2025 in Review
We made it—it’s the last blog post of 2025! 2023 was bigger year for CCCH than 2022, 2024 was a bigger year than 2023, and—drumroll, please—2025 was… slightly lower than 2024 😆, which is kind of a bummer because I was hoping to have a big year, but alas, Google updates were not nice to me.
I only published 60 blog posts this year (my lowest total so far), and 22 of the 60 posts were recirculated from years past. I’m planning to continue to recirculate old posts and add in some new posts as inspiration strikes! Sometimes recirculating old posts is relatively easy and sometimes those posts require a TON of updates.
I still haven’t hit my scary monthly page view goal, which is why it remains scary. Maybe it’ll happen in 2026? Fingers crossed! Thank you, as always, for reading and for sharing my content! It means so much to me. 🫶🏻 It’s so exciting to watch this space continue to grow, Google willing (lol).
As I’ve done for the past few years, I went through my 2025 posts and picked out the most read blog posts that were published this year. I also recapped the books I read, picked out my favorites, and recapped my travel. 2025 wasn’t a big travel year for me, but I did visit two new-to-me places!
Perhaps my favorite (or least favorite? ha) part of this post is looking back at my sartorial purchasing trends, including spilling how much I spent on clothes this year (as always, I’ll be sharing my best and worst purchases of the year in their own post next month). We got this, 2026! ✨
READ NEXT: 2024 in Review
2025 in Review
MOST READ BLOG POSTS
READING RECAP + FAVORITE BOOKS
I’ll be sharing my November and December reads shortly, but in the meantime, I finished (or will finish) 52 books in 2025, four of which were short stories and 36 of which were audiobooks. Like in 2024, the majority of the books I read this year were on audio!
I set two reading goals on StoryGraph for 2025: read 50 books and 14,000 pages. I exceeded both! I’m planning to set my 2026 goal to 50 or 52 books and 15,000 pages since I easily passed 14,000 in 2025.
Of note: I finished four books in November and will finish seven more books in December that I haven’t shared yet.
Out of the 52 books I read/will finish this year, my favorite books were Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Funny You Should Ask, The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control, Finlay Donovan is Killing It, Everything is Tuberculosis, Grown, I’m Still Here, and Sounds Like Me! I read a lot of good books but these eight are the ones that stuck with me.
While my TBR list seems to be growing at an alarming rate, I currently own 106 books, 75 of which I have not read. My goal is to narrow that list down some more in 2026! My problem is that I tend to add books faster than I read them. 😆
I use StoryGraph to track my reads! I really enjoy the multitude of fun stats, like your most-read genre, how many pages and books you read every month, etc.! I also love the year-end roundup and am looking forward to seeing mine soon. If you join, add me as a friend—my username is cottoncashmerecathair!
Read reviews of all the books I read in 2025:
TRAVEL RECAP
Compared to 2024, 2025 was lighter on the travel, but I did take week-long trips to Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada) and Alaska! We also went to South Dakota with my family for my cousin’s wedding in the fall.
We kicked the year off in Arizona after watching Boise State play (and lose 😭) in the Fiesta Bowl on December 31. That was a pretty rough trip for me health-wise, and the flight home was one of the worst of my life. I was so nauseous! We cancelled a trip to Seattle in mid-January because of my health issues. Luckily, after some doctors visits, an endoscopy, and meds, I was feeling much better (but still not 100%) by February.
Korri and I spent two back-to-back weekends in Salt Lake City in the spring. We saw Matt Nathanson and Kelsea Ballerini in concert on consecutive nights. We tried flying down and back on guest passes so we didn’t have to do the drive twice only a few days apart, and it didn’t end up working out—we had to rent a car to drive back so Korri could make it to work on time!
The following weekend, we attended NCAA gymnastics regionals hosted by the University of Utah. Boise State was sent there (fortunately for us, if Utah is hosting a regional, Boise State will always be sent there if they qualify because of their geographic proximity!). It was a fun weekend full of lots of incredible gymnastics!
