Holiday greetings! This holiday newsletter 2025 is brought to you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Nelson-George household is happily upholding our eighth-annual recap tradition.
Moving into a new year, we would like to extend our warmest wishes, virtual hugs, and all our love to our family and friends—the wonderful people that make these holiday good-feelings worth sharing. (You.)
Thank you for being an important part of our lives! We’re filled with so much gratitude for each of you.
2025 in review
Table of Contents
Feel free to jump through the sections below.
Major highlights
Winter
Our third Wisconsin winter was one for the books! Though there were more grey-sky days than not, we still found joy in the season.
We filled winter with plenty of facetime with friends. We loved: hosting NYE at our house, two book swap birthday parties, a work holiday party (hosted at the Baird Center), a dodgeball league, a record store photoshoot, a Deer Camp birthday, Galentine’s Day, and an 80’s themed dance party at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Wiffle ball was a major part of winter, especially as my team dominated and took home the championship (for the fifth time). Tuesdays at Broken Bat Brewery with LeftySwagBats Wiffle Ball Club are a high point of our week, year-round. This season, I commemorated the championship with a tiny tattoo (five-stars, of course).
In February, Chad and I whisked ourselves away to escape to somewhere sunny and warm. We spent four days in Ft. Lauderdale, where we pool-hopped, swam, laid in the sun, and spent an incredible day at Margaritaville. This mid-winter retreat was exactly what the doctor ordered.
In addition to my annual magazine deadline, I also decided to step into the world of modeling! It’s been a new and exciting challenge. Meanwhile, Chad discovered his love for steam and became a regular at the lakeside Hot Spell Sauna. Together, we also played pickleball as often as possible, even trying a new indoor facility south of the city.
A few favorite posts from winter 2025:
Spring
In true Nelson-George fashion, spring came with incredible force. We inserted as much fun as possible as we began to thaw and the sun started to re-emerge into our lives.
March was chaotic and busy. Highlights included: seeing the Book of Mormon in Milwaukee, Chad making a batch of beer with our friend Eric, two new tattoos for me, and a St. Patrick’s Day bar crawl.
To celebrate my 30th birthday, we hit the road for Nashville. It was an incredible trip, and I’m so thankful for each of our friends for joining us. Shout out to Alexis, Jessica, Haley, Emily, Kelli, Sam, Brittany, and Bobby! It was such a blast to step into a new decade of life with my nearest and dearest from over the years, hootin’ and hollerin’ around town.
Much of spring was spent on my biggest work project yet: I created the communications plan for the Upper Gunnison Drought Plan. This was a year-long process that involved branding, graphic design, strategic planning, and creating a website to communicate drought planning with the Gunnison community. I’m very proud of what we created!
Chad and I also celebrated Wally’s 5th birthday (I know, we can’t believe it either!).
For the remainder of spring, we continued our fun. We hosted Annie from Chicago, dressed up for Laura and Ryne’s Derby Party, had our friend Jackson’s 30th birthday (tiki themed!), another wiffle ball season, a modeling shoot, and Chad and I began our months-long season for the Graef softball team.
I was also very lucky to spend a wonderful week in Grand Junction with my parents. This ended the season on a perfect high note!
A few favorite posts from spring 2025:
Summer
In true Savannah and Chad fashion, our summer 2025 was packed in all the best ways. We made the most out of Milwaukee’s best time of year! This meant doing our best to enjoy the fresh air, blue skies, and fresh water surrounding us.
Summer started with a balance of travel, activities, and events. These included our first Pride Fest, beer gardens, beach days, our work softball league, and a trip to Oshkosh. I worked outside in our yard on a lawn chair most afternoons, taking advantage of the sunshine.
We celebrated Chad’s 31st birthday with Pints and Paddles—a pickleball-themed party, hosted at Dale Z’s on Tour in Milwaukee. It was a blast, and we loved dinking in the name of another great year!
This summer, we went to more Brewers games than ever. I signed up to be a member of their first-ever Hot Dog Club, which included a complimentary hot dog at every home game. (It was well worth it, in my opinion.)
In July, we celebrated the Fourth with our friends Ben and Nicole, before heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan with Haley, Phil, Megan, and Natalie. It was so fun exploring a new state and city together, and we especially loved the sandy beaches on the other side of Lake Michigan. We also discovered the magic of Milwaukee’s community pools, and I found myself visiting as often as possible.
