The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

Welcome to 2025! That means The Matrix came out a little over a quarter of a century ago and I feel quite old as a result 🙂 . But enough about my existential crisis 😉 – let’s see what I got up to in December 2024!

What Does “A Purple Life” Mean?

I Moved To Upstate NY

After almost 3 months galavanting around Europe, my Partner and I headed back to Upstate NY to spend the holidays with his family. My experiment of trying out fall and winter weather for the first time in a year didn’t go so well (I’m going back to my 65F and sunny ways overall…), BUT what went really well was visiting family for the holidays.

It was wonderful to do activities straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie and generally be around amazing human beings that are my chosen family. I’ve also noticed that I’ve been feeling some FOMO lately because my Partner’s family all moved back to the same area in 2024, so we got to see on our Group Chat all their random fun hangouts while we were on the other side of the world.

I still love traveling, but I suspect the FOMO has officially gotten to me and we’ll stay in the area more this year. I’ve even been toying with the idea of getting an apartment there, but I doubt I would do that if we’d still be traveling most of the year because the place would sit empty, which seems like a waste. And I have no interest in getting a job in retirement by being a landlord to rent it or Airbnb it out when we’re not there. So these vague ‘homebase’ thoughts are just something I’m contemplating in 2025.

I’m building more family time into my plans going forward so we can be present see them more often and also be there to see our niblings grow up. They’re growing so fast!

I Changed Ad Networks!

I’m currently in my transition period between Monumetric and Journey By Mediavine, so in the next few days while I’m transferring to “Journey,” if you see some new stuff happening on this blog that’s why 🙂 .

As you might suspect if you’ve been reading these recaps for a while, the impetus for this change was a few of you reporting having tech issues with my site. After I wasn’t able to fix the problem for everyone with all of the steps I, my webdev Partner, and my previous ad network could come up with, I was thinking about either changing ad networks or getting rid of my ads altogether.

However, I heard about Journey (a new option by Mediavine for sites with at least 10,000 sessions) and learned that they have had no reported issues with page jumping, sites crashing, iPhone/iPads heating up or anything else that has been happening to some of y’all when you visit my site. So I’m hoping this new network will fix the problems for everyone. I really want this to be a great reading experience and I hope this is a good step towards that.

I Applied For A UK Visa

In travel news, the UK and the EU are going to require US citizens to apply for visas before entering their countries. The UK is implementing this on January 8th and you can currently apply. So I applied for our summer travels since visa applications are rarely smooth in my experience, especially newer ones.

I’m glad I had my Eurotrip last year before all of this was implemented and had no trouble bouncing around different countries. This is just one more thing to do in order to travel to a country, and like adding anything to my to do list, that makes me less likely to do it 🙂 . Maybe that’s their intention – I don’t know.

I procrastinated signing up for the visa and by the time I checked the application process again, the UK visa had introduced a new requirement: you now have to download the UK ETA App on a phone with NFC to apply for a visa. And my phone didn’t have NFC 🙂 .

Hilariously the UK government website says that if you can’t use your phone, you should borrow a friend’s phone – so secure 🙂 . Luckily I was able to borrow a family member’s phone and apply with that.

And ridiculously, the reason that the app requires NFC is so that it can read passport chips…and that function didn’t work when neither I nor my Partner applied for the visa. We had to manually enter additional information after the NFC failed to read our passport chips. So that’s annoying 🙂 .

I wasn’t even able to download the app onto my phone because it said that my phone didn’t have the capabilities needed and then those capabilities didn’t even work. At first I thought it was just the phone I was using, but my friend who is visiting the UK with us (and was the impetus for this trip), said that it didn’t work on her phone or her mother’s phone. So it seems to be a universal issue.

However, on the positive side, I was able to apply for each of us and we both heard back 13 minutes later that we were approved. Woohoo! That’s one thing off of my to do list. Next up, applying for the EU visa once it’s live so we can go back to Iceland in the fall.

I Bought A New Phone

This is news because there’s nothing wrong with my old phone and I think this is the first time I’ve replaced an electronic device that didn’t have any issues. I just wanted a newer phone after running into issues from not having NFC (with the UK visa above and on the JFK AirTrain), and I have been looking for a better phone camera for years. I have also been interested in other recent features such as water resistance and wireless charging. So I finally dove in!

I bought a Google Pixel 8a for $299 through my global cell provider Google Fi, which is 40% off its standard price. And I’m loving this phone so far!

I’m planning to give my old Moto G Stylus (2020) to a family member for them to enjoy. In the meantime, I’m going to get used to this still strange new world of a lightning fast phone processor, face unlock and a gorgeous phone camera.

