The boys took a few weeks off from taping during the holidays, so it was fun to get back together and have some laughs. All of us have been to San Antonio at some point to see our pal Ruben and his wonderful family, so Eric gave us the rundown of his recent trip there and all the fun times with our friends Down Under. That's what they call Texas, right??

The holidays are often times when families gather to share fellowship, food, and cut-throat games of UNO. We swap stories about how UNO brings out the worst in our sweet, law-abiding loved ones. These are good people, pillars of our community. But put them around a table playing UNO? Oof. Tune in for lessons on effective cheating techniques and learn who are the worst offenders in our crew.

The start of a new year is also a time for reflection on the past year. We decided that in 2025 we would try to learn about new music and hear what the kids are listening to these days. This process was a ton of fun, and we discovered so many cool new songs and artists. From Car Seat Headrests to Wednesday, we find gems from rock, blues, "Americana," R&B, Latin, and everything in between. We found SO MUCH great stuff that we made a playlist with our favorite 2025 discoveries. We want to hear about your 2025 picks, too. Drop them in the comments here or on the Connect More podcast facebook page!

We wrap things up with a Connect More classic: band names! We're not sure if you think it's funny, but it sure cracks us up!

Our producer knows we've seen some stuff, so she asks us about advice we've received that has helped us out along the way. In these shortie episodes we don't hear the questions ahead of time, so we give some off-the-cuff responses about words of wisdom that have helped us become the mostly well-adjusted, fairly decent humans that we are today. As always, we welcome our listeners to drop your good advice in the comments and maybe we'll read some of them on-air in an upcoming episode!

Even tired, beat-down GenX'ers need goals, so we start off with a few things we're hoping to accomplish in 2026. Learning new languages, reading more, sharpening our AI acuity, and learning how to not eat like a 12-year-old are all on our lists. Not bad for a bunch of old dogs, right??

We all spend WAY too much time streaming TV shows, so it might as well be something good. We swap recommendations about our favorite shows. Sci-fi, drama, documentaries, comedies, and everything in between find their way onto our lists. Did we miss your favorite show? Drop it in the Comments - we'd love to check it out!

Now that you think we're all hip & edgy because we're watching these cool shows...we'll bring it back to Earth and reveal how clueless we are about the slang being used by 'kids these days.' We shake our fists at some clouds and gripe about stupid current lingo, but we also think there are a few words we could work into our daily conversations. We'll see how that goes. Maybe this should have been numbered episode 67??

We wrap up with some reflections on pop culture icons and loved ones that we lost in the last year. This whole podcast is about staying connected to the important folks in our lives, so we get grounded in some of the things that really matter. Hope you all take some time to reflect on what matters most to you, too. Happy New Year, listeners!