Christmas Letter for December 2025

I woke up last week, sat up in bed, peered out the window, and saw these balloons close up. Only in Albuquerque!

Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was quiet this year. Independence, Kansas, was too quiet, so we ventured to a casino, run by the Osage tribe, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

There we enjoyed a good Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, gravy and cranberry jelly. Mary Ann and Kim dressed up, and I was proud to be with them. I should have dressed up myself.

After dinner we played the slots for an hour. I lost everything. Kim, who is always skeptical and negative about slots, played for a whole hour and didn’t want to go home. Mary Ann scored the best, and ended up winning money. In an earlier life, Mary Ann was always a very good player at Blackjack, or 21-Up.

Adding up the Years.

Another year has gone by. And 80 years have gone by for me. It seems a lot, but it’s just a drop in the bucket of history. Last month I had lunch with a famous archeologist – Dr Steven Collins — the man who discovered the city of Sodom buried under a small hill in Jordan in 2005-2016.

His discovery has confirmed the Bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a comet 3,700 years ago.

Just last week I read that another archeologist in England has made an even older discovery — the first evidence of humans deliberately lighting a fire using a stone axe that was chipping a flint stone that gave sparks that started a fire. When was this? 350,000 years ago. Who were these people? Neanderthals. When did Homo Sapiens arise in Europe (these were our ancestors, the wise people). Probably about 50,000 years ago.

As the Bible says, our life is a bit like a flower that sprouts, flowers, withers and dies. One thing I love about Christian faith is that this life is not the end – there is much more to come.

Writing for Forbes.com

I just hit a celebration marker. Last month completed my fifth year of writing for Forbes.com. I’ve contributed close to 200 articles over this time on the topic of energy, including oil and gas. So now I’m a retired petroleum engineer disguised as a journalist!

I wrote an article recently about electricity prices and how they will go up a lot in the USA in the next 5-10 years – due to the building of new data centers that are needed for Artificial Intelligence (AI). President Trump is handicapping solar and wind renewables in favor of electricity from natural gas and nuclear, and even restarting old coal power plants.

I argued in the article that we should instead open the China trade doors to buy lots of cheap solar panels, wind turbines, and grid batteries to make cheaper electricity in the USA. But I don’t think President Trump is listening. If interested, you can find the article called, “Can China Stop Electricity Prices From Going Up In The U.S.” in my website: www.IanDexterPalmer.com. Look for a header that says Forbes.Com Articles.

Travels in 2025.

A highlite of this year was a trip to the Oregon Coast in October. We drove a few days to Idaho where we stayed with Don and Julie. These are two very good friends whose secret is they make you feel loved immediately. We spent one day in Yellowstone National Park seeing the best waterfalls and geysers.

But my favorite waterfall is not in Yellowstone – it’s on the Snake River about 30 miles from Don and Julie’s home. In the photo, the tiny people down below got there in a little red raft.

Later, we drove for another two days to Yachats in the middle of the Oregon Coast. We rented an AirBNB right on the coast, so close you could throw a stone into the ocean. We watched waves crashing on the shore every day. Five out of seven days were clear and sunny, so we lucked out, as the Oregon Coast can get lots of rainfall in October. You can hit the link to read more and see more spectacular photos of the Oregon Coast.

Hanging Christmas Lights

Hard to see, but this shows a string of lights in a Christmas wreath hung from a garage door. I hate to admit this, but it took Lisa and me four hours to hang these lights (after first trying to hang them on the front door). Don’t ever give me a hammer and a nail again, please!

Global Warming.

Its Christmas 2025, and abnormally warm here in the Duke City. Global warming is still occurring. But I wince when I hear people point to a particular wildfire, or an intense hurricane, and say that’s caused by global warming. The evidence from the last 40-50 years is that, globally, droughts, wildfires, intense floodings, and hurricanes have not worsened.

This is the conclusion when you look at the data and statistics of the last 40-50 years. These extreme climate events haven’t worsened even though the global temperature has risen about 1 C degree. I have written about this many times, most recently in a book called “Why Oil and Gas Companies are Pivoting Toward Climate Change.” But you can also find the written evidence in articles in my website www.iandexterpalmer.com.
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My fond wish is that you have a Merry Christmas, and happy holidays.
The Gray Nomad.
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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:
The young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel – God with us”. [Isaiah, chapter 7]
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