I Played Video Games

After realizing how much I spent on Sims 4 expansion packs last year, I thought about slowing down…and then I ‘accidentally’ bought the Snowy Escape Expansion Pack for 60% off during yet another sale. I mean I kinda had to because the world is based on Hokkaido in Japan where I’m going this month. I just had to 😉 !

I’ve also been on the high seas this month playing Sea Of Thieves. I was happy to see a few less bugs when playing this time around and was ecstatic to hear that the game has added some new features. When you are in Safer Seas they’ve increased the amount you earn from 30% of what you earn for the same items in High Seas to 100%! This does come with some added limitations, but I don’t even care. I just like exploring islands for treasure on my own server free of internet strangers (no offense 😉 ).

This month I also got back into Stardew Valley and luckily didn’t fall down the rabbit hole again and play 60 hours in a week (like last time…). It was nice to get back to that cozy game. I also tried out Fields Of Mistria, which I was told is a similar game.

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

Other than those virtual hangouts, I also put my introverted nature to the test by hanging out with gobs of family this month. I color-code my calendar based on what I’m doing and pink indicates something social.

Here’s What Retirees Do All Day! (I Recorded What I Did Every Hour For 4 Years Of Retirement)

My calendar was drowning in pink this month – in a good way 😉 . I suspect this will lead to a bit of a crash in January that will make me become a hermit for a hot second, but for the moment, I’m just enjoying being surrounded by loved ones.

I Read 12 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told) by Dr. Karen Tang
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright
Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here.

As I mentioned in my annual goals post, my final number for books completed in 2024 was 220. It’s not the 250 of 2023, but that was so wild that I doubt it will happen again. 220 is still way higher than my goal of 52 and I’m curious to see what my reading will look like in 2025.

I Wrote 9 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

The reason there are more than double the number of posts up there is because I did PurpleMas this year!

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It was as challenging as I thought it would be, so we shall see if I’ll hibernate again next year and make this a special treat tradition instead of an annual one.

In “how is this my life?!” news – two articles about me went live on CNBC and one was even trending for a hot second. Here they are:

I was surprised to hear that this journalist at CNBC still wanted to interview me after I said that I am anon online. Usually with major publications that’s where our discussions have ended, but no. She was super kind and figured out how we could make it work.

And in this month’s episode of ‘who offered me money for weird things I declined’ there were these gems:

A tampon company
An overpriced sunglasses company (I’m a Zenni girl for life)
A financial influencer marketing agency

Physical

Sleep

This month I got COVID for the first time. My friend told me she should give me an award for being the only person she knows who avoided getting it for the longest time while also traveling the most. Luckily it was very mild, I got over it quickly and don’t seem to have any lingering effects, but that did mess with my sleep for a few days and made me add this sick emoji to my chart to cap off 2024.

Food

I’m really impressed with myself this month. Despite it being the holidays with delicious treats everywhere, I ate keto for 81% of the month and only took 6 days off keto. I was able to reach a record of 30 lbs lost this year and finally found a food balance that makes me feel good while I also eat my way across the world.

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Exercise

I finished 2024 strong! I had the goal of running more in 2024 than in 2023 and I did it despite all of the setbacks this year that I’ve talked about in previous posts, combined with the many freezing days I experienced this month along with the ice, snow and COVID that came with it. But I did it!

Celebrating 3 Years Of Running: My Progress and Revelations

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

The Holidays

This month I learned that male and female Reindeer have antlers and that a set of antlers are called “racks”.
The song “The 12 Days Of Christmas” was first published in 1780 and some people speculate that all the items mentioned in the song (not just the obvious ones) might also be birds. I don’t know if this is just a result of our wild birder brains, but in looking into this possibility I learned some weird things about birds that I did not know and will list in the bird section below. Though this possibility would also mean they ate all these birds…

Astronomy

December is when the Geminid Meteor Shower happens, which I’ve been lucky enough to see in previous years, but this year it was cloudy on all of the peak days of the shower. Oh well 🙂 . Hopefully I can see it again next year.

On a positive astronomical note, I got to see all of the Planets that were in the sky during clear nights (specifically Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) as well as the Cold Moon and the last Major Lunar Standstill until 2043.

