Our Christmas Letter for 2025
Not quite as crazy as 2024But we still managed to stay busy.
We are fully settled in the new house, and any work now is mostly about decorating and storage. We still plan to freshen up the outside, but that will have to wait until warmer weather.
Because of last year’s move and the England trip, we stayed in Illinois for the winter. Instead, Don organized a radio theatre troupe in the community. They performed several times, both in the community and elsewhere. Emma and Kate helped out a bit, too. Emma played piano, and Kate handled sound effects.
The Weeping Willow Players! John & Nicole are married, Shira, Don, Mary, Roy, Bernie, Flora, and Jennifer (married to Roy), all from the community. Kate’s at the computer. Don turned the script into a web page where the sound effect cues were all links to sound files. Gloria from the community is our usual sound effects pro, but she and her husband Dave, another voice actor, could not be there that day. You’ll see them in the videos below.
Emma was a special guest accompanist for the Agatha Christie program in August. Roy on bass guitar & Jennifer on piano, organ, violin, and harp (!) were our orchestra for the October show and hopefully will play again. Otherwise, Don finds music clips and adds them in like sound effects for Gloria to click.
For your viewing pleasure, here are the recordings of the shows of 2025:
Our debut! March 9. We picked 2 comedies: Fibber McGee & Molly, plus, The Shadow.
On August 24, we performed 2 Agatha Christie radio plays. Personal Call, from 1954, Dame Agatha’s first radio play, and The Case of The Careless Victim, from 1945, the 1st of an American series called Agatha Christie’s Poirot. We chose Agatha Christie plays because we used the radio troupe to fill a month in our Oak Crest summer. (more to come on that one)
October 19, the Halloween show! First, an episode from The Haunting Hour about a mindreader who catches an audience member plotting a murder! Then, to lighten it up, Ozzie & Harriet’s Haunted House episode.
We did our Christmas show on December 7. Miracle on 34th Street. The troupe needs more men. Don did 5 different voices!
Kate’s parents and Don’s mom faced some health issues, but everyone’s doing well. Dad got to “ring the bell” this spring, and we celebrated with him at a winery. We dealt with some reminders of our own aging, too, but thankfully, nothing that will slow us down much.
This year saw us at author events in libraries, bookstores, and even breweries. We also gave presentations, with more planned for 2026, while Kate works on the next volume of Agatha Annotated.
While we traveled less this year, we still got out a bit. Locally, we explored Rockford, Milwaukee, and Manitowoc.
Aeeeeeh, it’s the Fonze!
Don’s wearing his “Tell your folks I says Hi” T-shirt, a phrase used by midwestern comic Charlie Berens (watch is latest special) , perfect for visiting Wisconsin.
We also flew out to Los Angeles to visit James and Nina.
James completed 2/3 of his CalArts Master’s program with an interactive installation.
expo1
James and Mischief welcome a student to the exhibit. He’s giving a little intro here. in the bottom-right, notice headphones.
expo2
The exhibit curator welcomes us to an exhibit of the life and times of the famous immersive artist James Gingold who has been missing for some time now. Scan the QR code for the audio guide. James programmed a web app.
expo3
Type the station # on the app keypad and hear something about the missing artist. Some stations had hidden clues. If you miss them, it’s just a nice exhibit. If you find them…
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… you’ll go on an adventure! The collage of pix on the left hides a clue. The photo doesn’t do it justice but some pictures form the #1. Type 1 on the app keypad and you get a secret message which leads you to find the artist. On the right of this picture, a visitor sees accumulated scores of how well people did (the app was tabulating as you go). Pretty cool!
In the spring, he will receive his Master’s degree, and Nina will finish her Bachelor’s, so we’ll be flying out again to celebrate with them.
Emma and Josh welcomed a stray cat to their menagerie this year. Bonnie and Copper were not completely thrilled. To avoid confrontation in the camper, Kate did some cat-sitting at their house while they traveled. Don (and his allergies) held down the fort at home.
All of us went to our respective Renaissance Faires over the summer, as we always do. Both of our children have impressive sewing and leatherwork skills. We, however, have been wearing the same costumes for many years. Maybe it’s time to upgrade so we can keep up!
Much of the summer was spent organizing a mystery series to raise funds for a local senior home, including a film discussion, an Agatha talk, a radio theatre presentation, and a 1920s mystery dinner. Kate was poisoned during cocktails, and Don’s detective unmasked the killer by dessert.
The cast of our murder mystery dinner party: Jennifer, Kate, Mary, Don, John, & Nicole. You may recognize them from the radio troupe picture above. We asked, they volunteered, did a great job, and had a blast! While Kate modestly described the event, this was an original murder she wrote!
Don also performed as the ghost of a noteworthy Elginite during a Cemetery Walk this fall. He’s very much enjoying the return to theatre this year.
This year they had a very talented videographer (he used to work on Oprah!) put a show together. Each actor’s presentation is in here. Don’s at 31:55.
We’re settling nicely into our little home on the Fox River. Last year was a bunch of major remodeling. This year, some little things like finishing the base moulding and some curtains.
The address is 1108 Candida Road in Elgin, if you ever want to stop by!
Gingold House
The 2026 calendar is already filling up, and we are so looking forward to it. We wish you a new year that is also full of wonderful events spent with those you love!
– Kate & Don
That’s all for 2025. Next, check out 2024, or jump to our Christmases past.