2025 recap

© Allison Tyler Jones Photography

This is my 20th annual recap on the Midnight Toast blog. I should probably stop because I'm not sure it's good idea to put private information out into the wild, wild web anymore. The internet has changed so much over the last 20 years! On the other hand, I really want to make it an even 20, so I think I'll just be careful what I write. I mean, I've always been careful, with nothing revealed here that I'm not comfortable sharing with the general public. I guess the concern is that maybe my family members have different thoughts on where that line is. My two blogs have been removed from search engine listings, so I think this will be okay.

As usual, I have waited until well into the new year to write this entry, and last year feels so distant now. Honestly, if I didn't have the Four Peas blog to reference, everything would already be a blur. I have been writing in my hand-written journal again, but that serves a separate purpose and contains surprisingly little information about what events are transpiring in my life. On the topic of writing, I am also trying to make progress on my novel, although it's hard to focus in the 10 minutes I find here and there to work on it. I end up writing more on Letterboxd than anywhere else. This includes short reviews for every movie I freshly watch, which is a rather satisfying habit for some reason and maybe good practice for learning to express myself with words.

2025 was one of our biggest years for travel. We started it off in Paris, arriving home on New Years Day. We did not go away for spring break because Veronica had rehearsals for a show, but we did spend a long weekend in southern California, visiting LA and Santa Barbara for a few nights. In April, the kids both had class trips (Omri at Camp Widjiwagan, Veronica in DC) the same week, so R and I took the opportunity to celebrate 20 years of marriage in Key Largo. We also went to Colorado for a family reunion in June and to Camp Du Nord with some friends in October. Veronica went to Italy with the Girl Scouts for a week in the summer. And I took some work trips to Oklahoma City and Philadelphia. So yes, lots of travel!

In addition to three days of music at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, we attended the following live shows in the Twin Cities: Hadestown, Purple Rain, The Notebook, The Wailin' Jennys, and Billy Corgan.

Veronica performed in another Spoken Word, Matilda Jr, and The Little Mermaid, in addition to multiple dance recitals, a choir concert at Luther College, and a final band/choir concert at Oak Hill.

Omri took over in band, with a summer performance, along with a school play and the Solstice festival. He also participated in Lego Robotics and cross-country skiing. In the summer, he attended some fun camps (rock climbing, tennis, Tamarack, Bell Museum), while Veronica accumulated volunteer hours as a counselor at Ashland Theater.

Wow, this recap is quickly becoming me just listing things off!

An outlier for the year was the cocktail party I threw to celebrate R's 45th birthday. This was a make-up for her 40th birthday, the party for which was cancelled due to the pandemic. This one was a success, truly a fun night out with friends.

During most of the above, we were having some extensive work done on the exterior of our house, including the roof, the siding, new windows, and the addition of solar panels. The whole process took a good chunk of the year. I'm glad that is behind us.

The negative aspects of the year were the passing of my favorite artist David Lynch, having our first encounter with head lice, and, also, just general anxiety over the embarrassing leadership of our country. Who ever thought voting in a convicted felon to the office of president would be a good idea? Since I'm not sure I'll be recapping 2026, when things got even worse, I just wanted to say I have lost a lot of respect for some people I thought I could look up to, people brainwashed by the cult of MAGA. If you are one of them, please take a step back and look at what has become of the government and our country's reputation in the world.

On a more positive note, Veronica started high school. We toured a few different options but settled on a college prep school in St. Paul. It was a big decision that involves a hefty tuition, an earlier wake-up time for three of us, and two 40-minute round trips a day. Thankfully, the girl is working on learning to drive and will eventually be able to transport herself. And then we'll probably miss the time with her in the car :-(. She is an incredibly ambitious kid who is clearly talented at whatever she puts her focus on.

I don't like to talk about R's job situation too much on here, but the uncertainties of working for a start-up have continued. Hopefully it all ends up being worth it one day. I'm still at Equisoft, still supporting an insurance system. While that might not sound terribly exciting, the stability the role offers me has been welcomed.

From a personal perspective, it was a decent year. The kids are thriving, and we've been doing everything we can do to support that. Some of my creative aspirations have been put on hold, other than the bit of writing I mentioned above and some photography. I've been shooting about three rolls of film per year, and that is a satisfying and inspiring process for me. Things have become less artful on the digital side of photography, which usually just involves me attempting to quickly capture and document the events in my family's life so that I can remember it all. It's important work.

The year ended with some relaxing time off at home without as much to do. This is what I look forward to most in retirement! I'll get there one day. In the meantime, we're in a busy phase. I'm trying to appreciate the moments, the productivity of it all, the time as a family. We're healthy and happy. I'm confident we'll look back at these years and consider them some of our best.

2024 recap

© Gretchen Loretta Photography

It’s easy to confuse last year with the current year, which is in full swing and not off to as good a start. I liked 2024. It was a very full year, but it seemed like the first year in a while when work was a little less busy than the year before it. That is a trend I appreciate. Less stress at work means less stress at home for me and it also provides the opportunity (although still a limited one) for me to work on creative projects. I find that I need an empty calendar and a predictable, sparse routine before I can really dig into a new project, and let’s face it, that is not the life of an involved dad with a full-time job.

I did direct a modest new short film called “Waking World” and showed it at two venues (our church and a movie theater). Both were thrilling experiences for me, especially the showing where I had Veronica, the star of the film, by my side.

The short film only required 3-4 hours of V’s time, but even that was difficult to find, as she seemed to be busier than anybody, being a part of six theatrical productions: Finders Keepers, Finding Nemo Jr, High School Musical, SpongeBob, a completely separate production of SpongeBob Jr, and Shrek Jr. There were 19 performances of Shrek Jr alone in December! (And she was sick for many of them, not that that stopped her from performing -- December was kind of a rough month.) On top of that, she has had regular voice lessons with multiple instructors, three ongoing dance classes (two in ballet and one in tap), piano lessons, band, school choir, and Girl Scouts. She is so driven to excel. And her singing and dancing has really come a long way.

