Lisa's 2025: Bestseller, City Council, and a Kid Moving Out

Hi, friends! As always, here's my year in review for December. I'll admit I write it partly for myself. It helps me reflect, it keeps me honest about some things, and with others it brings back a really lovely memory.

My daughter said the other day, totally fascinated, that she'd figured 2025 would be boring. The year before, she'd turned 18, passed her Abitur (the German university-entrance exam), and started college. What else could the next year possibly bring?

My 2025 in Review: A Bouquet of a Year

And then 2025 turned out to be full of the unexpected and the exciting: a college project trip to Japan, and moving out of the house (“best decision of the year”). It was a whole new life, in some ways, and in others not at all. It was an exciting year for the rest of us, too. And busy. And all over the place.

The seeds I'd planted after my little crisis of meaning all started to bloom, and every now and then it made me dizzy and I had to rethink my priorities. There were some real highlights that make me very grateful, and that I still need to process. But at first the year got off to a pretty civilized start…

January

The year begins with the funeral of my godfather, who died suddenly. After that, it's off to Hamburg for a girls' weekend, the three of us. I do more interviews for the new book, help out at the cover shoot, and do grief counseling, one-on-one and in groups. I also ride, jog, belatedly celebrate our choir's first birthday at Gaffel am Dom (a Cologne brewery restaurant), and get to go to the Stunksitzung, an alternative carnival show, at the E-Werk, and to a ladies' carnival show in Lindlar.

February

The boys get their midyear report cards, and it's all about finishing tenth grade. I stand at campaign booths, talk to the publisher on the phone more often, meet the last people I'm profiling for the book, perform with the choir, go to Dortmund for the final rally of the federal election campaign, and get to take some of the kids from my grief support work to a stadium thanks to the FC Köln Foundation. Then Germany votes, and the new chancellor is Merz. At the end of the month, street carnival finally kicks off.

March

The book manuscript is due in the middle of the month. I ride, run, sing, and go to physical therapy 😉. At the end of the month, we visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland with our daughter and her boyfriend, a little educational trip. We sign the boys up for driver's ed and celebrate a great 50th birthday.

April

I attend a seminar at Hopes Angel on babies who die early in pregnancy or during birth. The boys go on their class trip to Amsterdam. I attend the first block of a seminar on conducting difficult conversations, part of my training for emergency chaplaincy, and I give a talk myself on dealing with grief.

One weekend I go to Munich, get to go to a Bayern match at the stadium, and meet some wonderful people (like Maria from the Sternenkindfamilie, or my friend Steffi from the Vereinbarkeitsgipfel, the work-and-family summit). During the second week of Easter break, part of the family goes on a sunny vacation (one kid goes on vacation with another family). I take another first aid course. Better safe than sorry.

May

We kick off the lovely month of May with a May Day celebration, and on the 3rd I celebrate my birthday with a huge choir performance at the town festival with Scharmöör, until at some point the whole market square is singing Happy Birthday. Goosebumps! In the middle of the month, we join friends for the Bergische 25 hike. Otherwise, there are a few campaign meetings and phone calls for the editing of the book.

Then my pony gets kicked and injured and needs surgery. I nearly lose it with worry, but in the end everything is fine. I go to the Life and Death trade fair in Bremen, the boys play the qualifying round for the district league, and my oldest flies to Asia with her college.

June

I run for our town council, so I'm out and about a lot on the weekends. The second block of the conversation seminar comes up, and at the end of the month I'm brought onto the campaign team of a candidate for mayor of Cologne. A hundred days until the election… and it's my first.

I go to a few birthday parties, we go on a pub choir tour through our village and sing outside restaurants and bars, the boys get their midterm grades, and THEY MOVE UP TO THE DISTRICT LEAGUE!

July

We drive to Luxembourg with friends for a Sting concert, and on the way I get a wildly wonderful, surprising job offer by phone, for something I've never done before but would really love to do. The concert is amazing.

