Happy Chinese New Year!

And some reflections on last year

Happy Year of the Fire Horse!

And goodbye to 2025, the year of the fire hose — when it felt like we were blasted with too much news, too much nonsense, too much everything. But that’s a topic for another time.

Things with our family were pretty good in 2025 (which didn’t preclude our participation in protests and protestations).

Austin graduated from Connecticut College last May, and then spent the summer visiting friends all over the country, including on a national parks trek out west. His Fulbright to teach English was a little delayed by a student protest leading to a coup in Madagascar, but he made it back to that country in October, to teach in Mahajanga at a high school and at the “American Corner.”

Mari is in her third year at Sarah Lawrence College. When she’s home, she works as much as she can at the West Newton Cinema because a) she loves the place, and b) to fund her world travels. Last year, she spent her spring break in Barcelona, and she is currently in Rome for her spring semester abroad.

Julie and I went hiking (and eating and swimming) in the Azores in April with some friends. And because she can’t get enough of volcanic islands in the Atlantic, Julie then went to Iceland with two college friends to celebrate some milestone birthdays. Julie’s still working at Dothouse Health and Jack’s still at Crackerjack Communications — now relocated to Boston!

And now, photos:

With the kids all over the world, we met up in Istanbul for Christmas and had a wonderful quick tour around Türkiye.

The family in Taksim Square. Pudgy cheeks courtesy of endless samples of Turkish delight.

We enjoyed playing backyard ping pong.

Check out the orange “Marty Supreme” balls. (The movie was okay, but not enough actual ping pong for me.)

My mother came to Newton for a visit and then we all traveled to Lake Tahoe for a Cheng Family Reunion! We loved seeing all the aunts and uncles, cousins, and niblings (that’s nieces and nephews) and had a wonderful time in a beautiful place, culminating in an epic dumpling wrap extravaganza.

Outtake from the film Crazy, Upper Middle Class Asian[-American]s

There was a new “sport” on the Vineyard this summer.

“Jen-ga! Jen-ga!”

The greatest mom-rock band in Boston played Newton Porchfest in a downpour.

Julie and I are also still singing and playing with the Newton Family Singers

Most importantly, we welcomed a new member to the family this year!

Whoops! Wrong photo, that’s Austin with a Malagasy friend’s baby. Why is Austin dressed like Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece? No idea.

This is the new family member below, Seamus! An English Cream retriever, we rehomed him from another family at the end of the summer and he’s now just over three years old. He’s extremely silly, and unabashedly (one might even say “shamelessly”) cuddly.

A handsome fella, we named him Seamus because he looks a bit like a cozy Irish sweater

Unfortunately, he loves getting into mud. Yes, that’s the same dog.

It can be more pleasant to walk him when the water is frozen and the mud is dried up.

A reminder that life can be good, even if your new owners cut your testicles off

We feel very luck to have Seamus in our lives

Welp. That’s it for now. Hope you’re all well!