It's 2026

and 2025 was the best year of my life

Welcome to the new year! More so than any other year, this December I really felt overwhelmed by content. Weather it be a list of your best videos, holiday recipes, or new year resolutions. It was all too much for me.

Here are some highlights from the past 12 months. They all aren’t about our son Rory, but having a kid really really changes your life and perspective, so maybe they should be?

• Our Co-ed baby shower! This was something I really wanted. It’s been a few years since our wedding, and this really felt like a smaller mini wedding in terms of having all our friends and family in one place. A chance for everyone to connect and celebrate our baby and Dawn. I think our baby shower was one of a kind. It was at a cool brewery, we had awesome food and I think people had fun!

• Our boy was born in February. It’s actually insane that he’ll be 1 next month. The year has FLOWN by. It’s scary. Will I wake up tomorrow and he’ll just be 16 and driving?! He is the most chill, happy boy I’ve ever spent every waking moment with and I love him so much.

• To stick with Rory for a minute, another highlight was seeing the village around us that helps and supports us! I swear those first few months we didn’t cook anything. The amount of people who dropped off food was crazy! So grateful!

• One thing I really didn’t expect was how our dog Joni would change. So we started taking her to a doggy daycare once a week to get her some social interaction and to burn it out. It’s helped so much and gives us one day a week we can breath. There is a lot that parents do in a day, and to knock one thing off is nice!

• I won’t say I’ve cured my mental health, but the days I feel the depression creeping in have been less and less. At the end of the year, I found a new therapist and things seem to be going well. My word of 2026 is ‘action’. Basically to do more and think less. If I feel sad, I know what helps. It’s generally movement, or taking a break, or stop procrastinating.

• My younger brother got married… finally! They have been engaged forever and seeing them get married was such a great weekend! Yeah, it was a weekend! So much happened that weekend. Most of us got matching tattoos, there was a silent disco, breathwork, sauna and just so many laughs were had!

• I went to Game 7 of the World Series with my brother! I randomly started listening to sports radio in June and heard the Blue Jays were in first place, so I figured I could start watching them then, so I could know all the players and maybe watch some playoff baseball on TV, if you didn’t know, baseball games are basically every day, so I got a lot of screen time in. I am now a blue jays fan, so I really wanted to go to a playoff game, then we got the opportunity to go to GAME 7! It was insane, electric and one i’ll never forget!

• Dawn being on MAT leave. In Canada, you can take up to 18 months off, 12 of them are paid. It’s not much money, but it’s something to help you adjust to motherhood and having a baby is hard work and overwhelming. I am so grateful that I’ve got to spend so much time with Dawn this year. Seeing her become a thriving mom is truly amazing.

The funny thing about all of these highlights, none of them include food or work! I want to wrap up by saying I currently have my dream job, it’s the best job in the world. It allows me to spend so much time with my family, and I truly believe that because of my job and how much I love it is a direct reason for my happiness level. I have spent years struggling, and failing at startup after startup in the food space. Now that it finally clicked after 10 years, I can relax and breath. I really hope everyone reading this can find that same joy in their work one day!

Cheers to 2026 <3