 
Omri had a productive year too. He may have been less active than V, but not any less than V was at his age. I see the value in unstructured time. He started riding off on his bike on his own and exploring the woods with a friend from the neighborhood. My own memories of adventures like that are some of my fondest from childhood (and the basis for the middle school novel I still want to write), so I have been encouraging of it, even if the idea also makes me a bit nervous sometimes. He is becoming quite the piano player, a fun tennis partner, and energetic cross-country skier (although we barely had any natural snow in 2024). He joined a Lego league and was involved in his first robotic competition. He also attended some fun camps last summer.

 
Omri’s attendance at one of his camps was cut short because he came down with COVID. We all did actually, the first time for most of us. We also had some other health concerns/alarms that I won’t really get into here. Let’s just say, R and I are starting to feel our age. Thankfully none of these concerns developed into anything serious.

 
R seems to be growing into an even more confident leader at her company. There have been a lot of ups and downs and uncertainties at her work, but such is life at a start-up. We’re hopeful it pays off one day. She still co-leads a Girl Scout troop and, of course, continues to orchestrate our family vacations. In 2024, she and Veronica had an unforgettable long-weekend together in NYC (meeting Broadway stars and even getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the Al Hirschfeld theatre, where Moulin Rouge runs). We took our spring break in Santa Barbara and summer road trips to South Dakota and Winnipeg. We spent MEA weekend at Camp DuNord. I went to Philly for my company's anniversary party. We even made our first voyage across the Atlantic as a family to visit Paris between Christmas and New Years. It was a year of memorable trips!

 
Other notable things:

• Both kids had braces put on their teeth, which has had its challenges… and soooo many appointments.
• I am very proud of how well both kids are doing in school. Speaking of which, we did some touring of high schools for V for next fall.
• Three out of four of us went downhill skiing.
• We attended a fun reunion on my dad's side of the family.
• We spent a few weekends up north on the lakes.
• I had a second photo gallery on display at our church. This one was meant to be more crowd-pleasing than my previous gallery and contained some favorite shots from our travels.
• We went to Valley Fair again.
• Veronica and I saw Gracie Abrams live and Henry V at the Guthrie.
• R brought the kids to Back to the Future and The Lion King at the Orpheum.
• The kids did a week of sleep-away camp in southern MN.
• We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary with some local outings and a night at the Hewing.
• I am still watching movies and writing about them on Letterboxd. It might be a geeky obsession, but I can't deny the enjoyment I get from it.

I'm sure there's more I'm missing. You can find additional photos and keep up to date with our current events on my Four Peas blog, of course. Let's close the book on 2024 and look ahead instead. This new year has improved in the months since I started this entry!

2023 recap

Wow, another year gone. I think it was a good one, although I have a hard time wrapping my head around it, especially as my distance from the year increases. It feels like the kids grew up all of a sudden. We’re now known as “mom” and “dad” rather than “momma” and “daddy”, and I’m okay with that. I’ve always liked the idea of having older kids.

Veronica became a teenager. She is still involved with piano, voice, flute, and Girl Scouts. Her tastes have been changing rapidly, which is especially noticeable in the music she listens to. We all became immersed in Taylor Swift’s media empire and listened to her music constantly, with the two ladies of the house being lucky enough to attend her Eras Tour concert in Minneapolis. Veronica did some performing herself, jumping deep into musical theater with involvement in the following productions:

• Frozen Jr. (in the role of Hans)
• A Tale of Two Jacks (lead role)
• Beetlejuice / The Addams Family (summer camp)
• Legally Blonde Jr. (two-week summer camp)
• Junie B. Jones Jr. (with a named role that involved performing a solo on tabletop)
• A Christmas Carol (working tech)

Omri took some leaps forward too, having his first sleepovers and frequently playing video games with friends. His love of Roblox is immense. He also did his first overnight summer camp and participated in tennis three seasons of the year and cross-country skiing in the fourth. His piano teacher said he is her best student. And he is such a fun guy to hang out with.

For spring break, we did Disney World to the max, going to all four parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and the Animal Kingdom) and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Guardians of the Galaxy ride was everybody's favorite.

Our other big trip was to the island of Wrangell, Alaska (with one day spent in Seattle on the way up). R’s aunt and uncle live there and put us up for the week. The view from their deck was absolutely amazing, and we had quite a few adventures, most notably seeing bears catch salmon, a day-long boat ride to a glacier, and a flight in a small plane. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

We made it back to the Winnipeg Folk Festival in July for the first time since the pandemic and also spent some time in a cabin at Camp du Nord in northern Minnesota at the end of August.

Then there was my weekend in NYC with Veronica, which was an experience I hold dear. We packed a lot into a couple of days, but seeing V’s favorite musical Moulin Rouge on Broadway was an absolute highlight (along with briefly meeting the lead actor at the stage door). I also enjoyed seeing the Edward Hopper exhibit at The Whitney Museum, which seemed like such a cool New York thing to do.

R and I had a couple of mini getaways too: one night at The Four Seasons in Minneapolis and two in Grand Marais at a lovely AirBnB with a view of Lake Superior. We saw Aoife O’Donovan in concert one night and Hamilton on stage on another.

R’s start-up company, Vocxi Health, has been keeping her busy, but she is doing some fantastic work as one of the founders and key players in its success. She holds a similar role in our family, handling most of the planning that goes into all of these trips and activities I am listing. And she still finds time for book club and continuing to be a Girl Scouts troop leader. I am very impressed by how she keeps all these plates spinning.

My work has been stressing me out a bit. It was my first full year of being in charge of a software development team who look to me for their assignments and to review all of their code. I try not to let it take over my life. I completed two video projects over the year. One is a promo for an annual concert, and the other is this silly little Cottage Cheese sketch that had roots in a dream. I’m sort of between bigger creative projects right now and am still spending some time studying film and writing about it. I put a lot of time into recording my thoughts on everything I watch over on Letterboxd.

There was more to the year too: Valley Fair, trips up north, a night in Philadelphia, two Twins games, holidays, birthdays. I'm getting tired just thinking about it all. These are certainly busy times. I am sure I'll be bored again one day, so I'm trying to make the most of this hectic life while it's happening... taking lots of photos, making lots of memories.

