Happy New Year! Looking back, 2025 was a busy year. There were multiple trips, including both Italy and a family vacation to South Dakota. The Critical Role live show was another fun mini-trip that I took last year. Lots of traveling, reading, and devoting time to my hobbies, which is always a good thing. 2025 was a great year.

Movies I Watched

• Blue Beetle
• Captain America: Brave New World
• The Amateur
• Thunderbolts*
• Superman (2025)
• The Fantastic Four First Steps (2025)

My favorite movie I saw last year was Superman. I picked Superman over Fantastic Four because DC really needed this movie to be good. I didn’t doubt James Gunn and if he could do it, but there was a lot riding on this movie. Krypto was the star of the movie. I think we could all agree with that. It makes me excited for James Gunn’s extended movie universe for DC.

My least favorite movie I watched last year was Captain America: Brave New World. It’s not that I hated it; I simply think it wasn’t as good as the rest of the movies on my list.

When writing this post, it made me think about how I don’t go to the movie theater anymore. When I think about why, I think about two things. The first is the cost. For my husband and I to go to a movie in theaters, it’s anywhere between $30 – $35. That’s a lot. The second is how quickly movies go to streaming. If I miss a movie, I know I can watch it within a month. Remember the days of waiting six months for a movie to come out on DVD? That seems unheard of now.

TV Shows I Watched

• Creature Commandos
• Legend of Vox Machina
• The Fox Hollow Murders
• The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
• Peacemaker Season #2
• Only Murders in the Building
• The Mighty Nein

I watched more TV this year than I thought I would. Starting with Creature Commandos, the Weasel episode emotionally wrecked me. I don’t think I have cried harder while watching a TV show in my life. My husband encouraged me to watch the episode, but boy, it was tough to watch. Creature Commandos is a show that has stuck with me, which is surprising. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is my reality TV show guilty pleasure watch. Only Murders in the Building is a show that I recently discovered and like to put on when I need something easy to watch. I hope to finish the series going into 2026.

Video Games I Played

• Star Wars Outlaws
• Life is Strange Double Exposure
• Date Everything
• Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
• Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy
• Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2

My favorite game I played was Star Wars: Outlaws. This game surprised me because it was better than I thought it would be. Nix is adorable. I laugh because I left Star Wars Outlaws with the lowest approval rating with the Hutt crime syndicate, and rightfully so. Date Everything was cute, but it reminds me that with dating sims, I get bored easily. I’m not over the way that I was rejected by the vacuum cleaner.

Gaming in 2025

• Arkham Horror
• Dungeons & Dragons campaign
• Vampire: The Masquerade campaign
• Candela Obscura mini-series
• Forbidden Jungle
• Monster of the Week at CONvergence
• Call of Cthulhu one-shot

I’m in a lot of TTRPG groups! This past year, our two year Dungeons & Dragons campaign wrapped at Badwolf Adventure Studios. Cue all the emotions that came with that. It was bittersweet! Playing the same character for two years and her story finally ends. With that said, I’m in a new campaign and I have been loving it thus far. I’m still in a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign every other Friday also at Badwolf Adventure Studios. This group has been meeting for over a year now and it’s the longest VTM campaign that I have been in. In 2025, I played less board games it feels like, but I have been playing a lot of roleplaying games which is fun to see.

Podcasts

• Worlds Beyond Number
• The All Night Society
• Road to Hell
• Blackwater DnD
• A Little Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein

My favorite new podcast I discovered in 2025 was A Little Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein. Matt is able to handle a variety of complex topics. The latest episode I’m listening to is about Nicki Minaj becoming more conservative and the history of that. Matt always has a variety of different guests and I look forward to each episode. The two podcasts that I’m listening to currently that I’m not caught up on are BlackwaterDnD and Worlds Beyond Number. With Critical Role, everything is so lore heavy and I like that BlackwaterDnD, I can listen and if I miss something, it’s not a huge deal because it gets recapped later. I also like the chemistry that the cast has. Finally, Worlds Beyond Number has been another highlight to listen to as it’s DMed by Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Catchiest Song in 2025

My most played song in 2025 was “Nancy Mulligan” by The Wellermen, Malinda, and Cullen Vance. I have a playlist called Ren Fest Vibes where I listen to a lot of bagpipes. What genre of music is that considered?

Conventions I Attended in 2025

• Planet Comic Con
• Spring Con
• CONvergence
• Twin Cities Con

I went to four conventions in 2025. No Gen Con for me this year and while I had a little FOMO, I was okay with taking a year off. Gen Con is usually a cheaper vacation for me, but the convention itself is a lot. I ended up sticking to conventions mostly in my area which is nice! It’s always more convenient to attend conventions in state than to travel. While I love traveling for conventions, it can be exhausting.

Personal Memories

Top Three Memories of 2025

Critical Role Live Show

Italy

Taking my Family to the State Fair for the First Time