As part of the mayoral campaign team, I get to march in the pouring rain in Cologne's Pride parade, and then I have my first job interviews, which go really well. I'm already picturing myself starting in the fall when I get a call saying it would have been a perfect fit, but the staffing situation has changed again and unfortunately it won't work out after all. I cry into my blouse for a minute.

Then I start my training as a systemic counselor. I love my grief work, but I'd like to broaden my footing so that maybe someday I can do it in a way that actually covers its costs. The boys finish tenth grade, we celebrate two family birthdays, and I start as an instructor on dealing with grief at a vocational school for nurses. The boys head off to a youth summer camp, and we recharge for a few days in Kühlungsborn.

August

The nursing school continues, I go out on some calls for the emergency chaplaincy, and I take care of my own campaign and the one in Cologne. After passing the written test, the boys start their first driving lessons. Luckily, the pony is doing well again.

We take a week of vacation, and during it we find out our oldest got the apartment… so she'll be moving out next month. How did that happen so fast?! I'm proud and melancholy and excited. At the barn, we celebrate a world championship, and in Kürten, right around the corner from us, four teenagers die in a car accident, which stays with me, personally and professionally, on and off for the next several weeks.

September

The blockbuster month. A lot of what's been on my mind for the past several months wraps up in these important weeks. My oldest moves out. My new book, “Und plötzlich ist nichts mehr wie es war” (“And Suddenly Nothing Is the Way It Was”), comes out and, after some very hard work on press, lands on the SPIEGEL bestseller list in week one.

I win a seat on the city council in my hometown, and in Cologne we win the mayoral election in the runoff. When the song “Et jitt kei Wood” (Cologne dialect for “There Are No Words”) plays as the campaign team goes up on stage, tears run down my face. What a ride! The first readings happen, and the boys turn 17.

October

I trained all year with my friend Steffi for the half marathon in Cologne on October 5, and two weeks before, my knee gives out so badly that I have to cancel. Not everything can work out, right? I still have to distract myself all day so I don't get too sad, because I'm in the best shape of my life and had been looking forward to it. I celebrate one year with my pony, and my first son passes his practical driving test (he got through the written part faster because he already has a moped license).

After readings and talks and counseling sessions, I treat myself to another week of vacation with just one son. Beautiful, and still strange without the others. Totally out of the blue, a new book project pops up, so you'll be hearing from me again in print at the end of August 2026, wooohooooo.

November

The boys start the month with two weeks of internships, and it's unbelievable, but they come home so excited that both say: THAT'S what I'm going to do. How great is that?! To find something you can actually picture doing later. I'm touched.

The book is a hit and we're out at a lot of readings. I celebrate a glorious November 11 (the start of carnival season), then unexpectedly get to play firefighter for a newsroom for a bit, and realize I have to push back the deadline for the new book. Because at the end of the month, our host kid from Latin America moves in, and that takes time and preparation, too.

December

Our third kid passes the driving test too (at 7:30 in the morning, in dark, wet rush-hour traffic!). We do a lot with our host daughter, I come down with a terrible cold, and I realize I have to cut back even more. I haven't jogged in three months, but every morning I have no idea where to even begin, and one feverish night I decide: I'm going to quit the systemic counseling training after all.

You can't do everything, and my day only has 24 hours, too. I lose money, but I gain relief. I cancel a sold-out reading and a few events so I can get over my cold and write more. I spend a night in Rome with my mom, because her brother works there now, we have Christmas performances with the choir, and we celebrate our host daughter's birthday and Christmas with the extended family.

And with all the stress heading into fall and beyond, I still look back on this wild, colorful, varied year with positivity and gratitude. On my family, whom I get to see in a new light, with new, touching hosting talents, thanks to our guest. On this intense life.

Here's to the blossoms from the seeds of crisis, to so much self-determination and new challenges. To my friends, and to Katharina as the best work partner ever, and to you, for sticking with us here. I'm looking forward to 2026 and can't wait to see what else is waiting for us!