2022 recap

© Emily John Photography

I was feeling really reflective at the end of the year, but as usual I did not prioritize this blog entry high enough to write it during a time when it actually made sense.

Being too busy was kind of the theme for 2022. For R and I, there seemed to be an increased focus on our jobs. I don’t like to write too much about work here on the blog, but I moved up to a new role with more responsibility, something I wasn’t necessarily looking for, and the parts of life I am more interested in took a back seat. It’s hard to turn down opportunities, and I find myself wanting to take advantage of these prime money-earning years. R worked really hard on her spin-out company while maintaining her old job too. She was finally able to leave the old job at the end of the year and now officially works for the start-up. That has been exciting, and we are very curious to see where that leads in the next few years. All I can say is we are now the people who are stuck in the office (or basement, for me) working late on Friday afternoons.

... And thus, it was a slower year for my creative pursuits. I did make two Cottage Cheese videos and took a couple of 35mm film walks (which I call "going fishing" because I never know if I'll get any bites or if a big one will get away), but much of my creative energy went toward a concert video that wasn't even finalized until 2023 (I'll wait until the next recap before providing a link). Mostly, I’ve just been reviewing movies on Letterboxd, which gets me to think critically about the media I consume and is great practice for meeting some future writing goals of mine.

Our spring break was spent on the beautiful island of St. Lucia. R and V took a Memorial weekend trip to Santa Barbara. We all attended a family reunion in Colorado in June. We spent a week off screens at Camp Du Nord near the end of summer. R and I had some romantic weekends away in Red Wing and Willow River. I appreciate all the planning R does to make sure we all get away from the grind and see some of the world.

We attended concerts by three of my favorite bands: Beach House, Spoon, and The National.

Omri turned 8 and started tennis lessons. Both kids participated in cross-country skiing and began learning the piano. Veronica, 12, also started playing the flute and took a theater class at the Children's Theater which met two nights a week down in Minneapolis for most of the fall. It wasn’t worth driving home after dropping her off, so I just stayed down there and walked around the city, once in a while dropping in Spyhouse Coffee near the Minneapolis Institute of Art for an evening tea. It was not a bad situation, and it helped shaped my memory of the fall. And it was great that V got deeper into acting and bonded with kids having similar interests to her.

The month of December was particularly crazy for me. Aside from the usual Christmas season ongoings/shopping, I traveled to Philly for a work holiday party. Complicating matters, my Grandma passed away the same week. I delivered a eulogy at her funeral and drove back home in a snowstorm. I really appreciated Christmas vacation, even if it probably only boiled down to about one day when there wasn't much going on. I find myself yearning for more days like that--a quieter life. I want to watch movies, read novels, and take some long walks. That sounds like the perfect retirement to me.

Obviously, there were more things that happened over the year. My Four Peas blog should give you an idea, although I don't post as much there as I used to either. The kids don't want their photos taken all the time, and I've become more careful about what ones I share. This is part of them growing up, and I'm doing my best at respecting their wishes/privacy while still trying to document my family life. As difficult as the juggling of everything can be sometimes, I know that one day I will miss these days. It has been striking me lately just how fleeting the time with young kids really is.

Let's call this good for another year. Spoiler alert: 2023 is looking similar in many ways so far. For better or worse, time is flying by and without these records, there's no way I would remember what happened when.

2021 recap

© Emily John Photography

It is the end of October 2022 and I haven’t written about 2021 until now (I guess that is your a preview of how busy 2022 has been). It is important to me to have this record of our year out there, so I'm still posting it.

Sometimes it’s better to remodel a kitchen than move to a new house or to negotiate at your current job rather than switch to a new one. Sometimes all you need is right in front of you.

The kitchen thing was a huge deal for us from about February through May last year. In order to refinish the hardwood and paint the walls, we had to move EVERYTHING out of the main floor of the house. It all went into the garage or basement. It was almost like moving. We lived in the basement for a few months. Looking back, the experience had its positive notes. Maybe it brought us all a little closer together for a little while. But doing the dishes in our kitchenette with limited counter space is something I am happy to be done with.

I can’t write about my job situation here, but let’s just say I was at another crossroads in the fall, and I was rewarded for not making a bigger change. It just took some sleepless nights to get there.

The kids were active in skiing, soccer, and of course school. Veronica really got into manga and anime. She’s becoming an amazing artist, although she doesn’t share her drawings very widely. Omri continues to try new things and seems to enjoy anything that involves being around other people.

I’ve been stepping back from Moon Lake Multimedia work, only taking on 3 or 4 paid gigs over the year. I have been focusing more on my day job but also on pursuing some more personal creative projects in my spare time.

I had a photo accepted into the Minnesota State Fair’s fine arts exhibit, which felt really good. This was my second time getting in over six years of submitting photographs. The framed image was sold at the fair and somebody else contacted me to purchase a copy as well. It wasn’t a huge money-making proposition, but I appreciated the validation. It’s one of the biggest competitions in Minnesota and hundreds of thousands of people walk through that exhibit.

I was even more excited about my short film, “The Decisioneer,” making its debut at the Eagan Art Block film festival in September. I have complicated feelings about showing the film to others. It is not an easily appreciated or crowd-pleasing piece of work. I feel it is important to understand the constraints under which it was made, so I don’t like to show it without an introduction. There is something murky and challenging about it that appeals to me in the way watching old black-and-white foreign films does. By the way, I might blogging less, but I am writing on Letterboxd more.

Family trips from the year included Santa Barbara for spring break and our second week at Camp du Nord. I think we merged our anniversary with R's birthday and spent a night at the Hewing in Minneapolis, which was fun. In the fall we spent a night at a B&B in St. Paul. I'm glad to have a wife who prioritizes our relationship and finds these opportunities for the two of us to get away.

Honestly, the years are blurring together, so maybe I better just stop here. It's almost time to start on the next recap!

