Christmas Letter 2025

Happy Holidays from the Holden Family!

 

2025 was a good year. We did a fair amount of traveling: Ohio (Cleveland/Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame/Football Hall of Fame) in February, trips to Matamoras to see Heather’s family in March, May, July, October and December, Clearwater, FL in June, (Heather and Jamie Anniversary trip), and a two week stretch of the Saranac Lake Islands, Vermont, Connecticut (to visit the MacDonald Family), and Rhode Island in August for our family vacation. Eli also spent a week in July at Houghton University for a camp with his youth group. Heather and Jamie used the time to slip away to the Adirondack high peaks region and hike a series of 5 mountains known as the Dix Range. As a family, one of the things we do best together is travel! We all truly enjoy an adventure, experiencing new places, new foods, and meeting new people. Our goal is to visit all 50 United States together! 

Football Hall of Fame in Stanton, OH

Clearwater Beach, FL

4th of July in Matamoras, PA

Hiking in the Dix Range

Eli, returning from NTS Camp at Houghton

Our campsite in the Saranac Lake Islands

Hiking Haystack for the Saranac 6

Burlington, Vermont

The Connecticut Crew

Exploring Rhode Island Beaches

Waterfire Festival in Providence, RI

Closing out 2025 with High Peak #21

View from Table Top

2025 was a surgery free year for Jamie! He was so fortunate to have a full recovery from his two hip replacements and back surgeries in 2024. He’s been regularly attending hot yoga classes at a local studio, getting out and about walking the dog, and hiking the high peaks again with Heather. He continues to enjoy his work at Lindbergh elementary, where they just put on a fabulous production of “Frozen, Kids!” He made a return to Kleinhan’s Music Hall in Buffalo this past March as the piano accompanist for an Elementary All County Chorus under the direction of our dear friend and colleague, Julie Furlong. Jamie also continues to play keyboard on our church worship team and accompanies Heather‘s voice studio lessons and recitals. He continues to meet weekly with his Bible Study/Men’s Group who have become dear friends, and occasionally assists with Eli’s Boy Scout Troop. His free time is spent reading fantasy fiction and doing house/yard projects. 

Jamie accompanying the All County Chorus

Heather’s push toward the big 50 in October got her out running, hiking and walking more frequently with friends, and she made her way back to her favorite yoga studio for early morning Power Yoga classes. One of her goals for the next decade of her life was to return to the stage, and she was blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate her 50th while performing in the Kenan Center’s production of a Rodgers and Hammerstein review titled, “A Grand Night for Singing.” Friends and family attended the opening weekend birthday performances and we enjoyed catching up and celebrating together. She continues her elementary general music work at Ellicott Elementary and has a private voice studio of 10 students she teaches weekly. Singing and teaching others to sing continues to be her passion and purpose. 

The cast of “A Grand Night For Singing”

2025 was a big year for Eli! He was selected as a percussionist for the Elementary All County Band last March. It was a very rewarding experience to work under a talented guest conductor on some challenging pieces and he was even featured on the snare drum for one song! 

Eli on stage at Kleinhans for All County Band 

He finished sixth grade strong, but Eli seems to truly be thriving in seventh grade. He is involved in everything music: chorus, select chorus, band, jazz band, marching band, and the musical, and is excelling academically. He is truly enjoying his classes and his teachers. We feel like he has found his groove in middle school now and it is fun to have him come home and enthusiastically tell us stories about school, his teachers, and his friends. 

Outside of school, Eli played soccer in the spring and fall and he continues to study piano and drum privately. Eli is also active in his Boy Scout Troop and our church’s youth group. He recently had to undergo a surgery to restructure the bones in his foot which we discovered were malformed at birth. The defect was causing compensations that led to ankle and lower back pain. He only spent two weeks in a cast, but will be in his boot and going to PT for 2-3 months. He’s been handling it all with humor and patience. Such a trooper! 

Our two patients

Back on his feet! 

We have seen a big leap in his emotional and spiritual maturity this year. Following the church camp he attended, he asked to be baptized. He shared his beautiful testimony with our church congregation and made it clear that he is committed to following Christ. It has been an absolute joy to watch him start to shape his own person. We couldn’t be prouder of the young man he is becoming and  we can’t wait to see what God has in store for him. 

Eli’s Baptism

Our Obi-dog definitely has seen better years than this one! We discovered he had Lyme disease early last summer. Fortunately, we were able to treat him and he seems to have made a full recovery. However, he started to get very sick right around Thanksgiving and had to be rushed in for an emergency surgery on Thanksgiving day! It turned out he had ingested a corn cob, probably at the end of the summer, and it had sat in his stomach for two or three months, inflaming the lining to the point where he could no longer keep food or water down. When the cob finally moved into his intestines, it became a life or death situation. Fortunately, surgery went smoothly and he behaved during his recovery! He is back to his playful, attention-seeking self, and we have learned that he cannot be trusted with…pretty much anything! :p

Post-Surgery

Our “lap dog!”

In other family news, we hosted our last FANA Colombian Culture Camp at Revive Wesleyan Church in Hamburg this past July. It was bittersweet, but we have some big travel plans for next summer and we knew we wouldn’t be around to direct camp. Fortunately, another FANA member is taking over, so the beautiful tradition of this summer camp will continue for our FANA youth.

Eli and his FANA buddies practicing 

Co-Directors

The teen group practicing their Colombian dance

Rehearsing for our Fiesta performance 

It’s always fun to look back at the pictures from the past year and reflect on all the memories we’ve made. It’s a good life and we are thankful for it. We continue to find our treasure in the love of family and friends, our experiences of God’s beautiful creation, and in the shared every day miracles of simply doing life. Together. 

We wish you and your families the blessings of peace, hope, joy and love as you close out 2025 and head into the New Year. 

-Heather, Jamie, Eli and Obi