Posted on December 25, 2025 by Aywren

First and foremost, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

This Christmas has been one of friends and family rallying around to help keep my spirits up – and they have all done a wonderful job! I’m currently writing this from my sister and brother-in-law’s house, where they’ve hosted me for a handful of days around Christmas. Previous to that, I spent a week hanging out at Syn’s house where she did everything she could to pamper me this holiday season.

2025 has been a tough year for me, in terms of health issues and now the loss of the job I’ve worked at for almost 14 years. My future is fairly uncertain, but my present is currently secure and, for the most part, unbothered. It was my Mom’s idea to spend the holidays road tripping this year because who can tell where I (or anyone else) will be come this time next year.

I’m so very grateful for all of the effort folks have gone through to host and encourage me during this time of strife. I’m also very grateful for all of the gifts I received this year – I plan on blogging about some of them once I’m in a better position to take photos of my haul.

But one thing I wanted to document immediately was a very unexpected gift from my sister – a Steam Deck! And not just any Steam Deck, but the OLED 512GB model, with the dock included!

She purchased this system about this time last year, and I guess she discovered she didn’t use it as much as she expected to. So, while it is pre-owned, it’s in mint condition, and may as well be a new machine. I asked several times if she was sure she wanted to give it away, and she confirmed that she wanted to give it to someone who will use it.

To be absolutely honest, I had no idea what I was even looking at when I first opened the Steam Deck. I didn’t recognize the branding on the case or the machine, so I gave a very surprised and bewildered, “What is this?” I was absolutely floored when I learned exactly what I was holding in my hands.

I admit that I’ve kept my eye on the Steam Deck since it was first released. FOMO has been high with it, and there have been several times I’ve had to talk myself out of picking one up. The most recent was back during the Black Friday sale about a month ago whereupon the LED 256GB model was on significant discount.

I went over and over considering picking it up during that sale. And every time, I talked myself out of it for some reason or another. It was a good thing, too, because just a week later, I’d be cut loose from my job, though I did not know it then. I also had no knowledge that my sister intended to gift me her Steam Deck in turn – I don’t know that she knew how much I’d debated picking one up.

So, just a few days ago, when I saw that they’d discontinued the LED 256GB model of Steam Deck, I thought that was that. There was no way I had the money to plunk down on one of the OLED setups unless that went down in price. And it doesn’t sound like it will.

So, for things to shake out like this in the end was ironic and beautiful. I’m now quite actively investigating what’s Steam Deck verified in my library and thinking about that when it comes to what games I pick up with my Steam gift cards this holiday season.

I already felt like I would be leaning hard into Steam gaming come 2026 – not just to tackle my backlog, but because it’s the cheapest and most versatile way to game right now. I’ve almost filled my entire wishlist of collected games for the Switch (all of which I need to play), so my focus has been less and less on the Nintendo handheld and leaning more towards my Steam library.

I may not know exactly what’s going to happen in my life come 2026, but I want to put my sister’s gift to use as I know she’d want me to. I hope that you and yours have had a good holiday, too! I’ll be heading home soon, and plan on blogging more once I do!

Take care!

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*|* {December} *|* {2025} *|* {Steam Gaming} *|*

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