Korri and I traveled again in May when we flew to Haida Gwaii—an archipelago off of the west coast of British Columbia! We stayed in the house his great-great-grandpa built in Sandspit along with his parents, grandma, and grandma’s cousin. It ended up being a fun week; we explored most of the places you can get to via paved roads (and some places off of unpaved roads).
In July, Korri had a milestone birthday and wanted to spend it in Alaska, so we flew up to Anchorage for the first week of July. We managed to do all of his favorite things on that trip, including a day trip to see “the mountain” (Denali) in all its glory with no clouds, a quick trip to Whittier, and a long day trip to Seward to explore Kenai Fjords aboard a day cruise. Korri’s grandparents, an uncle, and a bunch of cousins live up there, so we had lots of family time, too.
Haida Gwaii and Alaska were our two longest trips of the year. In late September, we flew to Seattle to catch about an hour of a Seattle Mariners game (the night after they clinched the postseason) before heading to see Linkin Park in concert. From there, we flew to Omaha and then drove to South Dakota to meet up with my family and attend a cousin’s wedding.
In October, we day tripped it to Seattle to catch game 5 of the ALCS in Seattle! (We previously attended game 3 of the ALDS back in 2022 that went 18 innings.) That was such a fun baseball game—probably the most fun game I have ever attended. It was a must-win situation for the Mariners, and they pulled out the win (only to lose the ALCS in game 7, but alas…).
That was it in terms of travel for 2025! According to my Flighty app, I took 18 flights across five airlines. I did fly two new-to-me airlines, Air Canada and Hawaiian Air (we flew on the A330 from Anchorage to Seattle!). Unfortunately, 2025 was the second and final year of my Southwest Companion Pass, and we only used it twice (coming back from Arizona on January 1 and from Omaha to Boise after our South Dakota trip). Sad.
Idaho Recap
I didn’t write many new Idaho-related blog posts in 2025. I was inspired to share my tips for planning the perfect road trip between Boise and Salt Lake City after doing the drive between both cities three times within one week (and countless times before that). I also shared a roundup of some of the best burgers in Boise! I updated a few other posts, and I’m in the midst of researching for blog posts to come.
I traveled to north Idaho for work. I spent time in Grangeville, Cottonwood, Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, and Bonners Ferry, among lots of little towns in between (and all the way up to the Canadian border)! We spent a LOT of time in the car on this trip but got to see so much of the state.
CLOTHING BUDGET RECAP
Now for the fun part: the annual clothing budget/wardrobe additions recap! 😅 It’s always eye opening to see the stats laid out like this. After December 2024, I added zero new items to my wardrobe in January and February 2025. Most of my winter wardrobe additions tend to happen in December because of the holiday season sales. (I added six items in December 2024.)
In spring 2025, I added eight new items to my wardrobe (including three new tops), most of which I bought in May. March was also the only month I returned any of my purchases this year. I added five new items in the summer (June through August), and all of my purchases were from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in July.
My birthday is in September, but I didn’t buy anything with my birthday coupons this year. In fall 2025, I added 11 new items to my wardrobe. I also added seven items to my wardrobe this December, which will be shared in my forthcoming winter budget update. You can find all of my 2025 wardrobe additions in one place on this Pinterest board.
In total, I spent $1,670 on clothes this year (only $11 less than I spent in 2024). I was well under my $2400/year ($600/quarter) budget! I spent pretty much the same this year as I did last year but didn’t add quite as many items.
Even more random sartorial facts from 2025:
Total number of items added to my closet: 33 (4 less than 2024; this includes items I didn’t count against my budget and may not be on my Pinterest board)
Total number of items bought and returned: 5 (down from 11 in 2024)
Total number of items from my “main” closet sold on Poshmark: 25 (up from 16 in 2024)
Added four tank tops
Added three bike shorts
Added three pairs of shoes
Added two dresses
Added two jackets
Purchased 1 new-to-me item via Poshmark
Spent the most money on a Quince Responsible Down Long Puffer Jacket ($180) and the least money on two Uniqlo Striped Ribbed Cropped Bra Tops ($10.50 each on sale)
Top brands/retailers: Quince, Uniqlo, Nordstrom
New-to-me brands/retailers: Boden