In August, Chad and I traveled to Minnesota to meet up with my brother Spencer’s family, during their annual home-leave visit from Turkey. My parents came too, and we had a wonderful time with my sister-in-law Mary and her family hosting us. After, my parents came to visit Milwaukee for a few days, and we enjoyed every moment playing host—especially them getting to meet and spend time with our friends.
Within a few weeks, we kept the fun going. We made a quick trip to Water World to celebrate Alexis’ birthday, a visit to Wild Rose, a 3oh!3 concert with Annie, a martini-themed crawl to celebrate Kelli’s birthday, a trip to Lion’s Den Gorge, a final beach day, and the start of a new wiffle ball season.
Like I said, packed to the brim. Summer was wonderful, from start to finish.
A few favorite posts from summer 2025:
Fall
Par the course, our fall remained booked and busy. We kicked off the season with a trip to the Fox Cities, before Chad spent a week inspecting Milwaukee’s iconic Hoan Bridge. Other highlights included a wine tasting event, a coven party, weekly Dancing with the Stars episodes, redoing our guest bedroom (we’re open for visitors), a stay in Ozaukee County, and celebrations of our 8th wedding anniversary and 14th year together.
At the end of October, I went to Denver for a quick work trip. While there, I attended the C9 Conference (representing the Gunnison Basin Roundtable as a public education and outreach coordinator). I also spent time with my parents and their pups, saw Tyler and his family (including meeting my nephew Emmett!), and went to dinner with Alexis, Jessica, Kai, and Cali. It was a wonderful (and busy!) visit.
As fall progressed, Chad and I enjoyed lots of quality time with friends. Like, the fire pit Halloween hosted by Laura and Ryne, a Packers game in Green Bay with Kelli and Sam, a fall-themed day at Basse’s Farms with Laura, Ryne, and the Kirts, a day trip to Chicago with Haley, Wicked (and the branded Chilis margaritas) with Brit and Sam, and another wiffle ball championship (6x!). Chad and I also took a quick weekend trip to Port Washington for some late-fall vibes.
For the holidays, Chad and I opted to stay put again. We spent the day at the Springs Waterpark in Waukesha (there were more people there than you’d think, lol). After, Chad made us a delicious meal of our favorite Thanksgiving foods.
December has been full of festive activities around Milwaukee. We hosted our third-annual holiday bar crawl, an “old ladies night out” birthday party for Brittany, a cocktail competition, James and Michelle’s NYE wedding, and festive displays around town. We’ll be spending Christmas with Haley once again, with an open invitation for anyone to come visit us in Milwaukee!
I’m rounding out the year with a LASIK surgery and brand partnership, my short story getting published in a literary magazine, a great client list in Colorado, and exciting recent modeling work. In January, I’m excited to be walking in the 2026 Haute List Crescendo fashion show at the Bradley Symphony Center.
Chad has found his calling as a sauna fanatic, stepped into wiffle ball games as a ready and willing sub, managed new projects at work, influenced me to read the Red Rising series, cooked almost every meal for us, and listed to 52 new artists throughout the year.
We’re excited to continue loving and spoiling Wally, playing pickleball as often as we can, and making exciting travel moves in 2026 (Hawaii, we’ll see you soon!).
A few posts from fall 2025:
Onward to 2026
As we celebrate the beginning of a new year, Chad and I are grateful for everything 2025 brought to our lives—excitement, growth, happiness, fortitude, friendship, and beyond. It was an incredible season of life for us, and we’re looking forward to see what adventures lie ahead.
Thank you for reading our holiday newsletter and recapping the past year.
Cheers!
Lots of love and sunshine,
Savannah, Chad, and Wally
Established in 2018, Sunshine with Savannah is a catch-all blog with an emphasis on weekend travel, millennial-style marriage and fun, reflection-based musings, outdoor adventure, home design, and all things lifestyle.
Though the content is diverse and varied, the heart of this space stays true to a single, guiding principle: a simple pursuit to find sunshine, wherever I go.
Wishing you two a Merry Christmas and a grand new year filled with much aloha spirit! Looking forward to reading all your positive Hawaii vibes!