If This Is How 2025 Ends, 2026 Is in Trouble
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for January 3, 2026
We’ve been busy. Like scrolling-through-your-camera-roll-asking-when-did-that-happen busy. The kind of busy where the holidays blur together and you’re not totally sure what day it is, but you’re very confident you didn’t sit still. So before I forget half of it, here’s how the final stretch of 2025 kicked off. This was Christmas Eve morning, starting the day early at church with Avery, Abby, and Luke to pause, reset, and remember the actual reason for the season… before immediately sprinting back into everything else that made the last two weeks feel like a highlight reel.
After church we went to lunch with Grandma Linda and then back to our place to open presents. Christmas without little kids around isn’t quite as magical. It’s calmer, quieter, and nobody’s tearing into wrapping paper like it’s a full-contact sport. Still great, just different. And yes, there was some quiet speculation about how many more Christmases it might stay this way, which is how I found myself silently rooting for the universe to do us a solid and let Miss Sheri get pregnant again.
This was our first Christmas with Avery and Abby as a married couple, so naturally we were thrilled to open a brand-new family wedding photo. Nothing says “welcome to the wall” like a professionally framed reminder that the day actually happened, everyone looked great, and we somehow pulled it all off. It’s equal parts sentimental, permanent, and proof that this whole marriage thing is officially real now.
Luke thought he had absolutely nailed Christmas. Knowing Avery is a former Minnesota Golden Gopher, he bought him a Max Brosmer Vikings jersey, fully convinced he was ahead of the curve. Brosmer, another ex-Gopher, had been signed as an undrafted free agent last offseason and was quietly hyped as the potential secret weapon when things started going sideways for J.J. McCarthy. Unfortunately, when Brosmer finally got his shot, it somehow went even worse. Much worse. By then the jersey was already locked in, so now we’re all rooting for a future redemption arc, because Luke made a bold call, and honestly, that confidence alone still counts as a win.
Ironically, Christmas Day brought us to U.S. Bank Stadium to watch the Vikings take on the Lions, with Max Brosmer starting again after J.J. McCarthy fractured his hand, which felt very on-brand for his season at this point. The good news was it barely mattered. The defense absolutely dismantled Detroit, forcing six turnovers and piling up five sacks while turning the game into a full-on holiday beatdown. Brosmer mostly focused on surviving, the offense did just enough, and the defense handled the rest, making the 23–10 win one of those rare Vikings games that was far more fun than stressful.
The real highlight of the day was the halftime show. Seeing Snoop Dogg take over U.S. Bank Stadium on Christmas felt surreal. I grew up on N.W.A. and Dr. Dre, so Snoop has been in steady rotation for basically my entire life, yet somehow this was the first time I’d ever seen him live. Watching him own an NFL stadium with that same effortless calm, decades deep into his career, was equal parts nostalgia and respect. Not flashy. Not forced. Just Snoop doing what Snoop does. Honestly, it felt like a Christmas miracle… FO shizzle.
The gifts kept giving when we were told we could go down on the field after the game. That excitement lasted right up until we learned that meant hanging around for another 45 minutes while the stadium slowly emptied. And once we finally got down there, it turned out to be exactly what you’d expect: a very large field, a lot of people wandering around, and absolutely no sign of Snoop Dogg, KOC, or Justin Jefferson anywhere. Still, credit where it’s due… the Christmas tree was pretty solid.
Luke was ready to get out of town, so we headed to Chicago for three nights to see what kind of trouble we could responsibly get into. We stayed in River North, which means everything is either a great restaurant, a questionable decision, or both. We did our homework, argued about deep dish like it mattered, dodged the L, and walked around pretending we knew where we were going. Just enough big-city chaos, neon, and winter grit to make it a perfect escape.
We were very intentional about our sightseeing choices. Classic architecture, great lighting, neutral territory. We made a point to avoid taking photos anywhere that could be considered even remotely controversial. Just a calm, drama free appreciation of the surroundings before moving along.
Saturday kicked off at the Museum of Science and Industry, which I loved as a kid and somehow love even more now. The Blue Paradox exhibit pulled me in immediately, massive curved screens, deep blue light, and an immersive setup that makes you forget where the floor ends and the wall begins. It’s beautiful and unsettling in equal measure, laying out the ocean plastic problem without shouting, just calmly making you sit with it. Naturally, we left feeling deeply reflective… and then pondered all of it while drinking a bottled water.