2020 recap

© Emily John Photography

When exactly did 2020 go wrong? I guess when the COVID-19 pandemic started, although maybe it was something that had been building in the background for much longer. Electing a corrupt leader into the office of president four years ago certainly didn’t help. He did not steer the county in a direction I thought we should go. At least we have someone taking the job now who my kids can look up to again and someone who admits the coronavirus is an actual problem. Trump was a disgrace to our country, and it is best we move on and perhaps learn to never elect a selfish jerk into the role again.

It was going to be a big year for us, and it still was to a degree. The important thing is that our families remained healthy and safe, with the exception of my aunt who passed away due to a heart issue. That came as a shock and led to a difficult time. On the other end of things, we gained two nephews in the year, although our interaction with them was unfortunately quite minimal.

Sorry for the pessimistic start to this recap! The funny thing is that I actually really like staying home and 2020 was certainly good for that. I did miss nights out with my wife and visiting family and friends, but I also love having a weekend at home with nothing on the calendar. If it wasn’t for the emotional/psychological toll on my immediate family (who are inherently more social people than I am) or the obvious devastation to others’ lives due to the virus, I wouldn’t have had a problem with taking a year off from some of the usual traditions and routines. With some increased responsibility at work, along with a fair amount of ongoing photo/video projects, I still kept plenty busy.

I have very little to complain about. My biggest obstacle was having to cope with having my family home with me on weekdays. Everyone was working/schooling from home for a large chunk of the year. We had to learn to function together and share the space. Maybe it was even good for us in some ways. For the record, I would take that over being entirely alone.

Thanks to R's careful planning, we made it to the Big Island of Hawaii in March, which was essentially part one of our 15th wedding anniversary. It was a family trip and we also brought Grandma Linda along with us, allowing R and I to get out on some hikes across fields of lava rock and hit some happy hours while shops shut down around us. We spent much of the trip worried about the swelling pandemic. Partially due to the time zone change but mostly due to worry, I would wake at 3:00 every morning and check the worsening news on my phone. It was quite an experience, one that felt like something out of a sci-fi movie. I wrote some more thoughts about it in our travel journal.

We were going to throw a party for R’s 40th birthday and that was canceled… or maybe postponed? We gave up trying to reschedule it until things settle.

I enlarged and printed 30 of my photographs (of musicians and the Iron Range) and had them on display in a gallery at our church. I was looking forward to showing them off more at a well-attended Easter service, but church turned into a virtual thing before then. It was still fun to share them, but it also felt like a little bit of a waste. Maybe I’ll use the prints in another show one day.

The summer was better. We had Rachel watching the kids again. We saw family and went camping three times, including four nights in a cabin at Camp Du Nord. The kids played soccer. R and I celebrated part two our anniversary with a night in Minneapolis. Things felt pretty normal in the summer, which was a relief after a cooped up spring.

Fall started off feeling relatively normal too, at least with school. Omri has been able to attend in-person learning since then. Veronica switched to distance learning from the beginning of November until January. Her time at home went much better than it did in the spring. We were happy about paying private school tuition when it meant R and I could concentrate on our work and the kids could see their friends, get in-person instruction, etc.

Omri turned 6 and Veronica turned 10. Omri has been interested in space stuff (see our handmade Star Destroyer) and Veronica finally got her own digital device (an iPad). They are amazing kids, but I’ll be honest: the year in parenting was a tough one. 2020 took a toll on us.

I’m still working on my short film called “The Decisioneer.” Right now, I’m where I thought I would be on it a year ago. But it wasn’t just the pandemic that caused me to lose a year. Part of it was just getting too busy with other projects. There was a bit of a setback when the majority of the footage came back from development quite out of focus. I had to rethink it and not only come to terms with the imperfections but also kind of embrace them. I have a lot more to say about it, but I am going to save those thoughts for when the film is put out in the world. I am going to try to get it into some festivals first, and then I’m sure it will eventually surface online.

I edited two additional videos in the fall. These were done “for hire” and I’m happy with my work, but they also don’t quite feel like my own because they weren’t necessarily my design and I wasn’t involved in shooting (most of) the footage. I became plenty passionate about them, however, and gave up a fair amount of sleep to get them done on time on top of my regular schedule.

I also watched a good number of movies and wrote about every single one of them here. Getting back into arthouse and foreign films over the last few years has been truly rewarding for me. I love reading about them, listening to podcasts about them, and discussing them. They are to me what football must be to some other folks.

The year ended with a laid-back Christmas vacation. We made two cautious trips up north, but mostly we enjoyed time at home. We skated on a snowless Turtle Lake, built a gingerbread house, and played Mario Bros as a family. Those are some of the happy memories that make this all worth it.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it feels like we have this virus on the run now. Vaccinations are being rolled out. Minnesota's case rate is decreasing. Let's hope the good news continues.

That’s all I’m going to do for this recap. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things. As usual, you can keep tabs on us over at Four Peas in a Blog. I hit 2000 posts there last May! The older the kids get, the fewer the photos I will post of them, but I’d like to think things will keep going there to some degree for the foreseeable future.

2019 recap

When I look back at the early years of this blog and how much I used to write over the course of a year, it seems silly to try to summarize a year in a single post, but that's kind of where I am now. It is nice to have a condensed written record of the year, alongside the fuller visual record I keep at Four Peas in a Blog, so I'm going to keep these annual recap posts going, even if I always get to them a little late.

I've been feeling reflective lately. January is my month to play serious music, take a step away from major activity, look back, and look forward. Never mind that it is now the end of February and it's time to start making something of the current year.

Here's the biggest change 2019 brought me: I went back to full-time work in May. I was recruited by an old coworker to join a consulting firm based on Montreal. It was a difficult decision that I tried not to overthink. It started out as a "I'll just try it, earn a few bucks, and can always quit again" situation, but I should have known I'd get pulled in deeper. I already wrote something about it here and don't want to repeat myself too much.

Maybe I am meant to be a software developer. The new job is definitely challenging, but I feel more capable this time. Maybe my brain works better now that the kids are older and I'm getting more hours of sleep. The biggest downside to the new situation is having to travel for the job. I don't like leaving my family and hobbies behind for a work week at a time. The frequency hasn't been too often yet, but the threat of monthly trips hangs over me.