Birds

This month was pretty bird-filled, which I love 🙂 . Here are some of the birds I saw this month:

Bald Eagle, Dark Eyed Junco, Red-Tailed Hawk, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Canada Goose, Black-Capped Chickadee, House Wren, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, American Crow, Eurasian Nuthatch, Pileated Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron

Now let’s get back to the 12 Days Of Christmas 🙂 . Here are what people speculate all the days are about if they’re all birds. I’ve included the ones obvious in the song in parentheses:

(A Partridge in a Pear Tree)
(Two Turtle Doves)
(Three French Hens)
(Four Calling Birds)
Five Golden Rings: Ring-necked pheasants because they have white rings around their necks
(Six Geese A-Laying)
(Seven Swans A-Swimming)
Eight Maids-A-Milking: Doves and pigeons apparently produce milk to feed their young. WHAT?!
Nine Ladies Dancing: Northern Lapwing or Cormorant based on their dancing courting displays
Ten Lords A-Leaping: Grey Herons because of their leaping bird dance
Eleven Drummers Drumming: Common Snipe because they make a drum sound as a courtship display
Twelve Pipers Piping: Common Sandpiper because of their piping call as they take flight

So I have no idea if these were all intended to be birds sneakily 245 years ago, but I learned some fun things along the way so I’m calling that a win 🙂 .

Creativity

My creativity this month went well…and it kind of had to 🙂 . I’m just happy that I was able to write enough in advance that I didn’t feel overwhelmed having 48 hours between posts on Tuesday and Thursday.

I was also able to keep up with your lovely comments and even post a little on Instagram. So all in all, I’m calling this month a success!

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Emotional

My emotions this month were really good especially in the face of getting COVID and the early sunsets, lack of sunshine and the cold. I’ve found that my moods are often influenced by the weather and as a result, I have kept my life in areas that are 65F and sunny, but I’m happy to see that even in less than ideal weather, if people that I love surround me – I’m still happy 🙂 .

Money

This month I hit another all-time high net worth of $912,942.85 and ended the year like this:

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And to wrap up the year, I recapped every dollar I made, every cent I spent and all my money moves for 2024 below:

Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in the last month of 2024! It was a wonderful time overall filled with Christmas celebrations, niblings and lots of people I love (gross 😉 ).

I’m excited to chill in NY State for a hot second before embarking on my adventures for 2025 (Spoiler: 🇯🇵🇳🇿🇺🇸🇵🇪🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇸). Until next time!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

Monthly (2021)

Monthly (2022)

Monthly (2023)

Monthly (2024)

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?

7 thoughts on “The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap”

Claire says:

January 7, 2025 at 2:03 am

Sounds like a fantastic month! Lots of good things in there. And if you’re going to get COVID, now’s the time, it’s evolved to be super mild for the vast majority of people.

I know net worths shift with the market, but that high of over 900k is awfully close to a cool 1 million. Who’d have thought, huh? I assume things are going to cool off at some point in the next few years (though who knows), but you might be a millionaire before you’re 40!

1. A Purple Life says:
  
  January 7, 2025 at 6:03 am
  
  Indeed it was 🙂 . And fair enough – I didn’t even think it was COVID at first because it was so mild. And yeah the market is wild – with only average returns in retirement I’ll be a millionaire at 41 so we’ll see if before 40 is possible 😉 .
  
Anna Smith says:

January 7, 2025 at 5:02 am

We are happy to have you back in upstate! Happy 2025!!

1. A Purple Life says:
  
  January 7, 2025 at 6:03 am
  
  Thank you! Happy 2025!!
  
traveltofire says:

January 7, 2025 at 6:56 am

The homebase bit is something I think about too for when I FIRE, I may just end up subletting my apartment while I travel. Not looking forward to applying for an EU visa but I think it should be valid for a couple of years. Enjoy Japan! I’m heading to Tokyo and Hakodate in Hokkaido next month.

The Orchard says:

January 7, 2025 at 7:26 am

So you can’t enter the UK unless you have a phone that’s new enough to run their visa app?! I really dislike this trend of forcing people to own a smartphone to participate in society.

I have an older Pixel version that doesn’t have NFC. The battery life is still pretty good, and I want to keep it as long as possible. It’s helpful (though annoying) to know I’ll have to upgrade if I plan on traveling to the UK any time soon.

Bonus trivia about reindeer: Male reindeer shed their antlers in winter, but female reindeer keep theirs. So if you see Santa’s sleigh being pulled by reindeer with antlers, you know those are all girls!

Sharon says:

January 7, 2025 at 8:34 am

Happy 2025! I FIRE retired in August at 57 because of your story and others like yours. We are about the same net worth. I have a paid off home and spend thriftily; however, when do you finally say, “I’m good where I am?” I am wondering if I need a part-time job, or something, but I am never going back into PR/Marketing – that is for sure. Thanks for giving me hope.

The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

I Moved To Upstate NY

I Changed Ad Networks!

I Applied For A UK Visa

I Bought A New Phone

I Played Video Games

I Hung Out With People

I Read 12 Books

I Wrote 9 Posts