2025’s Top Ten Blogs

I continue to play catch up on my look back at 2025. Usually I have these things up in early January. I guess I need to plan a bit better next year.

I went back and checked out the stats from 2025 and made a list of the ten most popular blogs viewed last year. I’ll present them in just a moment. I’ve seen a few other bloggers who have looked at their stats and felt like they may be skewed a bit. They were also bombarded with visits from robots from China.

Other blogs had well over a million views from these Chinese bots. This humble little blog almost did the same. Despite those stats, I believe that the 10 most viewed blogs are truly represented. Many of them have been in my previous year’s Top 10 lists.

The numbers in parenthesis represents a rounded number of views. Here are the Top 10, should you want to revisit:

10. Making Spirits Bright (3100)

From 2022, the blog talks about getting ready for Christmas. It is fun to see the kids so young in these photos. It is also a bit sad, because this was the year that my sister-in-law, Grace, passed away.

9. Share Your Nostalgia Round 3 Wrap Up (3300)

This year I thought I’d host a few topics based on nostalgia. One of those was about your favorite cartoon or cartoon character. There were a lot of fantastic picks by the guest bloggers who participated. This blog was my wrap up to the topic.

8. Share Your Nostalgia Round 3 – Max (3400)

Max from the Power Pop blog has written more than one guest blog for me. He took part in the Share Your Nostalgia feature and picked one of my favorite characters – Underdog

7. The Music of My Life – 1985 (3500)

Another feature that wrapped up earlier in the year was The Music of My Life. I featured my favorite songs from every year that I’ve been alive. Only 1985 made it into the top 10. ’85 was a good year for music, but I’m surprised that some of the other years didn’t show up first.

6. Some Favorite TV Episodes (3800)

This blog was from 2019. It was part of a blog-a-thon that I keep meaning to participate in, but haven’t recently. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it when it is announced. This one features The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone, and WKRP in Cincinnati.

5. Guest Blogger: Beatles Covered Songs (Max Part 2) (4500)

Max from the Power Pop blog gets a second entry in the top ten. Max is a Beatles fan like me and this is his second Beatles write up featured on my site.

4. Fatherly Observations (5040)

Written just 19 days after my daughter was born and a couple weeks before Covid shut down the world. For those who don’t know, there are 13 years between my second oldest son and my daughter. I find this humorous to look back on now.

3. Why No, I Haven’t Seen That (5090)

This is a rant from 2019. This blog may have been pushed up the list by those Chinese Bots. It is about how I used to have to watch popular shows for my radio gig, but no longer have to now. It also talks about a lot of the “hyped up” shows that I don’t watch.

2. List: Top 50 Overplayed/Hated Songs (8700)

This is simply a list. It is a list of songs that people felt were overplayed or songs they hate. The fact that it is this high on the list tells me how passionate and opinionated people are about music.

1. My Top 20 Favorite Christmas Characters (26,000)

This blog goes all the way back to 2018 when I had just started blogging here. It is the one blog that has shown up in the year end Top 10 every year since it posted. It is a very biased list I put together after thinking about all of the Christmas specials I watched growing up. I’ve never felt the need to update it, because I still feel the same.

I did consider a year or so ago writing a list of Christmas movie characters. You know, Clark Griswold, Ralphie Parker, and real people. Perhaps I will do that next year.

Thanks for all your views and comments throughout the year.

Merry and Bright

Before Thanksgiving, there was a perfect 70 degree day. That was the day I should have put the Christmas lights up outside. I didn’t. Thankfully, I took advantage of a breezy 50ish degree day and was outside rigging up the lights.

After I finished, the following conversation took place between my wife and me:

Sam: Uh, what’s that big bunch of wires wrapped to the post?

Me: So, there was a strand of lights where only half were lighting up. Those are the ones that didn’t light up!

Sam: That really looks bad

Me:. No one’s gonna see those from outside. Especially in the dark!!

Man logic.

I was not about to go through bulb by bulb to check them. (I actually swapped out the first bulb that was out, but when it didn’t work, I was done with that!). And I certainly wasn’t going to buy an entire new strand of lights! I had already gone through the countless strands and replaced those bulbs that were physically broken. That took enough of my time.

So behind a post, there is a bunch of bulbs wrapped together … And out of site from anyone looking at it from the front.

When all is said and done, it looks good at night!

I really need to do more in the front of the house. I always feel like it’s not enough.

The ground was already hard, so I couldn’t get the stakes in for the large Christmas bulbs we usually put out. So their absence already makes it look “half done.”

I really need to get a big ladder. We don’t have one. I’m sure I could probably borrow one from a neighbor, but I never ask. I would love to do up along the roof. Those icicle lights would probably look good and can’t be that hard to hang.

Maybe next year.

Making Spirits Bright

I saw a thing on Facebook that made me laugh. It said, “It only snows in November because people decorate early for Christmas.” Blame me if you wish, but we needed to brighten things up over this way!

There has been a lot going on in my life, some of which I have shared and some I have kept to myself. We’re all processing a variety of emotions. With the passing of my sister-in-law, there is an extra bit of sadness. Like the song says, “We need a little Christmas!” So we decided to put up the Christmas tree this weekend.

The older the kids get, the more fun this becomes. Andrew was just a couple months old last year, so he was especially excited to see the tree and the lights. He and Ella both “helped” handing me lights. They were both extra giddy.

I had the lights plugged in as I walked around the tree with them. That way I could make sure they were placed evenly and all areas has the proper amount of lights.

Andrew, as you know, is everywhere. He gets into everything! So we debated waiting until closer to Christmas to put ornaments on the tree. We also debated not putting any on at all. We did decide to put the tree topper on, and Andrew was the perfect helper!

My dad commented on a picture of the tree on Facebook. He said he was taking bets on who was going to know the tree down – Ella, Andrew, or the cat! For the record, the cat has yet to get near the tree, which is really odd.

We brought up the baby gate and set it around the tree. It’s the “look, but don’t touch” gate. The kids can still touch it, but the probability of the tree coming down is a lot less.

I decided that certain ornaments had to go up on the tree. As ridiculous as it looks, all the ornaments are on the tree from about a foot higher than the top of the baby gate and up to the top. In total, there are maybe 12-20 ornaments on there.

Every year, we got to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth to get an ornament that represents a big even from the year. We got one for our engagement, or marriage, the birth of both kids, etc. We went early this year and at the time, didn’t really have an “event” to get an ornament for. We opted instead for a plaque for the door with a snowman family on it.

When my sister-in-law, Grace, passed away I decided I was going to get Sam and her folks a memorial ornament for the tree. I had seen a few designs in the Bronner’s catalog, and chose this one.

I had hoped to save it until closer to Christmas to give it to Sam, but I can’t control my face. Let me explain.

I took the kids with me to Bronner’s on a day Sam was home sleeping. I kept the ornaments in my car so she wouldn’t see them. Then a day or two later, she was getting ready for work and said, “I was thinking about getting a Christmas ornament with Grace’s name on it for my mom.”

I must have stood there dumbfounded. My face obviously giving away that I had already done it. Instead of just saying, “That’s a great idea. We should do that.” I knew that she would just go and do it. So I walked out to the car and brought inside.

I’m glad it’s inside and I’m glad it is on the tree. Grace already has a special place in our hearts, and now she will have a special place on our tree every year.

If my tree being up brings snow your way, I’m sorry. We needed something help brighten the season, even if it is early.

Another thing I saw on Facebook this week said, “Don’t you just love it when the Christmas tree is the only light in the room?”

Yes. Yes, I do!