 44, where we indulged and I didn't get chicken fingers or nachos.  

Speaking of my beloved, he made it back out to Japan this year.  This was his 3rd or 4th visit in the last few years.  I always enjoy the stories he brings back, but this time he brought me pens, and I have placed a standing order for him to bring me back more fascinating pens when he goes anywhere.

This year marked our second year of wedded bliss.  In case you hadn’t heard: I give great gift.  The traditional wedding anniversary gift is cotton.  It only makes sense that I had the greatest shirts in the world made.  His is shown below. There's a complimentary one featuring my mug, too. We absolutely wore them on the same day and got compliments on them from many an older lady! 

While we didn’t do anything big for our anniversary in March, instead we delayed our celebrations to April when we went on our first cruise!

While we were pretty sure we’d like cruising, as a first-time cruisers, we had a lot of choices to make, but the main two choices were the cruise line and destinations. 

We weren’t sure what cruise line would fit us best, but when I heard that one line was for the “newly wed, nearly dead, and overfed,” I thought, “SIGN ME UP!” That cruise line was Holland America.  And let me tell you, Holland America does not disappoint. Luxury at every turn, all the food, so many old people, and activities were over by 9 p.m. So really, this was absolutely our speed.

Once we picked a line, we got to searching destinations. We wanted to try a shorter cruise versus long for our first. Also we wanted cooler weather versus hot. So when we saw a four-day cruise in the Pacific Northwest, it was perfect.

We spent four days cruising from Vancouver, BC to Seattle, WA (my favorite place on earth), to Victoria, BC, back to Vancouver. My favorite part was, of course, Seattle.  While we were only there for 8 hours, it was a perfect day. At one point, we found ourselves sitting at a little table just outside of Pike Place Market just soaking it all in.  And then someone started playing Rocket Man (one of my favorite songs) on a trombone, and it was awesome. 

When we were in Victoria, we got to go to the Butchart Gardens, and I can tell you it was the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen. As someone who loves a good flower and floral print, I was in visual heaven. 

Also, can I just say that the people of Canada were SO nice? Truly some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. 

I could go on and on, but we’re just to April.  There’s more to tell you about.

2025 marked some milestone birthdays for Mamala and me. She crossed the big 75, and I crossed the big 45.  I think I’ve said it before, but in case I haven’t shared this with you Mamala is the HARDEST woman to shop for. So I had to get creative for her birthday this year.  So what did I do?  I ordered some super pretty floral dresses (pre-tariffs), made an appointment at JCPenny’s Portrait Studio, and had an absolutely hilarious time getting some pictures taken. 

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Needless to say, the pictures are priceless.  Also, I purchased a $40 membership for a $30 discount (girl math), and that kick started multiple visits to the JCPenny’s Portrait Studio this year. If you keep reading, you’ll see… 

This spring we got to see our niece Lily graduate high school and enter college. I’m just sorry she didn’t believe me when I told her NAU is a better school than ASU, and still chose to go to ASU like her brother, like her dad, like her uncle. She said something about a Kabler Dynasty that needs to be fulfilled.  Regardless, we’re so happy for her and can’t wait to see what amazing things she does in the world.

In June, we made our annual pilgrimage, or should I say PHIL-grimage, to see my Pops up in Cottonwood.  We had a great lunch and good visit.  I always forget to get a picture together when we come up there because all we do is gab.  My dad once said he and I are wired in such a way that all we need to dominate a conversation is a “hello,” and we’ll take it from there.  That always proves to be true when we see each other. God bless Jeff for listening to  our motor mouths quoting movies and jumping from subject to subject a mile a minute.  

This summer marked Jeff’s and my 5th anniversary of being together (we call it the dating anniversary). I am so glad that we both swiped right 5 years ago. It was the best decision we ever made. To celebrate, we went to my favorite place in Arizona, BEARIZONA!!! We were so eager to get the VIP tickets for the behind-the-scenes tour that we each bought the tickets.  So we ended up with four tickets instead of two. Which meant we needed to go back another time for another tour – which we did in early November!  Please note: Both in August and November, I did not get to hug a bear. They really are quite firm and consistent on the no’s, but I did get to feed a porcupine and a buffalo, so it’s almost OK…

In September, Jeff and I decided to do the Moon Valley Mile.  As Moon Valley-adjacent residents, we thought it would be a great thing to do in our community, and to get us moving a little bit.  Somehow, someway, we placed third for our ages.  That really says a lot more about the participants than it does our abilities, but we’re definitely bragging about it.  Because did you place third in your age-range in the Moon Valley Mile? No? Wow, that’s too bad, because we did.

Because I had the JCPenny’s Portrait Studio membership thing, I suggested to Jeff that we do family portraits with his family as gifts this year. Jeff loved the idea, and so did the rest of the family.  I love a good theme, so I suggested jeans and black tops and really look at this. It’s so lovely.

Speaking of my JCPenney’s Portrait Studio membership thing, by now, you’ve likely seen some of them, but this year, Jeff and I took the best pictures in the history of man as our Christmas pictures.  Behold.

Note the handmade by me oversized vests that I never intended to be so big, but it’s fine. Note the Crocs that really tie the looks together. Note the absolutely adorable sweater I’m rocking, that I bought 20 mins before our pictures at, strangely enough, at JCPenney’s. Note the giant smile on my face because I was having a ball. Note the absolutely legend that is my husband who laughed along with me the whole time we took these pictures. Priceless.

Finally, unrelated to JCPenney’s, we’re happy to report neither of us rage quit our jobs this year. Between software systems going live and federal funds being eliminated, we each found peace in imaging moving to a mountain town, opening a small general store, and living on a small piece of land, and maybe we have a couple of alpaca, and maybe we make yarn out of their hair, and then I can make things out of the yarn and sell that online, and then that would be another line of income, and… sorry, I got lost in the dream again.  But anyway, mark it another year of job stability for us.

Other than that beyond the silliness described above, our respective immediate families are doing well.  Our silly, stinky dogs Pilot and Buster are getting OLD, but they’re still bossing us around. We didn’t move this year, and we didn’t buy any new cars or appliances (that was last year). We endured, survived, laughed, and loved.

And with that the Kabler’s 2025 year is wrapped. 

We wish you nothing but the best and hope you have a blessed holiday season and an amazing new year!!

Please disregard the grammatical errors and misspellings, because I certainly have.