December 2025 Wrap-Up
December had spurts of slowing down a little and then lots all at once. We returned from Thanksgiving on the last day of November, so we went from that straight into our regular routine the next day. The first week was a little slow but then at least one person had something going on every single day during the second week. We got to watch Grace at her winter band concert and Ben at his winter chorus concert. The following week was much more chill. It started with some snow on Sunday that I used as the perfect day to do chili and cornbread for dinner. Then it was all about getting ready for the onslaught of people coming during Christmas week. That meant baking cookies, planning meals, and straightening up the house. It was nice having people in and out of the house, but everything just felt a bit off this year. If I had to guess why, it was due to scheduling changes so we didn't follow our traditional routine. As the month came to a close, I got sick with some non-flu, non-covid respiratory thing that I'm still fighting off well into January.
Blah Blog Log
Kept the Wrap-Up posts going and had three gaming related posts.
- November 2025 Wrap-Up - A new favorite filler game, some scary television, and an amazing deal on a great snack.
- Solotober 2025 - A late post covering another successful October of having 31 solo plays.
- Deep Dive December 2025: Hadrian's Wall - Another deep solo dive, this time into a complex flip and write game that I got for Christmas last year.
- Top 10 New to Me Games of 2025 - Back with a list of my favorite new to me games from the past year.
Bored Board Games
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In December, I played 22 games a total of 274 times which was huge increase from last month where I barely broke but still had a hair over 100 plays. It also set a new all time high for a single month. This was mostly fueled by not watching nearly as much Twitch as usual. My total plays for the year end at and absolutely insane 1877, which means was far and away passed doubling the amount of plays from last year (892). There were 4 games added to the 100 Games 100 Plays List: Kingdomino, River Valley Glassworks, Sushi Go!, and Verdant. Now there aren't many that will make it soon, but I'll have fun getting them there. This month's highlighted game is Flip 7.
Flip 7 is a simple press your luck card game that I recently covered as a part of my Top 10 New to Me Games of 2025 list, landing as my number 7 game. From that post:
"Flip 7 stormed onto the scene in 2024 and was a 2025 Spiel des Jahres nominee. If you know me, you'll know that I love "card games with numbers" and this one really hits the press your luck sweet spot. It may be one of the most simple card games out there and that's largely a reason for it's success.
Each turn, the active player has a simple choice, draw the top card from the deck and add it to their tableau OR stop and collect the points from the cards they've previously drawn. Super easy right? Well that's where pressing your luck comes into play. If a player draws an identical card to one in their tableau then they bust and lose all of their points for the round. The more valuable the card, the more times it appears in the deck. Cards are numbered 1-12 with one 1 in the deck, two 2s, three 3s, etc. There are also some take that and bonus point cards mixed in. If a player presses their luck and can draw 7 unique cards, the round immediately ends and the player scores their tableau plus 15 extra bonus points for Flipping 7. I've played a few dozen games on BGA in just the past couple of months and cannot recommend this enough for all gamers."
Cookie(s) of the Month
As is tradition during this month's post, I like to share the cookies I made for Christmas. It also gives me the opportunity to get this segment back on here after starting it in October and then missing it in November. This year's cookies were: Peanut Butter w/M&Ms, Cream Cheese Walnut Shortbread, Chocolate Thumbprints with Chocolate Ganache, and Pistachio Cranberry Shortbread. The pistachio cranberry are the only cookie that has been made year after year (mostly because they're my favorite) because they are enjoyed by family members who don't live with us. The Cream Cheese Walnut Shortbread returned this year after a year off and they'll probably be another perennial favorite going forward because they were the first ones gone.
Enjoyable Eats
We didn't eat anywhere we haven't eaten at before, so I'm going to share the lasagna I made for our bigger family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. This year was a little different with people's schedules, so while we still did appetizers on Christmas Day, I needed to make something a little extra so we weren't doing appetizers two days in a row. Lasagna or any baked pasta is something easy to make ahead and just bake the day of and everyone enjoys it. I used this recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch that uses an bechamel sauce instead of ricotta. I swapped in some of My Mother's Tomato Sauce for the red sauce portion of the recipe because I always have some in the freezer and it's our favorite.
I didn't get a picture because I wasn't intending to share, but it's a lasagna and it looked like the one pictured above from the blog I got the recipe from. The bechamel gives it creamier consistency than using ricotta which I prefer. I assembled it the day before and baked it for a little longer than the suggested time to account for the core temperature being lower than if it were freshly assembled. There were no complaints and only two small squares left, which were happily eaten the next day. I made garlic bread and threw together a couple bags of Caesar salad mix and it was a great Christmas meal.
I'm Watching 👀
All episodes of Stranger Things Season 5 dropped in December and we were all in trying to watch it before spoilers were abound. Being one of, if not the most popular Netflix Original Series, I can't say enough about how truly amazing the show as a whole and this final season was. The 80s nostalgia and character development are what kept me coming back for more, as if the production value and storylines weren't already enough. We were sad to see it end, but so happy to have experienced it.
Resolutions Update
I decided on a single resolution for this year: Read all 35 issues of Simplify Magazine. Which means I'll need to read 3 issues each month. Each issue is about 75 - 100 pages long and is comprised of short essays on whatever that issue's topic is.
- Goal Progress - 15 out of 35
Between playing an dumb amount of games, getting ready for the holidays, entertaining, and coming down with a plague during the final week of December, I wasn't able to muster a miracle reading of the remaining 20 issues. I'll get to them eventually but I'm thinking this will be my last New Year's Resolution. Last year, I set a goal to play a certain number of unique games and a certain number of total plays. I was successful in that, but without deliberately trying, I more than doubled the number of plays this year as compared to last year. I think I'm more apt to do something when I feel like it, rather than when I'm forcing myself to. It's been nice to complete resolutions in the past, but they don't tend tot bring any significant feeling of accomplishment so the return on investment just isn't there for me to continue to do them.
Whatcha Snackin?
Couldn't do cookies in this space again like I have in previous years because they're all up in the cookie of the month segment above. What I can do is share the homemade Chex Mix that I make each year for Christmas. I've been doing this for at least as long as the kids have been around and it's one of things that really gets me in the Christmas spirit.
Wrap It Up
Please comment below with any thoughts or comments on anything I've covered. Thanks for reading!
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