This week, my literary journey took an unexpected detour. While I didn't crack open a single book, I immersed myself in a different reading material – the festive and heartwarming world of Christmas cards. So, in the spirit of the season, I present my whimsical, satirical, yet endearing review of the holiday cards that graced my mailbox.

One of my favorite things about this is the repartee between characters. It is reminiscent of the 90s in the sense that the original Image Comics superhero teams were built from a similar story premise and the 90s movies were also a great era of witty banter.

The setting is interesting and unique, allowing games to only take place in Americana Literary settings. I found the book a fun read and very rules-light. It almost seemed like a party game in its design and intent than a traditional tabletop roleplaying game with long campaign settings.

When my younger brother suddenly died early last year, I realized that we don’t know how many tomorrows any of us have left. For years, I have thought about publishing my comics or having a table at a local comic book convention; but I always said I could do it later.

When Jordy died, he had his phone with him. It is really difficult to salvage any information from a waterlogged phone; but I was tasked to do just that.
In the hours and days after we lost the youngest of Smith boys, we all had things to do. My duty was to save Jordy’s phone.

I want to talk about Jordy’s hats. Not his actual physical hats. That would take all day. He had a lot of hats. He had hats for every occasion. Sara grudgingly admitted that any hat looked good on Jordan.

I got married a couple years ago.  So needless to say, I am still in the throws of newlywed life. I am quickly learning how to share my life and living space with someone. Compromises and concessions have become a daily part of living … and it is pretty hard being a native Vermonter.

Our baby is now 13 months old and it has been a beautiful ride of long nights, mini panic attacks at hearing silence, and a series of impulsive laughter and contentment.

Is it possible to be impulsively content?  Yes.

There were a few hallmark moments over the past year that I need to put in haiku form.

As part of the rich and vast cultural expectations of my wife’s heritage, her mother was expected to come and live with us for a period of time slightly before and at a minimum of three months after our baby was born.