If 2024 was about finding our balance on a tightrope, 2025 was the year we finally decided to build a permanent bridge.
It’s been thirteen years of “us,” and yet this year felt like a series of monumental firsts. We balanced the heavy weight of work transitions and the grief of past losses with the absolute joy of new life and the thrill of finally owning our own home. Looking back, it became clear to us that we navigated the stress of big life transitions by leaning hard into the things that have always kept us grounded: our community, our shared values, and each other.
Here is how we spent our 2025.
Old Traditions and New Vows
We kicked off January exactly how we like—with the final YTE Cookie & Cocktail Crawl with our original neighborhood crew. There’s something about a sugar rush and a stiff drink on January 10th that makes the Wisconsin winter feel a little shorter!
For February 14th this year, it wasn’t just another Valentine’s Day. After years of adventuring together in Eorzea, we finally held our Eternal Bonding ceremony in FFXIV. It felt fitting to celebrate our real-life partnership by making it “official” in the digital world we love so much. Plus, we get to do it again, every year. Now it has become a tradition we look forward to maintaining in the new year.
The Road to Georgia
March and April were defined by one big road trip. We packed up and drove down to Georgia for Tristen and Becca’s wedding. Being there for their big day was beautiful and brought to life the physical friendships we had initially created online. Immediately following the wedding, we got to mix the best of both worlds. Alex, a mutual friend from online that had also made it to the wedding, ended up spending the day with Sam’s immediate family that drove down from South Carolina to see us for a bit. We ventured downtown to get all hopped up on soda at the Coca-Cola Museum and then we all had a sleepover at a very cozy Airbnb. This late winter road trip was the perfect reminder that part of the reason we love to travel is getting the chance to show up for the people we love.
Mending Hearts and New Paws
April brought the biggest shift to our daily rhythm. On April 25th, we opened our hearts again and adopted Dean and Purrly, a bonded calico and orange pair. After the loss of Poops last year, the house felt too quiet. Now, these two have filled it with exactly the kind of chaos we were missing. Their love for each other, and learning their BIG personalities, give us daily joy. Often, we stop each other in the house in what we’re doing just to watch them. Furry family members are healing and we’re glad we spontaneously adopted them,
Music, Magic, and Milestones
The warmer months were a double-header of love and music. We saw I’mWithHer with another of our friends from online, s4xton (always a highlight when he comes through town). The show was incredible enough to bring Sam to tears at on point. Folk music FTW! We also hosted our second Clone Hero charity concert for Rainbow Alliance Advocacy. Later, we headed to Nate and Emily’s wedding to cheer them on as they started their own journey. The wedding day was hot but the wedding itself was so intentional and filled with love. We had a blast and are always honored when people think of us in their big moments. We also participated in the “No Kings” protest march downtown this year, which was our first protest together.
July is always “Birthday Month” in our house and if you’re a regular sBurbols fan then you won’t be surprised by this bit. Between Steve’s birthday on the 16th and Sam’s on the 27th, we managed to squeeze in our annual pilgrimage for Wizard Camping. It’s always memorable getting to catch up with camping friends, however we bailed early on this trip because Sam is unable to tolerate being wet in the rain for more than three hours.
August was full of friends! We were visited by our Canadian friend Cryptid in the first half of the month. The second half included a trip down to Chicago for the second annual Techno Harbor, where we got to see our DJ friends compil3r and Mimick.
The September Surge
If we’re being honest, September 2025 was probably the biggest month of our lives since we got married.
We celebrated our 13th Anniversary on the 5th, and just a week later, we hit two massive milestones in one day. On September 13th, we delivered our first official panel at a local convention we love. Chizu Con was the perfect place to stretch our wings into this area and we had so much fun sharing our co-op game knowledge with others. We learned at a lot and are looking forward to refining it in the new year to apply for more conventions! After our panel in Madison, we met up with some friends we met through Final Fantasy XIV and drove to Milwaukee to sit in awe at Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy.
And then, the big one: On September 23rd, we officially closed on our new house. After a year of navigating the “heavy ups and downs,” holding those keys felt like the ultimate reward. We spent October settling in, which mostly consisted of swapping stories and food with our new neighbors and the simple joy of passing out Halloween candy from our own front porch.
For Steve
Steve spent most of the year hanging out and holding it down. Work was pretty busy this year since his employer bought another company late last year. (No, he has not gotten to meet Shaq – yet). He had a great year with working with Sam on their communities, both online and IRL.
Steve did a little streaming this year with Sam on some co-op games, and streaming games and our charity concert with The Front Porch. He got involved with the hyper-local community of their HOA by becoming the Vice President and attended his first protest downtown.
Steve got more into Final Fantasy XIV this year as well, which has led to meeting up in person with some people from their FC group and doing weekly raids with new friends. He has been thrilled to have adopted their 2 new family members with Dean and Purrly.
He is looking forward to more trips, more friends, more home-automation, and more snuggles with Sam, Dean, and Purrly in 2026.
For Sam
As mentioned above, Sam got accepted and participated in her first “real” market – the Scorpio Market. It was a very warm place to start trying to learn how to sell goods and services at these events. She also did get a tattoo of her beloved Poops the dog. This year Sam also got waitlisted for two conventions for panels she submitted, and one was actually accepted!
She was highlighted in the Twitch Women’s Guild Virtual Artist Alley as well as raised money and awareness for Camp Chaos – a month long charity drive full of art demos and advocates for small artists. Camp Chaos was so much fun and it was the perfect way to spend her birthday morning.
Needless to say, she is still streaming – fairly consistently – and loves getting to check out new indie games and their developers. She also loves organizing communities for fun charity events and or just silly art things. This year she helped organize the second annual Front Porch discord server Friendsgiving and well as the second annual Front Porch Awards show. Getting to give back and highlight others is something Sam finds so much joy in so she’s gonna keep giving it a try in the new year.
Her art also had some huge wins this year, including getting to design the official merch for techno harbor 2025. It was so awesome to see so many people in something she designed. She’s also forever insanely grateful to the people, near and far, that are willing to spare a space for us to crash for free when we need to be in another town. Thank you to all our Chicago friends, our Milwaukee friends, and our family in SC.
Closing the Circle
As the year wound down, we kept things close to home. We blew off some steam at a Rage Room for a friend’s birthday in November (highly recommended for anyone) and returned to our roots on December 4th for the Yorktown Craft Market, except this time, we weren’t tenants of the property.
As we sit here in our new space, reflecting on 2025, we’re struck by how much can change in a year when you have the right person by your side. We navigated the stress, celebrated the wins, and finally found a place to plant our feet in the hopes that they will lead us to more dreams come true.
Here’s to 2026. May it be filled with less boxes to be unpacked and more memories to made.
Happy New Year, everyone. We love you.
