2025 Happy Holidays from HKfamily5

Last year I opened our holiday message with “what a year it has been,” and honestly, I think that opening statement was a little premature. Back then it was the haze after an election that seemed to just oddly go in a direction many, and I mean many, thought it was heading there already. We were all clinging on to HOPE, that we were wrong. One year later, WTF! That’s all I am going to touch upon in this world we are living in right now. For now, I am focusing on all the good that came with this year. I know I’ve posted so much about the house, and the following statement will be the last one on the house in this post. The house is thankfully done. After moving back into HK5Corner the week before Christmas last year. Enjoying all of the milestones that 2025 brought us, was more relaxing in our home of 20 years now. It’s increadible to think that Clem and I reached 20 years in our little starter house. This milestone crept up on us in September when Clem was celebrating his 50 something birthday. While we purchased our house in August, we spent a month installing new wood floors (which means we’ve done it twice now) and removing all the popcorn from the ceilings, even in the closets. Later in the Fall of 2025, we also remodeled the guest back, which is now a staircase. I prefer to think we got a lot of wear out of all the updates in the house.

Another milestone this year, after nearly two decades of living with multiple storage units. We are proud to announce we are finally down from 4 storage units, to just two. At the new year of 2025, we not only moved back into HK5corner, we decided it was time to chip away at all the things we weren’t ready let go. In this process, after three years of holding onto my mother’s things, I finally was able get through the many boxes of china, kitchen materials and mounds of paperwork, if you can believe it. Most people go through compulsive decluttering after the loss of a loved one. It was time for me to do that with my mother. It’s also made me realize, I needed to let go of my stuff as well. As the 2025 year progressed, I started to bring home plastic bins from storage to go through, filled with so much stuff my kids will never want. For example, High School yearbooks. I have all of my parents yearbooks, along with my own. That’s about a dozen books in total. My siblings and I both realized we don’t really have any need for our parents books. I did however scan key inscriptions in the books. The plan is to ship them off to Ancestry for them to scan and share with the internet.

Clem has had another great year at Apple, and is working to stay connected to the friends who have retired over the past few years. He celebrated his 56th and is reflecting more and more on the 25+ years he has been working at Apple. He’s made so many friends over the past two decades. He is beyond happy to be back home and settled into HK5corner. He is even happier that all of the little projects that needed wrapping up, are finally come to a close. The fence was completed in November and the pathways around the backsides of the house were finished in the Spring. Just before the holidays hit, the front wall was completed, perfect timing to take a quick Thanksgiving family shot. Clem is also coming to terms with Paley leaving the nest after the coming summer, for college. We both find it hard to believe that she is really turning 18 this coming Spring.

Paley had a year filled with personal growth and a build up in her confidence and voice. Watching her flourish through her Junior year of high school and even adventured in to new experiences, like attending a 2 week writers conference at the University of the South @ Sewanee over the summer. She also received an offer to be a Senior Editor at an online magazine, after doing an intern program over the summer. She still embraces her love for theater and was busy as usual on the stage for 2025. In March, she took on the role of Ernest in The Importance of Being Ernest. She was absolute amazing in her first staring role. Over the summer she wrote her first full length play, and moving into her senior year, she has began working hard to bring it to life on the stage at school as her senior capstone project. As she kicked off her senior year, she has spent these past three months neck deep in college applications. She has already submitted more than half of them, but the bulk she will find out later this winter about admissions. Her list of schools is pretty diverse and she’s already received one acceptence letter. She truly is looking forward to the simple and solo life that comes with college bound students. I joke that if we would let her graduate early, she would start college in January.

Over the summer of 2024, she adventured to the east coast, exploring colleges. Those visits and working with a great college counselor during her junior year, she put together a pretty solid list of schools. All on the east coast, but an adventure she is excited and anxious as it approaches in the new year. As she closes 2025 she still working hard on bringing her play, Vigilante, to the stage. The production is fulfilling her 4 year Thespian Society program requirement for a senior year capstone project. The play will hit the stage on Saturday, February 7th. We will share ticket information in January. Watching her create and workshop this play is a great way for us as parents to see the professional she is becoming and we are loving every moment watching her grow with this project.

The twins embarked on a shared journey with their older sister. Earlier this year in the Spring, Allen got her braces put on in the Spring and last month, it was Lochlan’s turn. From what I can tell, it looks like Allen will have bracer for a shorter period than his older sister. His case is the typical Tejada problem of overcrowding. While Lochlan is looking to have a similar time period as Paley. I believe Paley had hers for around a year and a half. Lochlan has an overbite like his older sister, that needs to be worked on and some spacing concerns. They endured the pain and enjoyed the soft foods for the first week, and loads of ice cream! I am very curious this time, because Allen has my spacing, and she will most certainly get the Tejada pushed back lateral incisor. My mom had it, my grammie had it, I believe my uncle has it, and my great grandmother. Gotta love that Portuguese blood line. Probably won’t know now, because I never had braces. I tried doing Invisalign in my adult years, but after finishing the numerous trays, wearing a retainer at bed for the rest of my life, didn’t happen!

