Thank You - 2025
Another okay year together!
I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Anonymous, Blue, and I made the trip back to Ohio to visit my mom and three of my four siblings who live out there.
It was a wonderful time spent helping my brother cook, catching up with my sister and her friends, checking in with my brother-in-law, who I haven’t seen in a few years, and meeting the new mini poodle mix dog they now have. I was able to sneak off one morning and have coffee with my oldest friend, who is always great at making the effort to stay connected.
Christmas in Columbus features a Christmas Eve Mass with my Mom, where we drive 35 minutes into the city, skipping over a dozen other churches to attend this particular one, which happens to be the rival parish and school from my childhood. I love pulling into the driveway and parking next to the gym where, as a 5th grader, I shot a free throw OVER the backboard. But Mass here is always worth it. This year’s Mass featured a cantor who has to be an opera singer, and his rendition of O Holy Night was reverent and powerful.
I ate too much, stayed up too late, slept in every day, and tried to convince myself that I recovered from one of the busiest work periods I have had in quite some time. It’s fun to get back home and spend time with everyone. Mom and Anonymous always enjoy being together.
Since we rotate our presence between Ohio and my in-laws in Florida for Christmas, we packed the box of gifts they mailed us. On Christmas morning, we FaceTimed Anonymous’s parents and opened up their presents. They knocked it out of the park this year – by giving us a set of matching pajamas!
My life is sweeter when I get to spend it wearing the exact same outfit as my wife. I celebrate moments when our colors match or when our shoes are the same Vans we purchased years ago. Having her parents assist with this sentimental goal gives me a deep appreciation for them – for knowing the hopes of my inner being.
Blue, who normally hates anything that is put into his body, was a good sport:
The dog hates the car, hates the long drives in the car, but manages to settle in wherever we are staying. Throwing on a piece of cloth doesn’t cause him to breathe heavily like an unhinged phone stalker, as being in the car transforms him into, but as you can tell, he’s not exactly as happy as I am.
But the family picture from this year’s Christmas in Columbus is really great.
Apologies
I gotta apologize for the lack of essays recently. My writing hasn’t been consistent this month due to multiple work commitments that a fundraiser must endure at this time of year, especially in the early stages of a capital campaign. Instead of being a consultant, as I was for almost nine years prior, I have a real job, where I am in charge of everything. It’s fun, challenging, and exhausting all at the same time. So I’m sorry for not delivering like I usually do.
No Labels
To help accelerate that exhaustion, I decided to send out 100 Christmas cards to parishioners with whom I have interacted this past year. Anonymous and I also decided to reinstitute the family’s holiday cards after a two-year hiatus. I was put in charge, and let’s just say the entire process of sending Christmas cards did not bring me any “Christmas Cheer.”
We had a list of 100 friends and family members we wanted to send cards to. One issue I ran into was that I only ordered 80 cards. On top of that, I kept carrying both sets of cards back and forth between work and home, hoping to make it a priority and get them completed. When that moment finally arrived, I was at home, but the labels I used did not cooperate. They kept printing half the sheets correctly, while the other half’s names didn’t fit their individual labels. I spent about four to five hours of my weekend trying to get this done. It was not fun.
Eventually, Anonymous and I had to handwrite the addresses.
If you didn’t get a card this year, it’s because I either don’t have your address or you didn’t make the list because I can’t count. Either way, if you want to be added to (or to ensure you remain on) the now-annual OKH Family Holiday Card Extravaganza, email me your address at Chris@okayhistory.com.
Top Essays of 2025
2026 will be a milestone year in a lot of areas. Right off the bat in the first month, I turn 50. Then the following month, Okay History celebrates our fifth anniversary. Next July, the United States will celebrate 250 years since we declared our independence from our British Overlords, and we will remember what happened twenty-five years ago, the events that unfolded on September 11. I’m sure by the time we reach the end of 2026, we will have another year in which our Cleveland Guardians did not win the World Series, making it 78 years since we celebrated such an achievement.