It is a bit of a relief to not feel the need to make money from photography, but that doesn't mean I stopped entirely (and it doesn't mean I don't like making some extra hobby money from it). I fit in 16 professional photography gigs and one video gig in 2019. A few of them were done without pay and all the money I did make went back into new equipment or various software subscriptions. (And some of it went into funding my short film--more on that in a minute). It's not easy to keep up the side hustle along with a demanding full-time job, so I can't promise I will continue it as a business. I probably need to get better at saying no to new opportunities.

I also dug deeper into shooting on 35mm film. This has probably become my favorite division of my hobby. It trains me to keep my eyes peeled for worthy photos and to really consider my subject before snapping away. The element of surprise in the results and the lack of editing required makes the process a joy. I added some of my film photos to a new page at my Moon Lake Multimedia website. Please check them out and, in fact, click around the rest of the site too to see a sample of what I've been up to.

My interests in analog formats culminated in the production of a short narrative film known as "The Decisioneer." I shot it with the help of a cinematographer and it remains in post-production status at this point. You should be hearing more about it in 2020.

Rather than logging the movies I watch on Twitter and later recapping on this blog, I started an account at Letterboxd. It's very satisfying to write a little something about everything I watch. It gets me to think critically and to commit each experience to memory. I am still focused on watching mostly art house and foreign cinema.

I turned 40.

My lovely wife, R, had a busy year too. Her team at work has been in talks to spin out as their own start-up company. The process has been very drawn out and R is not even sure if she will be included, but they would be foolish to not have her on board. They are developing a cancer detection device that she is quite passionate about. Her commitment to its success is undeniable. She's a hard working woman and she proved it again by doing the YWCA Women's Triathlon for her third time last summer. She keeps extra busy as a Girl Scout leader, keeping up with her book club, and, of course, by being a great mom.

Veronica acted in two plays with the Lakeshore Players group in 2019. She even had the lead part in the one in the spring! I was so proud of her. She also sang in two choirs (one at church and one at school) and joined a Lego Robotics club and  the cross-country ski team. She's been loving reading (ask her about The Land of Stories series) and has quite the artistic spirit. Her drawing abilities have taken a leap forward in the last year, and I am in awe of some of her clever video ideas.

Omri joined the ski team as well and also did gymnastics last winter. He played soccer over the summer and again in the fall. I've been really impressed with his hard work at school. He seems to legitimately enjoy learning about reading and math and all the practical work they do in his classroom. I'm really proud of that guy and how well he's handling full days away from home. He is a people person and seems to make friends easily. I'm not sure where he got those skills!

Oh yeah--both kids have become obsessed with video games.

We hired a nanny for the summer, which, I think we have determined, is well worth the extra expense. It was so great to have a break from rushing the kids out the door in the mornings. I'm a firm believer in them having some downtime over the summer, and not having to pack their lunches gives me the chance to enjoy the bright summer mornings with a jog or a walk to Caribou.

As far as family vacations go, we went to Santa Barbara, Winnipeg Folk Fest, and back to California for a quick visit to two Disney parks. R and I got away for an anniversary weekend in Stillwater as well as two nights in Montreal for my company's Christmas party. We went on a few family camping trips too.

I'd say it was a good year. There was a lot of life happening and memories being made. It's hard to believe that one day the kids will move out and we'll be retired. In some ways it sounds like such a relief, but I'm sure we'll miss these busy days too.

I hope your 2020 is off to a great start!

2018 recap

2018 might have been the best year of my life. I know that sounds like a hyperbole, but look at it:

Everyone was healthy. I try not to take that for granted.

The kids are at fun, easier ages.

I didn't have a traditional job to report to. The work I did, as a parent and as a photographer, I was passionate about. A sample of my professional work can be seen here.

R received a promotion at Boston Scientific. She's doing some important, exciting work there with medical devices. I'm proud of her.

I had enough free time to watch movies, read books, and exercise.

R and I got out on some dates, including fancy dinners, cool concerts, and even a weekend in Duluth.

We were able to travel as a family to California, Colorado, and northern Minnesota.

I maintained some creative outlets in addition to my paid gigs. We made a few more Cottage Cheese videos. We started the Old Red Car channel. I returned to film photography as a hobby. And, as usual, I took a bunch of personal photos for the Four Peas blog.

My little brother got married. The kids and I were able to participate in the wedding. My best-man speech went smoothly :-).

I can't list everything that happened over the year. For some reason the little moments--like when the four of us were stuck at home during the April snow storm... or Omri falling asleep on me daily during the bus ride home from Girl Scout camp... or seeing Veronica perform in a play... or discovering photographic gold during a solo walk through Sparta--are what stand out the most.

It's easy to look back fondly with a faded memory, but there really was something to 2018. We found a good balance. Unfortunately it probably won't last forever, but maybe we need less fortunate times once in a while to accentuate the good ones. I look forward to seeing what a new year holds!

2017 recap

Whoops. 2018 is half done and I haven't posted about 2017 yet. We just keep fast-forwarding into the future.

I think the big take-away from the year was that I fully quit my job in July. Working part-time was a good deal for me, but it also felt like it was holding me back from doing something I'm more passionate about. Now I have a coworker now who tells me, "Omri and Daddy, together again!" I'm extremely lucky to see so much of my sweet boy and more of my darling girl, especially during her summer vacations.

Speaking of vacations, we traveled to Puerto Rico with a Disney cruise back to the mainland in 2017. Here are the photos.

My creative energy these days gets directed to my new business. See www.MoonLakeMultimedia.com for a taste of my recent work.

There was obviously a lot more to the year. You can see more detail on Four Peas. Otherwise, I'll just plan to write a lengthier update early next year!

Done and done.

2016 recap

Another year over. And a new one just begun... well, a month and a half ago now.

