by A big “Howdy!” from the Moore Dynasty on Christmas Eve, 2025.
Annual readers of this letter are often treated to a “Best Of” list of events, outings, and achievements for the year that’s wrapping up. This year’s roundup will, I think, be more subdued in the sense that there was no single “Big Event” for Monica and me this year. Still it was a good year, with highlights to reflect on and lessons to learn for 2026.
Social media is a plague in – and thief of – our time. But, it does serve as a helpful aid when putting a bow on the year. Using that crutch, I can tell you that the year got off to a bad start when Monica and Amberly beat Jake and me pretty badly in Canasta on New Year’s Day. From there it was all downhill!
Texas being what it is, we had some nice weather for cycling as early as February:
Not perfect, as shown by the long sleeves, but warm enough to break out of winter hibernation for an afternoon!
We celebrated our local grandsons’ birthdays’ in February, April, and May, as well as long-distance ones in March, June, and October. Tales from those events may or may not be documented by the proud parents. 🙂
In March, Monica and I took a short trip to the musical Mecca that is Katie’s Bar in Bacliff, still the best place for live music we’ve found so far:
Sadly, though, it seems that someone had to be called back to school for remedial training – and still did not complete the required coursework:
SMH. What can you do?
Another highlight of this trip was a quick jaunt to Galveston’s Cordray Drug Store for rolled ice cream. While there, we rolled through frame-high flood waters and Monica got to say hello to Michael of Restoring Galveston fame (look it up!).
In April, we got to meet the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Yell Leaders up close and personal. Please not that no limbs were lost taking of this picture:
In May I had another birthday, but it wasn’t one divisible by 5, so no big deal. The most fun was had at the Troubador Festival on the Texas A&M campus where we got to see an array of Texas country musicians, capped off by a tight set by Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen.
June was the biggest event of the year: Dave and Ollie’s wedding, which took place at their house in Bryan. Mitch and family were able to drive in for the event, which marked the only full gathering of the Moore Dynasty this year.
It was about this time that I had to start a long round of PT for my gimpy hip. This has been lots of fun and resulted in a lot of time spent stretching and doing other uncool exercises, etc. I was able to get some decent runs and rides in this year – just not as many as I would have liked.
In July, we took a trip to Indiana to visit my parents. We spent time at dad and Sharon’s in Pleasant Lake and at the cottage on Lake Jimmerson with mom and Tom. This was our big vacation for the year and included three days on Mackinac Island where we stayed at the Grand Hotel:
Staying at this hotel is truly like going Somewhere in Time (look that up too!).
In August, Jake and Amberly decided to purchase half of our property in Iola and become country people. This resulted in a big push for them to get out there in time for school to start in the fall. They are now living the wild, wild life on the MD Ranchito much like we did when the boys were in middle school. Monica and I made some trips to help and also to see the grandkids at home and at school. It seems like a long way out there now – makes me wonder how I drove it for 12 years.
In October, I went to a work conference in Austin that let me step over to Antone’s music club one night. This is a great place to hear a show, but no chairs makes for a long night.
Later in the month, we finally got some long overdue beach time when work took me to Corpus Christi. Afterward, we stretched that into a long weekend in Rockport, home of Monica’s favorite restaurant, Copano’s, and their Amazing Mussels.
November brought a nasty spate of cold weather and an end to the pleasant bike riding season:
November was also notable for Mr. Tucker’s 14th birthday, which he took in fine Superdog style after surviving a brush with death caused by vet-prescribed medication:
Later, we had the local MD families, dad and Sharon, and Monica’s parents and brother Matthew’s family at our house for Thanksgiving where we dined on a non-traditional (and far superior) dinner of grilled steaks and baked potatoes!
This month we had Monica’s birthday Monica and tonight celebrated the twins’, with Mitch in absentia.
That more-or-less brings us up-to-date with happenings at the Moore Dynasty for 2025. We are looking forward to great things in 2026, most particularly Marc’s long-awaited “Rule of 80” milestone, the Lord willing.
Happy New Year!
Marc and Monica Moore