As I mentioned last year in my Thank You edition of 2024, I’m incredibly grateful for the support I receive. 2025 was another fantastic year for me in terms of growth as a writer (I still need an editor) and reader (I read almost 25 books this year – the most ever). I began the year working intentionally on a few health-related issues (ADHD, sleep apnea, and Cleveland sports fandom, to name a few), and the trajectory of so many things in my life is moving in the direction that I like. OKH has provided me with a consistent, fun, educational space, and I appreciate the fruits it bears for me. I hope you have enjoyed it as well.
So with all of that, let’s dive in with my top five essays of 2025:
After ranking the presidents in 2021, states in 2022, constitutional amendments in 2023, presidential elections in 2024, 2025 was to be the year of political scandals. I was going to rank the top 50 and had done a considerable amount of work curating the list. But after a few months in the surprising second term of President Donald Trump, I had to pause it. It was too much for my mental health to continue to talk about scandals when they were happening every day in front of us.
However, I will say I enjoyed writing about the scandal that was the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Confirmation.
Number Five:
In April, Pope Francis passed away, and I felt it in my gut, which back then was of considerable size.
Number Four:
2025 has challenged me in many ways. Primarily, what does it mean to be a productive citizen?
Number Three:
Reading has many benefits. One of them is it can lead you down a road to explore someone or something you had never known before. Earlier this month, I wrote about the Democratic Senator from Idaho, and it was gratifying.
Number Two:
Finally, 2025 was the tenth anniversary of my father’s passing away. We like to say his death in 2015 was unexpected, but not surprising. I miss him very much, especially during the holidays. He would have loved that cantor at Mass.
Number One:
What do you think of this list? Anything I missed that you would consider top-5-worthy?
State of OKH
Statistically, Okay History remains steady. I grew by about 40 subscribers. So I hover around 400. What’s interesting is how Substack is shaping the platform to keep more people on the platform. But from what I can tell from the data they send me, most of the people who read my essays get them via email, rather than Notes, which is Substack’s version of Twitter, and one of the places I post my essays (along with Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky).
I still don’t understand how Notes work. I grew my Notes followers to over 1,000, but I don’t get much interaction, despite a good number of people. In fact, 2025 was the least amount of interaction (comments and likes) I have had in the past four years. I’m trying to figure out how to increase engagement, but I also know I won’t be able to invest a ton of time in it.
I have about 15 people who support my work financially. Obviously, I love these 15 people the most.
Looking Ahead
Not much will change in 2026 in terms of the production of essays. I will continue to produce at least two posts a week (Maundy Monday Newsletter and Rankings/Even More Okay/Ask Me Anything/Paid Content), and more if time and circumstances allow. I’ll have a new ranking for 2026, which my neighbor, a history professor (how funny is that?!), brought up with me. It’s going to be quite fun.
Words, Words, Words, will no longer be an edition of Okay History and instead will move to another volume of my writing life that I am expanding into.
Which is the last thing I need to mention. I’ll be spending more time writing in general, in a few more genres. I’ve been working on different content areas for a few years, like submitting flash fiction pieces and poems to various publications.
But concerning OKH, I’m working on a book. Think of it as a memoir about my Catholic faith and my American/Irish Citizenship. It’s always been said we live in “unique times,” but for me, working for the Catholic Church, while an American is Pope, during a time when the Vice President is Catholic, while I’m turning 50, just makes it – to use an OKH phrase – Even More Okay to take chances like this. It will be a collection of essays from here and other pieces I have written. I’ll share more when I can.
Okay, this will be the last essay for 2025. I’ll be back on Monday, January 5, 2026, with our regularly scheduled programming.
Happy New Year! Thank you for being here. Appreciate you.
Feel free to reach out – I’d love to hear from you.
Okay,
Chris
Happy New Year Chris! Give Blue a hug for me.
I prefer to think of myself as your “longest-tenured” friend rather than your “oldest” friend…