This has been a busy year for the Colliers! Tartan and Naomi spent 7+ months traveling the globe, and Kayleigh joined for 3 months to visit Italy with them! Molto bello! And from June to mid-October, Tartan and Naomi sojourned through South and Central America: Ecuador, Uruguay, Argentina and Nicaragua. You can read about the adventures on Tartan’s blog: Sailing to Byzantium.
Gilbert and Abigail celebrated one year of wedded bliss in November! Both have been very busy with their respective jobs, Gilbert working for a pipe welding company and Abigail splitting her time between Golden Shears beauty salon and National Youth Theater where she choreographed, taught, and will be directing her first production in spring 2026!
Speaking of wedded bliss: Kyrie and Nick tied the knot in November of this year and are headed off for a Christmas honeymoon in the UK! The wedding was conducted at Point Reyes National Seashore and it was storybook picture perfect. The happy couple asked Tartan to officiate and it was a wonderful experience, although at times there was a bit of competition with the elephant seals for people’s attention!
Aidan continues his pursuit of a degree in Forensic Chemistry at Sam Houston State University. Plans are to finish up at the end of next year if all goes well. Likewise, Kayleigh is taking classes toward her associate’s degree in Communications at Lone Star Community College while at the same time teaching at National Youth Theater – and she’ll be choreographing Abigail’s show in the spring as well.
Jasmine (formerly Alex) continues to live in the Denver area and works in accounting for a local firm there. It seems that the company recognized that Jas’ Excel skills were a perfect match for the company’s need to make sure invoices got paid and recorded properly.
In their first full year of retirement, in addition to traveling to various exotic places Tartan and Naomi have been unlocking new achievements. Both have been working hard to master Spanish; several months’ immersion in various Spanish-speaking countries helped a lot. They have also gotten more involved in Scottish Country Dancing, even being able to dance with the group in Buenos Aires while they were there. Naomi has been learning how to crochet and has made a number of things as gifts for family members. Tartan has been leveling up his technical capabilities by learning how to self-host various digital services for the family to use. So he’s added things like Docker containerization, server virtualization, and networking to his repertoire.
As 2025 draws to a close we have to acknowledge that this past year hasn’t been without its challenges. But there have also been a lot of joyful moments and delightful experiences and we hope that our little snapshot of the Year That Was brings you a smile. We are thankful for family and for friends near and far. May God bless you this holiday season, and may your 2026 be full of life and adventure!
