2025 - Trapezes, Boxing gyms, Musicals and a dog. The Watson's year in review.
Word for the Year? Adventurous.
Helen Keller said that, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” and for everyone in our family , 2025 held more than a few adventures. This year held opportunities for us to try new things, to explore new landscapes of life, to set off in new directions, and test ourselves in ways that showed us how beautiful we are and how full life can be when we take a few steps out from the comfortable and familiar.
We (Lisa & Matthew) Turned 50
For Matthew & Lisa, 2025 was the first year of their 50’s marking a significant milestone of life filled with its own sense of adventure, uncertainty and memberships to exclusive clubs. To mark the occasion, we celebrated like the hip 50 year olds we are. Matthew threw a 70’s themed party in our basement bar and a few months later, Lisa channelled her childhood days by throwing her birthday party at a neighborhood roller rink. In both instances we danced our butts off, had loads of fun with dear friends and woke up the next morning more sore than we want to admit, but with smiles on our faces even still.
Towards the end of the year, we travelled to the UK. We spent time consulting a group of churches in London, and exploring the streets and castles of Edinburgh, Scotland. So much of our marriage has been spent rooting ourselves in urban neighborhoods in America while also exploring farther flung places in the world and we don’t sense that will change for us anytime soon.
Annelies’ Adventures
In 2025, Annelies continued to stretch her artistic legs. This year she was one of the lead roles in her school’s Spring Musical, “Anything Goes” where she played the role of Billy Crockett. She sang beautifully, and filled her role with comedy and slapstick that brought the house down.
In the summer, Annelies travelled with Lisa to Spain where the two of them hiked a portion of the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage trek that dates as far back as the 9th century. Annelies and Lisa made the week long trek, traveling nearly 50 miles on foot, with a few other Spanish pilgrims they met along the way that made the journey sweeter with their encouragement and hilarity reminding Annelies that new friends can be made anywhere in the world and joy translates into any language.
Steady Elias
Elias has continued to thrive as an athlete particularly on the football field. This year, Elias switched teams joining a great squad that finished as one of the top teams in the DC area. Joining a new team your senior season is never easy, but Elias made a tremendous impact on defense and special teams. He also joined his schools basketball team for the first time and has enjoyed playing with friends he’s known since 5th grade.
As he moves through his senior year Elias is seeing his hard work pay off as college acceptance letters, and internship opportunities are showing up on the weekly it seems. He’s got some big decisions to make in 2026, but he’s handling it with the pragmatism, and discipline that have long been Elias hallmarks.
In the meantime, Elias is having a fantastic senior year making the most of it and showing us all what it is to live in the moment, while dreaming about the future adventures ahead.
Nate makes a move
2025 saw Nathan finish his Freshmen year at Temple University where he’s studying Marketing and Advertising. He’s adjusted to life in Philadelphia and at the start of his second year, he got his first off campus apartment with friends. It’s a big step and we’re proud of him and the growth he’s experiencing. He continues to make his way as a photographer and dreams of ways to use the camera to capture the character of people, places, moments and feelings. This passion finds him exploring his new city, but also making regular road trips to New York City, and back to DC.
Nate is a steady friend to those around him and a source of laughter and joy.
Lisa’s 50 things at 50.
Since turning 50, Lisa has been making her way through an impressive list she has created of “50 things to do at 50”. It’s a wild ranging list filled with simple pleasures and life challenges. So far, she’s taken in cherry blossom sunrises, hiked national parks, and planted gardens.
In the Fall she and Annelies began training for the circus by taking a series of Trapeze classes. And recently, she and Nathan took a polar plunge in the 40 degree Atlantic Ocean while visiting Delaware Beaches in December.
When she’s not flying through the air – or flying through life - with grace and ease, she’s continued her work with Missio Alliance, speaking at Christian conferences across the globe, including a global missions gathering in Australia. She’s also a contributing author in the recently released Message Women’s Devotional Bible where she wrote 5 devotionals – a work for which she’s particularly proud and honored.
The Hallelujah Hitman
In the Spring of 2025 Matthew was selected to be one of the competitors in a charity Boxing event that was taking place in Washington, DC. Though a long time fight fan, he’d never trained in boxing, and figured starting at 50 years old was as good a time as any. The event was sponsored by Haymakers for Hope a nonprofit that raises money for cancer research and support. He trained for 3 months and fought in front of a sold out crowd at a local arena in the heart of D.C. His mom, and 50 friends and family came out in support. It was an amazing event and though Matthew didn’t win the fight, he fought well and looks to continue training as a boxer. We are proud of him, and inspired by him as he shows us that you’re never too old to try new things, and even when you’re knocked down, you get up, and keep punching.
Conclusion
2025 wasn’t all adventures. Most of it was just trying to be faithful to the ordinary things in front of us – work, school, being good neighbors, fighting injustice…ordinary, everyday type things. Along the way we also became dog owners for the first time to a rescue named Scooby. This rascal has brought us loads of fun and its own form of adventure.
Mark Twain once said, “years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
As the Watsons head into unknown horizons of 2026, we hope for more adventures – big ones, small ones, ones that make our hearts skip beats and soar all at once.
Dearest friends,
Here’s to a New Year filled with life, meaning, and adventure.
With love, The Watsons.