I'm not a particularly political person, but I feel like something needs to be said. The election results in 2016 were upsetting and eye-opening. I didn't think Trump had a chance of winning and look what happened. I used to think any one in the role of president would elicit a certain amount of respect, but I have none for him. He's treats the majority of the population he represents as an enemy, not to mention the rest of the world. Rather than lead our country into the future, he aims for some version of the rose-tinted past. He is a bully and the wrong person for the job. End of political rant.

Looking at the year from a more personal perspective, it was a positive one. We made a major decision as a family for me to scale back my career. It has been in the works since we moved to Minnesota in 2013, when we set ourselves up to live on one income. We wanted somebody to be home with the kids--with Omri the whole day and with both of them after 3:30 and during summer vacations. It is a big step toward living less hurried, less stressful lives. Originally, we figured R would be the one to quit, but in the end it made more sense for me to do it.

The thing is, I haven't fully quit yet. I walked into my boss's office last May to give her two months notice, but instead we came to an agreement in which I continue to work a very flexible part-time. I did a few months at 10 hours a week and then bumped it up to 20 hours a week, and I'm going back down to 10 again soon. The biggest downside is that it keeps me from throwing myself into to my other goals. I have ideas about doing something with photography or attempting to write a middle school novel, but when I'm not focused on the kids, much of my free time still goes toward work. On the positive side, I'm making a lot more money part-time as a software engineer than I would pursuing the other options. I intend to put some of my unexpected income toward my own business in the future. It's just a question of when to make the leap.

Yet, I have had a little more time than usual to dedicate to creative outlets. Here's a list of notable projects from the year:

• I held 6 or 7 semi-professional photo shoots for families and volunteer events. The results haven't appeared online yet, but there's a lot of work I'm proud of in those sets. I'm also beginning to understand some of the challenges associated with this type of work, especially posing people and finding optimum lighting conditions.
• I had a photo accepted into the Minnesota State Fair fine arts competition. It gave me a lot of exposure and I was excited about the whole thing, although, admittedly, not a lot came out of it.
• I finished a short film into which I poured a lot of attention and passion. I don't know if the masses will ever appreciate it, but it stands as some of my best work and something I'll treasure for myself.
• I revived my ragged comedy series known as Cottage Cheese, knocking out about one new clip a month during the second half of the year. This is something I intend to continue, just for fun.
• As mentioned above, I started writing a novel for middle school kids, the kind I would have liked to have read at that age. I'm not much of a storyteller--with my video projects I usually prefer to capture a mood than to tell a standard story--but this story was flowing out of me so quickly even I was interested to see where it would go. It's meant to be the first in a series (books 2 and 3 are the ones I'm really excited about), so let's hope I can find to motivation to follow through and finish this project.

The kids are doing great. Veronica is in kindergarten, still at the same Montessori school. Her reading is taking off. She has been driven to master new skills like swimming without a life jacket and ice skating, and once she sets her mind to something, she gets it done.

Omri's is such a happy little boy, and he has been talking up a storm since he turned 2. I get to see a lot of him these days. Once in a while he'll come over to give me a big hug and call me his "best friend." It doesn't get much sweeter than that.

We traveled to Santa Barbara again in the spring and to the east coast in the fall. There are some concerns that we need to cut back on the travel now that we're mostly living on one income and we still have a child in private school, but it hasn't come to that yet.

I think that's all I wanted to cover from 2016. I'm still posting family photos on the Four Peas blog and still somewhat active on Twitter and Instagram, in case you want to follow along. I've been meaning to start up the old hand-written journal again too. Call me old-fashioned.

Have a good year, everybody.

2015 recap

© Emily John

I like this photo. It places me at the center of the family. I'm being clung to despite being somebody who does not exactly appreciate clinginess, and it's okay because I love my family enough to allow it. I love how crazy parenting can be and the mess it creates because that's what makes me feel like I'm living. There also are times I want to scream because it's all too much. That's the paradox of it, I guess. Nothing can be both easy and rewarding.

Here we are in March and I'm finally posting my end of 2015 recap. It's going to be short and poorly written because, frankly, I just need to get this done.

The kids are ages 5 and 1. They are the most fun people to be around. And their challenges are different enough so that... we face a wide array of challenges. We don't get out nearly as much as we used to, but I'm such a homebody that it suits me.

Trips-wise, we went to Santa Barbara, Colorado, and Winnipeg. Maybe it's the constant stream of reminders via social media, but we're still having trouble leaving California behind. Living there for five years simply spoiled us for the rest of the country. We appreciated it while we were there, but we appreciate it even more now. Minnesota has its pluses, although there are extra complications that arise from them. We're still adapting.

It was a satisfying year creatively for me. I won first prize in the People and Families category of the Shoreview photo contest in the spring and the grand prize in the fall. I also spent a lot of time on my short film, even prioritizing it over my regular photography habits. It wasn't finished until 2016, so I won't include a link here in my 2015 recap. I will post it once I figure out what I want to say about it.

That's it for now. My Peas blog has a better memory than me, so I encourage to click around over there if you want to see more about our year. 2016 is off to a good start and may include some changes for us. Let's stay in touch.

2014 recap

© K. Holly Photography

Okay, I'm going to sit down and finally knock this out...

There are four of us now.  Our son, Omri, was born in September and we sure like having him around!  He's just the sweetest little guy you'll ever meet.  The way he'll flash a smile or let out a loud "Ah-goo-goo!" in quiet room just melts my heart with cuteness.  It really does feel like he completes our family.

Veronica is now four years old and has taken her position as head of the household.  She's incredibly precocious and wants to play, play, play (or watch videos or read books) all the time.  She has developed a sense of humor that would fit right into a Cottage Cheese movie.  She's helping me think up sketches for the sequel!

R was pregnant for the first three-quarters of the year and then we were busy taking care of an infant for the remainder, so we didn't get out much and spent a lot of time settling into our new house.  Our bigger projects involved replacing the deck and finishing the basement (with help, of course).  I don't know if the place will ever truly be "done," but it's getting closer to the way we want it.

2014 wasn't a big year for travel.  We did manage to spend our spring break visiting our old home of Santa Barbara. We also camped a few nights up at the Winnipeg Folk Festival and made a few weekend trips, mostly to visit our parents in northern Minnesota.

