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# Open Thread: How Was Your Break?
- URL: https://aftermath.site/open-thread-how-was-your-break/
- Published: 2025-01-06T15:51:21.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-27T17:10:05.000Z
- Author: Riley MacLeod
- Tags: Open Thread, holiday, holidays, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-10-27 13:00

Welcome to 2025, which is starting in earnest with good things–[Games Done Quick](https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick?ref=aftermath.site)!--and less good things–[the US certifying election results](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/06/nx-s1-5217818/january-6-electoral-count-reform-act?ref=aftermath.site), ushering in whatever the next four years of our lives are going to be. Let’s drag our heels a little longer by reflecting on the glory of the timeless sprawl of winter break.

My break was pretty OK– I went to visit my parents in Florida for the first time since they moved there many years ago. For [obvious reasons](https://www.aclufl.org/en/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-floridas-public-restroom-changing-facility-ban?ref=aftermath.site) I wasn’t that psyched to go, but the trip was mostly good. They live in a weird golfing complex, which makes my dad happy and gave me the opportunity to spy on golfers and remember how much I don’t like golf. My sister took me and my youngest niece and nephew to the Everglades, where we saw so many terrifying alligators and also some cool birds. My parents have a giant TV that is positively cursed with [motion smoothing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sor5qTTsOOQ&ref=aftermath.site); I smugly said “Oh, I can fix this for you,” only for them to not be able to find the remote that would allow me to do so. I have failed in my duty as an ostensibly tech-savvy kid.

I also spent some time with my sister’s family in South Carolina, where she lives on a farm full of horses, who let me pet them, and also goats, who for some inexplicable reason I want to pick up and cradle like babies but who mostly ran away to mockingly have goat fun where I couldn’t get to them.

Because I was away, I didn’t get to play as many games as I meant to, though I did start a new run in my favorite game, [*The Long Dark*](https://aftermath.site/long-dark-survival/), instead of doing the more professionally responsible thing of playing more [*Indiana Jones and the Great Circle*](https://aftermath.site/tag/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle). But I did read a lot of books on my travels: a book about [NXIVM](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671288/dont-call-it-a-cult-by-sarah--berman/?ref=aftermath.site), an academic book about [Heaven’s Gate](https://nyupress.org/9781479881062/heavens-gate/?ref=aftermath.site), [*The Rich People Have Gone Away*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670541/the-rich-people-have-gone-away-by-regina-porter/?ref=aftermath.site) (wasn’t as into it as I was hoping to be from reviews), and half of [*Come and Get It*](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665335/come-and-get-it-a-gma-book-club-pick-by-kiley-reid/?ref=aftermath.site), which I’m digging.

And now we’re all back to work and ready (or not) for whatever a new year will bring. What did you get up to? How’s your 2025 feeling so far?