This is it! Finally, the last day of 2025! I should feel sad…oops no I don’t (smile)! It has felt like a long slog…more medical appointments than I wanted to endure! Each social commitment felt good when completed and I could check it off the list. Turning the page to a new month provided some relief…tossing the calendar page with too many appointments scribbled in and crossed off and changed to a new date or time. I’ve felt like I’ve been at the mercy of other folk’s schedules like Doctors, Dentists and follow-up appointments.
When I look back at this year, I realize I tried to summarize the year with my one-page Christmas letter. I’ll share the letter here (some of you received it already…sorry to repeat). However, I try to not burden anyone with too many details at Christmas time. I’ll post the letter in sections and expand with a few more pictures. Mostly, I’d like to share what I’ve been doing with my bracelets as I get ready for the summer craft festival. So, here is the Christmas letter with additional info:
Christmas 2025
Greeting Family and Friends!
We hope this yearly letter finds you and yours healthy, wealthy and wise! I always wanted to say that! Of course, at our age healthy is a variable we’re all dealing with. Wealthy…well we didn’t win the lottery but we’re wealthy with friends…and we feel especially wise about all the choices we’ve made over the last 79 years, considering there is absolutely nothing we can do to change anything!
Bert had a good year with no major health issues or surgeries. Lately, that’s our measure of success! He had fun with the garden this year and planted a huge pumpkin patch. It dwarfed the wood pile! It also attracted the neighborhood groundhogs who thought we had planted them just for their dining pleasure!
The garden did well this year in spite of sporadic rain/no rain issues. I now have quite a few good zucchini recipes and we have enough tomato sauce for the year!
The Echinacea always made me smile!
I started the year thinking I could get really creative with my bead bracelets and was looking forward to the summer festival. Of course, my yearly mammogram in January showed evidence of cancer. The rest of the year was spent dealing with more Xrays, MRI, Lumpectomy and Radiation. All done for now!
I will say the bracelets gave me a purpose and something to do when I didn’t feel like doing anything else. The festival in July was very successful and I’m gearing up for next year. Hopefully, I won’t be distracted with any more health issues in 2026!
The last week or two I’ve been repackaging my specialty bracelets so I can redesign my festival booth. Marketing is not my strength so I’m hoping I’ll get some good advice from friends about how to display the bracelets.
Last year my booth was pretty simple. Luckily, I was with my friend Toni because I certainly couldn’t fill up the whole booth myself!
Obviously, I need to change the display, so I’m thinking about a grid wall behind my table like these:
Then, I’m repackaging all my specialty bracelets so each bag looks like this:
I now have 42 different bracelets that I can arrange/hang on the grid wall. That will certainly fill up the backdrop space and I’ll move my sign above the grid wall. It should be more visible from a distance!
I will still have simple single stone bracelets but they can be organized by size. People seemed to like being able to search through the small bins for their favorite beads and colors.
Here’s my Table of Contents for the specialty bracelet catalog:
Finally, I need to make a decision about how to accept payment for bracelets. I REALLY don’t want to commit to accepting credit cards. While I do have PayPal, cash is so much easier. I found last year cash worked well except for the teenagers/college-age kids…they wanted to use VENMO and something else. I guess I have a few months to figure it out. Any suggestions will be considered.
To wrap up…we made it through Christmas at Kathy’s home…a fun time for all. Kathy always has a wonderful Christmas Eve/Morning planned for all of us. I so appreciate her efforts! We desperately try to remember to take pictures…usually as we’re putting our coats on!
Bert and I both manage to wear red on Christmas morning. I certainly don’t have a lot of red items in my closet!
Ben and Anna are growing up!
Even Daisy was a happy dog to have us all there!
Please email me directly if you have comments, questions or advice about using VENMO (or others). maryjkisner@gmail.com
Merry Christmas from “Mary’s Musings.”