It was our first full year in this state since 2003.  It's been an adjustment, especially the parts about being away at work for 10 hours a day and caring for a second child.  I will find a good balance between family, hobbies, and work and then something will change and knock it out of whack again.  But there is this calmness that has settled in me or a patience in knowing that I have all the free time I need -- it's just spread out over the rest of my life.  I think that comes from being in a place that feels more permanent.

Speaking of patience, 2015 may or may not see the release of a short film I've been working on for almost a year already.  There's a little more information about it in the 1000th post on my Four Peas blog. Lastly, let me promise you this: I will publish the next part in my "Early works revisited" series this year.

Take care, everyone.

2013 recap

© Kacie Jean Photography

2013 was a year of change for us.  We moved from California to Minnesota, and two months after arriving in Minnesota we moved from the city to the suburbs.  I started working in a real office (still for Ameriprise), R started a job with a new company (Boston Scientific), and Veronica went from alternating days with daycare and a nanny to attending a Montessori school full-time.

Living in Santa Barbara felt like a great secret that we had stumbled upon.  It seemed if other people knew what the place was like, everybody would want to live there.  Even when we were busy caring for a child or working hard to afford the higher cost of living, there was something about the place that made it easy to get out of bed in the morning.  After five years of living in fear that this paradise would be taken away, we brought the change upon ourselves.  R found her new job in July, and we were embarking on our giant road trip a month later.  It felt fated to work out the way it did, and the timing just made sense.

Veronica appears to be handling the shift well, but there are times when it's clear she misses our old home.  It's a complex, human reaction that changes from day to day. She has such a good memory.  She'll still pull out things about the place that I had totally forgotten about or little things I hadn't paid attention to.  Seeing her "write" letters to her old friends or hearing her talk about the fountain outside our old condo breaks my heart.  Where we are now feels more permanent and that is comforting to me.

We sort of became numb to big, life-changing decisions.  It felt like we rolled the dice on a lot of them and eventually looked to see where we ended up.  We reverse-90210'd ourselves to a more conventional path.  That's not a bad thing.  Our mortgage is a third of what it was.  And it is really nice to be able to visit our families without requiring a flight and a week of vacation to do so.  I miss the extra time with Veronica that working from home allowed me, but seeing her with her grandparents more frequently helps make up for that.

Due to the move, our travels were scaled back in 2013.  We did make some small getaways to Pine Mountain, San Diego, Disneyland, Monterey, and Yosemite National Park.  We also spent a week visiting family in Minnesota before we realized we'd be living there shortly after.  But the most memorable trip was probably our "transitional journey" from Santa Barbara to St. Paul.  We stopped at Disneyland (again) and the Grand Canyon along the way.

I managed to work on a few creative projects during the year, most notably this scaled-back performance video, and I finally started my long-term retrospective blog series.  I'm hoping to continue with some similar projects in 2014.  And as always I'd also like to get more serious about my photography, if I can find some inspiring light in Minnesota.  You can keep up with our family photos over on my other blog, although I have to warn you my output has slowed considerably since the move.

I need to get this posted.  As usual, the longer I spend on it, the shorter it gets.  Cheers-

2012 recap

© Kacie Jean Photography

Well, there you have it -- only two posts in 2012 and one of them was a recap of 2011.  I also got about half way through the yet-to-be-published first entry in my video retrospective series.  Maybe I'll finish it (the entry, not the series) in 2013.

No, writing hasn't been much of a priority lately, and I'm fine with that for now.  Photography has been my go-to hobby partially because I'm able edit photos during breaks from work but mostly because I love having a visual record of my family, especially of our darling Veronica who is growing up so fast.  Her first 2+ years are documented pretty extensively over on my photo blog if you want to take a look.

Yeah, V has been growing in leaps and bounds.  After a brief introduction to the concept, she took the initiative to potty train herself.  A few days later she was done with diapers completely.  I was so impressed.  Right now she's into Mickey Mouse, macaroni & cheese, pretending her bed is a car, living room dance parties, and picking out her own clothes for the day.  Her imagination and use of language have really taken off and brought on a whole new world of cuteness.  And, wow, is she smart.  Last night she uncovered our secret hiding spot for cookies.  We can't slip much by her anymore!

Life has settled into a somewhat steady rhythm split between working our jobs, caring for a child, and trying to fit in an hour of TV once or twice a week.  We're still in Santa Barbara and still with Ameriprise and DuPont.  This is the longest we've lived in one place since graduating from high school, so that itself feels like an adjustment.  I've never been sure how attached to get to a place, but it's safe to say we've established a deep enough connection with this town now that we'll never be able to fully leave it behind.  Even if we were to move away for a while, I think I'll want to retire here.  But that's obviously a ways off.

We vacationed in Hawaii, Portland, and Minnesota in 2012 and made smaller trips to Montaña de Oro state park, San Diego, and Los Angeles.  Now that V is two years old and an extra ticket is required for flights, we'll be taking to the sky less.  R, the trip planner in this family, is working out the details for some upcoming road trips.  I'm really excited to do more camping this year.

Well, I don't want to put this blog post off any longer, so I'm going to hit Publish.  I hope your 2013 is off to a good start.  See you on the information superhighway-

2011 recap

© Kacie Jean Photography

I'm finally getting to this recap almost a third of the way into 2012.  I actually did start writing it on New Year's Eve, but my thoughts had since dissolved.  Each time I revisited the entry, it got shorter and shorter and now I'm starting from scratch... except for the first line below.  That still rings true.

I'm glad 2011 is done, but I already miss it.

Our first full year with a baby is behind us, and it went as fast as everyone said it would.  For some reason I expected it to get easier as the year went on, but I was wrong about that.  Looking back, the first few weeks and months after Veronica's arrival were a honeymoon.  The challenge started later, when I realized my new responsibilities weren't going away any time soon.  Raising a child is not a sprint.  It's not even a marathon.  It's more like running for the rest... of... your... life.

