Wisdom, Humor, and Inspiration in December 2025

More career and life advice from my favorite Wharton professor, Adam Grant:

Be flexible.

Be reliable.

I thought this Pew research was so interesting for seeing what the religious makeup of America is right now. Every 2 in 100 people are LDS. Progress! More progress is that they include us with the Christians and don't think we're some "other" religion. Yay! As a whole, I believe we're more Christian than anyone. (And I firmly believe that someday everyone will know the Church really is true!)  

 

I wish the "religiously unaffiliated" category were a lot smaller.

I finally read the book The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins in December. It was really good, and I got a lot out of it. I took lots of notes ("book notes," I call them) and took a few screenshots of things that felt especially relevant:

This was not only a good point, but also really funny:

I can have some negative thoughts about people, and they can have them about me, but we can still like or love each other. This is a mindset shift for me. I used to think negative thoughts equaled dislike or problems that needed to be fixed. And it can be that, but certainly not always. (See above and below.)

I know from personal painful experience that this is so true.

This Argentinian woman has seen democratic socialism fail in her country. It would do the same here in the U.S., and for the same reasons she gives (in the second paragraph).

I love this from Elder Kearon's Conference talk:

✔

I'm so thankful!

I read this short little book that I saw at the library. The Declaration of Independence was such an inspired document, and it changed the course of history (and helped set the stage for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ about fifty years later).

Relating it today. 

We definitely need more of this in our government and in our society. And also in ourselves as individuals. One of my New Year's goals is to be more balanced and temperate in certain ways. A little more on that in my next post!

New Year's Eve Drone Show in Provincetown!

 We did something unique for New Year's Eve (our first together!). We went to a drone show in Provincetown over the harbor at 6:00 p.m. It was cold, but very, very cool! I'd never seen anything like it. I hope to go to one of these again. It was worth it!

We got there around an hour early (and still had to park a ways away!). I'd been writing/editing about the famous lobster pot tree in P-Town on capecodmoms.com for a few years. Well, I finally got to see it for myself! It was so festive, and quintessential Cape Cod.

There's the famous Pilgrim Monument, which, if it had been open, we would have climbed up earlier in the day. 

We got a good spot on the beach. If we do this again, we'll bring foldable chairs, warm blankets, and thermoses of steaming hot cocoa to help us stay warm.

3, 2, 1...action!

Drones, or the brilliance emanating (or draining?) from my brilliant mind? 😆

The drones made the coolest things up there in the sky! 

An outline of Cape Cod, with Provincetown at the tip.

It was kind of surreal to have these moving, changing pictures up above everyone in the sky like this.

The aforementioned Pilgrim Monument!

One of the drones malfunctioned and flew back down to its base. You can see where it's missing!

Here are some good close-up shots that David took:

Massachusetts falls apart.

The peace dove was one of my favorites.

The gingerbread man started out with a full body and a smiling face, and gradually got eaten away as his expression changed. Very cute!

I loved the whale too!

And the spinning lighthouse

It was so fun! The show lasted for about a half-hour. When it was over, we were able to leave without getting stuck in any traffic (one of the perks of parking farther out, I guess!), and we stopped for dinner on the way home at this restaurant that had fantastic pulled pork. Yum!

It was a good and memorable way to spend the last day of the year!

Wrapping Up Christmas 2025

 Do you understand the pun in the title? I know, I'm so clever. 😆

Giant Christmas tree at the mall

Delicious reindeer chocolate cupcakes

I had scenes like this streaming on the TV all month long.

We ran into Santa while running errands on a Saturday morning!

From my owl desk calendar

I spent a couple of hours literally wrapping up Christmas (presents).

The town common was nicely decorated (and not just the gazebo).

More festive things at the mall

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the lights and decorations on this house and yard were AMAZING!

Fun cookies at The Nutcracker

Festive chocolate chip M&M cookies that I made. They turned out great (if I do say so myself!).

My friend Laurie made these ornaments to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Boston Temple.

Speaking of the temple, David made this special ornament for us.

And once again, speaking of the temple...

I watched a good webinar about Charles Dickens on the way to the Cape. David was driving, that's how I watched. Just in case you were wondering.😌

I said it before, and I'm saying it again: it was a great Christmas season, and a special and memorable one. It went by too fast. But only nine months 'til the next one!