Our worlds have been growing and changing like always. If you have been following the blog lately, you were aware of our youngest is exploring their identity, and has changed their name to Allen. This is not something new in our household, he is just keeping with tradition when it comes to being an HK5. In our home we are open to it all. That’s not all she explored this year, in the Spring Allen went out for the field hockey team at school and fell for the game hard. He is also in the pool swimming 3 days a week on a local USS team. While all these sports filled his schedule, Allen finally hit a growth spurt in 2025 and has not stopped. I think he’s going to finally catch up to her older sister. Art continues to be a great passion and is working on script for short film project to produce in the New Year. Allen’s imagination and interest in storytelling is truly matched with her sister. One day, I hope they start collaborate together on a project.

Lochlan just keeps growing and growing like a tree and we have no clear end when it will stop. The kid, or now, teen, is already wearing a size 9 shoes. Growing is his biggest trend for his year, even when it comes to sports. We got the surprise this Fall when he announced that he was trying out for school basketball team. At the same time, he was practicing with his waterpolo team. Thankfully he had waterpolo rived to be the more plentiful sport of the two. He did make the basketball team but ended up with la coach more obsessed with winning a game, than teaching and promoting Lochlan and a few other players on how to play and improve their game skills. Lochlan was a trooper this Fall doing two sports and school for three months straight. He conquered it all, and now has a growing loving waterpolo. While I played for just one year, my talent I was being used to grab the ball at the start of a game. Then my coach would pluck me out of the game till the start of the next quarter. I honestly wasn’t a great player but I am still familiar with the sport. Lochlan has progressed greatly in the game and is still learning, in short I don’t think I was talented like he is today. Back then, I gladly pass that hat over to my teammates Kevin and Derek. And today I pass the hat over to Lochlan, because he’s got the love for it. What I love about the waterpolo tournaments, is seeing the all girls teams playing each other. In my day, we had my USS teammate Meghan on our all guy team, and she was 10 times the player I ever was. Hoping to take Allen to a few games to see if her interest may be peaked.

When it comes to the education side of things, the kids are doing pretty great at school. The twins are slowly learning study skills from Clem and I. Something I wished elementary level would adopt. As twins there is always competition but honestly, no matter who is up and who is down. We are equally impressed with the effort they are putting into school. Paley has been pretty steady these 3+ years of high school. Competition in public might not be a broad issue, but pressure to succeed is real. During the college tours we did in 2023, it was interesting to learn how much schools frown upon the hand holding that private education provides to students. We are glad we chose to stick with public education and letting our kids develop into independent students. Instilling responsibility for making things happen, is one of the best lesson you can teach your kids. Following through is a struggle all generations face. In the world of AI, this might change.

As for me, Brian, the author of this post, as usual! Life is pretty grand with these four. We hosted our first holiday party in almost 14 years. I believe the last one we hosted was a few years before the twins were born. It was a special party because I wanted to include all the friends who had attended my mothers services back in 2022. A little thank you in a way, for being there for our family in a sad time. While I am still purging stuff from storage and the house. I’ve found myself taking breaks from it now and then, to Clem’s chagrin! It’s hard to get through all of the moments where you run across something from the past that drums up memories and emotion. Then you have to find away to negate the hurt, in order to give it up. I’ve promised Clem I will be getting a job in the new year, but if I am being honest, and I’ve said this to several friends, it’s time. I am truly bored out of my skull. I have been working out more and more, and twice this year, I was able to drive down my a1C number to under 8.0. Before you say 7 is high, I’ve been higher. I am taking a GLP drug and I think we finally hit a dosage that seems to work. Overall, I am not really focused on loosing the weight completely, but rather to keep a regular routine of swimming. My hope is over this holiday break, Clem and I can get back into walking almost daily again. We were doing great from January to April of this year, and well, we just hit a snag getting out of bed early in the morning.

While I mention going back to work, I am also exploring a few other changes for myself. I’ve been working with the twins summer league team in developing a training program for the teenage coaches on the team. My hope is to develop a standard for all the coaches to use and help the swimmers develop on their own timeline. I endured many injuries from my youth in swimming and keeping it fun for my kids and the many other kids on the team is so important to. It’s also important to keep it manageable and safe, while giving the kids the opportunity to grow as a swimmer. I am not doing this to make olympians, I am doing this to give kids a change to swim and find themselves in swimming. One things most people don’t realize about swimming, is all that time spent in the water, your brain is working non-stop. Whether it’s day dreaming, or focusing on your stroke or simply enjoying the 45 minutes to an hour with old friends and new friends. The number one thing I took away from swimming were the friendships that are still in my life today. We all have stories from our childhoods, but if you did a year round sport, then I truly believe you have double the stories. Speaking of stories, there is also two projects I plan to embark on in the new year. First, in moving our HKfamCollection back in to the corner house. I’ve come to realize my art collection is truly too big. There are so many pieces that I have grown out of or simply don’t plan on displaying in our home in the next 10 years. My hope is to sell most of the stored portion of the collection. In the end I am sure at least 70% of the collection will remain with us.