Many of you are parents so you know how much time and energy it takes.  Sometimes it feels like there's not enough left over to be a good husband, employee, son, or whatever other role I hold.  For a people pleaser like me, that can cause a lot of stress.  Veronica went straight to the top of my priority list.  And everything and everyone else dropped a notch.  That might not have been "right" or necessary, but it's what happened.  My dealing with the rest of the world dealing with that fact -- or at least my perception of their dealing -- was the negative side of 2011.  Balance is important and, for a while, it felt impossible to find.

One thing is for sure: my love for Veronica has grown every day since she was born, and I loved her a lot from the beginning. She is everything I could want in a daughter and so much more than I could have imagined.  Seeing her grow up makes me so happy and so sad at the same time.  I miss the little baby she was, yet I am so excited to see the person she is becoming.  R and I are so lucky to have each other and to have her.

So what else did we do last year?  To be honest it all feels like a big blur.  Looking on the Three Peas blog, I see we traveled to Cambria, LA, San Diego, Colorado, and Minnesota (four times as a family and once on my own for work).  I'm still working from home for the same company.  My hobbies and exercise still make an occasional appearance, although I'm less obsessive about them.  I still love Santa Barbara and still miss being in closer proximity to our relatives.  Being a part of my own (three-person) family now makes it easier and more difficult being away, which is just another example the contrasting feelings I have about the year.

2012 is off to a good start.  I've already met some goals by getting out camping once so far and by taking a public speaking course.  Not sure I will have the chance to jump into many creative projects this year, but I'm definitely going to continue the photography efforts and I do want to write more frequently on this blog.  I'm thinking about starting a new series of entries in which I look back on some older projects I've done.  It will be a way to share/document some of my video work that hasn't been put online yet and also give you some context for it (some of it might be too embarrassing without the context).

So I guess that's it.  I hope to write to you again soon-

2010 recap

2010 was the year little Veronica joined our family. Caring for a baby was a huge change for us and we're still defining the new "normal," but the time since her birth on October 24th has been filled with more joy than I could have possibly imagined. Our first few days with her, in particular, were the best of my life. I will always remember sitting in our sunny living room for hours and hours just watching our Vera-bean sleep. We shut out the rest of the world, listened to a lot of gentle music, and became familiar with this new person. It was absolutely love at first sight, if not earlier.

Most of the rest of the year was spent preparing mentally and physically for Veronica's arrival, but we did manage to travel a bit during the pregnancy with trips to Sonoma county, Washington state, France, and of course Minnesota. But you know what, my favorite place in the world remains here in Santa Barbara.

In addition to the birth, other notable milestones included celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary and R's 30th birthday. There has been so much reason to celebrate this year.

Hobby-wise, writing and video work have been on the decline, but my fun with photography has been on the rise. Veronica has been a huge inspiration and my new favorite subject for photos. I started a new web site in 2010 to showcase some of the pictures I've been taking of her. Free time has been short, but editing photos is so much quicker than editing video for me, so I've been fitting it in. And I just love having a record of our little girl growing up.

It has truly been an awesome year. Very few days go by when I don't think about how blessed I've been. What more could I want? Happy New Year, everybody!

2009 holiday letter

We didn't send out a holiday letter this year, but if we had, it would have looked something like this...

Happy holidays, everybody! It's been another memorable year and once again we're so thankful to be healthy, employed, and blessed to have all of you as family and friends.

This year has had its share of professional developments for the two of us. Jeff recently took a position as a Technical Analyst for Ameriprise Financial. He continues to work from home but makes occasional trips to the office in Minneapolis. He's grateful for the additional opportunities to visit family and friends while he's there.

Raia remains with DuPont and is excited to see the display technology she is helping develop move closer to fruition. She recently submitted some of her work for possible publish and presentation at a national conference. One day you might be watching an OLED TV with a good chance that Raia helped make it possible.

Work keep us pretty busy, but we still try to get out and see the world when we can. This year we camped in Joshua Tree, Yosemite, and Sequoia national parks; skied at Mammoth Mountain; attended weddings in Massachusetts and Minnesota; and wrapped it up with an adventurous vacation in Costa Rica (blog entry still pending).

Other than that Jeff has been working on some music videos, Raia has been taking some pottery and cooking classes, and both of us have been enjoying life on the sunny coast of California.

Have a great 2010!

2008 holiday letter

Here's a copy of the holiday letter we recently sent out. If you've been following Midnight Toast / Jeblog for a while it won't be anything too exciting for you, but it makes for an easy post and maybe some of my newer readers can use this to get up to speed on my situation.

Jeff and R here, wishing all you dudes and dudettes a happy holiday. Please note our new address on the envelope if you haven't already recycled it. In June we left Delaware to make a new home in Santa Barbara, California!

And so we've begun to explore the west. Since the move we have visited LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Montaña De Oro State Park, and Zion National Park. There's still plenty more to see, and we plan to see it, but it can be hard to leave Santa Barbara. Our condo is located two miles from the beach and about the same from the mountains, making it very easy to get outside under the sunny skies for a hike, bike, or swim. Y’all should stop by for a visit. We have a guest room ready for you.

R was transferred here by DuPont to research and develop the future of display technology: Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). It's an exciting business and technology to be involved in, and R enjoys the challenges it brings. She also finds time for yoga, kickboxing, ceramics, and sampling new restaurants. One of her goals for 2009 is to try surfing!

Jeff was able to keep his job after the move and work out of the new house, making for an easy commute and the freedom to stay in his bathrobe all day. The software company he worked for was purchased by the massive Oracle Corporation this year and the transition has kept him on his toes… but he still manages to have at least one video project underway at all times too. Oh, and Jeff started skateboarding this year.

We will also remember 2008 for the two weeks in February we spent in New Zealand. This trip had us climbing on glaciers, hiking in rain forests, jumping off cliffs, kayaking through fjords, swimming with eels... it was an adventurous tour through an extraordinarily beautiful country. We feel so lucky to have had these opportunities to explore the world. You betcha.

The best gift of Christmas is sharing our lives with friends and family, in spirit if not always in person. We hope this holiday brings you peace, love, and joy into 2009.