Also loved the space exhibits, especially the new SpaceX Dragon on display. Standing next to a flight-proven spacecraft that’s been to the ISS twice is one of those moments that quietly blows your mind. SpaceX has done more to move space exploration forward in a ridiculously short amount of time than just about anyone… which made it mildly fascinating that the exhibit focuses entirely on the machine, the missions, and the science, with absolutely no mention or photo of the guy who started the whole thing. Curious choice. Probably nothing to read into there.
One of our favorite things to do with Luke is catch live comedy, so a stop at Zanies Comedy Club felt overdue. Turns out we picked a good one. Zanies has been a Chicago comedy institution since the late ’70s and has hosted just about everyone before they were famous or right after they were unavoidable. Think proving-ground energy, low ceilings, tight room, nowhere to hide. We caught the Santa Spectacular, which was basically a lineup of sharp comics treating the holidays with the appropriate level of respect, which is none at all. Loud laughs, packed room, two-drink minimum doing its part, and that perfect feeling of walking out lighter than you walked in. Exactly what a comedy club is supposed to do.
We woke up Sunday and decided to give the Field Museum a shot. I’ll admit it, I went in a little skeptical, fully expecting a tasteful warehouse of stuffed animals frozen in eternal mid-pounce. Turns out I was very wrong. The Field is one of the world’s premier natural history museums, home to Sue, the largest and most complete T. rex ever discovered, plus jaw-dropping exhibits on ancient civilizations, evolution, gemstones, and creatures that absolutely did not sign up to be that terrifying. Somewhere between a 67-million-year-old dinosaur and artifacts pulled from every corner of the planet, I gained a whole new respect for the place. Still some stuffed animals, sure, but now backed by science, history, and enough awe to keep me quiet for at least ten minutes.
I’ve always been fascinated by sharks, so the idea of a megalodon is just absurd in the best way. Seeing these jaws in person really puts things in perspective, mostly that nature once built something whose mouth alone could qualify as a studio apartment. Staring at the sheer size of this thing is the kind of experience that should probably come with a warning label and a therapist on standby. That said, I’m still pretty confident I could take him. Not in the water, obviously. And not alive. Or moving. But conceptually? I like my chances.
We hit a lot of fun bars and restaurants on this trip, but I think we all agreed the Asian fusion buffet at TAO Chicago quietly ran away with the title. TAO is known for doing everything big, dramatic, and just a little over the top, and the food absolutely backed it up. I went in with a loose plan and immediately abandoned it in favor of oysters, sushi, prime rib, shrimp, desserts that deserved their own lighting, and several items I ate confidently without knowing what they were. The room alone feels like you accidentally wandered into a movie set, and by the end we were all full, impressed, and pretending we hadn’t already calculated how long it would take to walk off even a fraction of what we just ate.
We capped off the weekend with a visit to The Second City, which is basically a comedy factory that accidentally keeps producing legends. This is where people like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, and Steve Carell learned how to be funny. We saw The Best of the Second City: Celebrating 65 Years, which is exactly what it sounds like. A tight mix of sketch comedy, improv, and perfectly timed chaos that reminds you why this place matters. Smart, fast, and just reckless enough to feel alive. We walked out laughing, impressed, and quietly confident that if any of us had stuck around Chicago long enough, fame was probably inevitable.
After a whirlwind of travel, we capped off the year with an incredible opportunity to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Chaska at Mason and Lizzie Korkowski’s wedding. There’s something hard to beat about ringing in a new year surrounded by people who are clearly doing life right, dressed up, smiling big, and pulling off a night that felt equal parts elegant, joyful, and effortlessly fun. A beautiful couple, a perfect way to close out the year, and a pretty strong reminder that this is exactly how you want to welcome whatever comes next.
We already love any excuse to hang out with the Korkowski family, but spending New Year’s Eve with their extended clan was next level. Great people, lots of laughs, and an open bar that stayed open long enough to make everyone just a little more interesting and a lot more generous with compliments. Pure coincidence, I’m sure.
The next morning Miss Sheri informed me that I apparently told Ron he looked very handsome. More than once. In my defense, the guy cleans up extremely well and I was just being observational. Purely complimentary. Totally normal. Nothing to unpack here.
2025 definitely gave us a mixed bag of lessons, laughs, and a few head-scratching moments, but this New Year feels like the universe is quietly clearing its throat before doing something big. Call it optimism, intuition, or just leftover confidence from a night that involved questionable hats and good people, but 2026 feels loaded with possibility. Wishing you all a year full of momentum, wins you didn’t see coming, and at least one moment where you stop and think, “Yeah… this is working.”