The second project has been burning a hole in my brain for the past 3 years. My mother passed away in 2022 and as we move her out of her home, I saved her box of letters that she and my father wrote to each other during Vietnam war. Today, as I am finishing writing this post and printing off the envelopes for our holidays cards. I found time to grab something out of the storage, and noticed the sealed box with their letters, opened due to the old tape used on the box. Emotionally I’ve been holding off on this project, because I am not absolutely sure where the project will take me. The bottom of the box opened, and laying at the bottom of the box was a ziplock bag with booklet of all the sailors on the USS Kittyhawk in the late 60’s and a coloring book the ship created for the sailors to send their kids or family members. On the back of the coloring book was a written note by my father to my mother, saying the one book was for my brother and the other was for my uncle. My money is on, my brother got his book, but my uncle was out of luck. I would say there are about almost 200 letters in the box. I did peak at one small plastic bag, and opened one letter. Not going to share the content right now but, there are stories to be had here. Where this heads might be something, Paley and I could work on together.

While we didn’t travel extensively like most families, we were able to do one family trip across America again. Last summer it was our college tours from Ohio to Pennsylvania, up to New York, Connecticut, through Rhode Island, Mass and New Hampshire. This summer we piggy backed on another Paley centered experience. While she was spending two weeks in Swanee, Tennessee for a writers conference, we took the opportunity to see the south. I flew out with Paley to drop her off.  She and I spent two days touring Nashville and after I dropped her off in Swanee, I spent two days traveling souther Tennessee and Northern Georgia. I visited Blue Ridge and a few other small towns. I finished off with 24 hours in Atlanta. The last time I was in Nashville and Atlanta was in 1994 during college. Gotta love road trips with friends. Both cities have changed so much. I was gobsmacked about the number of new high rises in both cities. But what hasn’t changed, both cities have great BBQ. Atlanta’s Heirloom Market was very yummy but didn’t like eating my car. Rodney Scott was a very close second place.  Blue Ridge is an adorable town and yummy food. Shopping was a bit of a miss, it seems there are less local craftsman selling goods these days. The High Museum of Art was another highlight of my trip. The folk at collection is amazing, from Kara Walker cut outs to The real treat was experiencing the Ryoji Ikeda instillation “data-verse”.  The first instillation I experienced by Ikeda was in 2003 at the SF MOMA. This show blew me away. You can see my post of the instillation here. I bought the CD for music used in the instillation and I still turn it on, when I need to just escape. Silence is never golden for me, I love a dark room, but the noise is my relaxing space filler.

Two weeks later, Clem, the kids and I flew back out to Nashville and got to experience the city one more time. This time we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and even toured Studio B, which a friend mentioned is where Dolly recorded. Sadly the tour was all about Elvis, but we enjoyed the experience and all of the music and memorabilia on display. The summer could be called the summer of Dolly. The one thing I wanted from this summer trip was to finally visit Dollywood after 40 years of seeing the news about the park on Entertainment Tonight back in the 1985. This was a bucket list item for me, and we all had an amazing time. If you love rollercoasters like me and the kids, then you have to experience Dollywood sometime in your like coaster lifetime. I even dragged my family to see Dolly’s two nieces live on stage. From Pigeon Forge, TN we drove out to Asheville, North Carolina and then up to Lynchburg, Virginia.

While in Virginia we paid two visits. While making out the trip, I realized that we would driving past Timberville, VA, where our rocking chair makers family shops are located. I reached out and we were lucky to make a visit to see his workshop. You can check out photos from Shea Alexander’s shop Alexander Bros here. The kids really enjoyed the visit and I think Clem as well. Learning about his process and hearing more about his transfer of knowledge practices is inspiring and amazing. For example he recently procured a machine designed by craftsman I believe in Kentucky that is used to mill tree bark to be used for seating material. Case in point, the walnut bark used on our rockers. While we were there, the kids got to see some of the parts being milled for our third chair, which we expect to be delivered early next year. The second visit was with one of my oldest friends on the planet. Anna B. and her family are located in Virginia as well, and stopped by for a few hours to catch up and the kids to see each other. It was such a great visit and I look forward to seeing her more in our 50’s. With Paley possibly on the east coast. Means more opportunities to visit or meet up. All in all, our second road trip in America was a success. A bucket list item crossed off and seeing an old friend.

As we close out 2025, there are some changes coming ahead for our little family. From Paley’s adventure in to the collegiate world, to the twins moving into their last year of middle school next Fall. It’s hard to believe in 5 years time, I will be writing about the twins next big jump in to college or whatever they have in mind for their adulthood. Regardless being “home” for one full year, truly is more relaxing. Living in a rental was an experience, but living in the home you build certainly feels different. I think we are all settled now. It took me a few months to settle into this house. I don’t think it will ever feel finished, if I am being honest with myself. And honestly, I think that way of feeling about a home, soothes me more than anything. The kids however are very content with the house. They will have a lot of surprises in the new year. Clem is starting to get his health in order as well. Nothing like getting old! With all this, we look forward to the New Year and the quests that come with it. We wish you and your loved one’s a special new year. And Stranger Things await us all.