Season 8 Christmas Special: Blue Christmas

 Blue Christmas

I centered the Thanksgiving special on a trip Paige and I took the weekend before the holiday, rather than on the holiday itself. There were a handful of reasons for this. 1. From a narrative perspective, it was a good way to bookend my insecurities about change. Sidebar- I understand those insecurities are still something I'm going to have to work on, but since that trip, I have felt much more comfortable with change in relation to the Andersons, and I feel more confident about it than I have since they developed. 2. Thanksgiving was the first holiday since both Papa and Shana died in January and May, respectively. Thanksgiving Day was hard, but we all knew Christmas would be worse.

The Saturday before Christmas, the Mitreys (Aunt Melissa, Uncle Andy, Alex, Maci, Nicholas, and Ellie), Nimba, Uncle Scott and Lexi, Aunt Cyndi and Cameron, came to my parents' house, and we all made Christmas cookies. This is an annual tradition, and going into it, I was a little worried because it was the beginning of the usual celebration, and things were so abnormal. Overall, the day was relatively uneventful, however.

Christmas day was when things got a little… more strenuous. Paige and I got up, got to my parents' house by 8:45 (Ryan, Luke, and Josh were staying there), we prayed the Rosary, and finished opening presents by 11:15. While I got a lot of gifts, I would like to point out one. Mom got me an ugly Christmas sweater that was Grinch-themed, as he is my favorite Dr. Seuss character (possibly my favorite character ever… but I go back and forth on that one). Shortly thereafter, we went to Paige's parents' house to open presents before driving to the Mitreys for the celebration.

Those in attendance were Nana and Grandpa, Uncle Bob and Aunt Erin (and her parents), Nimba, Uncle Scott and Lexi, Aunt Cyndi, Jeremy, Caitlin, and Cameron, obviously the Mitreys (Including one of Uncle Andy's brothers and his wife, and his mom), and my family. Now, as I mentioned a couple of installments ago, during Dad's 30th-anniversary party for the studio, Maci and I were watching the door. While we were doing that, Maci told me that Nicholas had convinced Ryan to record the Mitreys singing Christmas songs for a Christmas album for Aunt Melissa, and that evolved into both the Mitreys and the Ulibarris recording a giant Christmas album. Obviously, I sang You’re A Mean One. Once everyone had arrived at the Christmas party, we started playing the Christmas album, and everyone freaked out!

We have a yearly white elephant gift exchange, and in 2014, this ugly white sweater was put in, and Uncle Bob got it. Every year since then, it has been put into the white elephant again, and we have pictures of everyone wearing it when they receive it. Last year, Paige got it. Obviously, she was part of the family before that, but her having the cursed sweater and passing it on this year feels like a rite of passage. Now I know that the way I'm describing this doesn't seem like Christmas was very “strenuous.” It honestly seems kind of normal, and that's what was so weird about it. Everything was relatively normal, but as to be expected, everyone was really sad, and that kind of bugs me.

As you are probably very aware, I had a very complicated relationship with grief growing up. My best friend and childhood sweetheart, S.M., died when I was 12. Within a few months of her dying, two other children in my community passed away. Then, a couple of years later, my dad's childhood best friend's daughter, Elizabeth, passed away after having helped me cope with those other deaths. Then, in my junior year, a guy from S.M. and my class died, and then in 2021, a family friend of mine, who was also a friend of one of the two who died in my community after S.M., passed away. I included all of them in some capacity in my second book, Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam, because they were all people I grew up with who passed away way too young. This grief experience is different. 

Papa was my grandpa. The Andersons haven't had any grandparents since, I believe, 2018, and Paige's last grandparent, her grandma, died a year into us dating. What I'm saying is my closest friends in the world, and my fiancée, haven't had grandparents in a long time, and so I'm very aware that the number of grandparents that I have at my age is not the norm, and I am very thankful that I lost my first grandparent at 27. Growing up, Aunt Shana was my favorite aunt. Because my parents were new business owners, Shana would babysit me and take me on really fun adventures. But the problem is, Aunt Shana had a lot of struggles through my teenage years and adult life, and so the aunt that I knew died about ten years ago. And if having a blog like this should tell you anything, it’s that one of my favorite things to do is give advice through stories.

This puts me in a weird position with my family. Because of my childhood grief that I talk very openly about and the fact that I've already grieved these two family members that I was very close to, I feel like I'm kind of like a sage in this situation, which is making me feel really, really guilty. Like, the only way I know how to help is by imparting my wisdom upon them, but at the same time, I feel like I should be as upset as everyone else! Despite all of that, everyone being together for Christmas this year, even though we were sad, made me feel closer to Papa and Shana!

Hope you had a Greattastic Christmas

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT.

Rules for a Greattastic Life will return in the new year with Meanwhile In Another Timeline 2: A World Without Covid

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 32: John Mitchell Ulibarri, SBT

John Mitchell Ulibarri, SBT

As I mentioned in the installment, Just Our Luck! Part 2: The Wanderers, Paige got a promotion at the beginning of last summer. This is how I found out: one night in late June, Paige had volunteered to do a deep clean of the store, and nobody else in her position had volunteered. While she was cleaning, her boss asked, “Paige, are you a Team Lead?”

“No,” Paige replied.

“Do you want to be?” Her boss continued.

When I picked Paige  up, she was on the phone with her younger brother, and she told him that she had got promoted over the phone, mostly to see me spaz out a little bit. Now Paige had only been working at Panera, since October 2024. I have been working at New Story since 2019, and I have not gotten a promotion.

OK fine, that’s not entirely true. I started working at Haugland (the school that I went to when I was first diagnosed with autism), in 2019 in the after school program. I then got laid off in April 2020, as a result of Covid. Then I started working at New Story in 2021, after they bought Haugland out, as a Teacher Support. So yes, I got into a higher position, but it wasn’t while I was technically employed with the company. 

Before we continue, I need to get a little more technical in terms of what I do. I work in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), which because New Story is a school, means I apply behavior science to education. People who went to school for ABA are called Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs). People who didn’t go to school for ABA, but still want a certification, can become a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). Feeling inspired by Paige, I reached out to a BCBA that I work with at New Story, about a week before we returned for the 2025-26 school year. She suggested that instead of becoming an RBT I become a Specialized Behavior Technician (SBT). It’s easier to maintain than an RBT and the only downside is, I can never work in an ABA clinic (which I wasn’t planning on anyway).

On Friday, December 19th 2025, my brothers, Paige, my coworkers, (Elizabeth, Kaylee, Emily, Lexi Greg, Alaina, and Clay), and my childhood friend Elana, who I reconnected with at this year's Thread of Hope, went out to an arcade bar to celebrate me finally finishing my credential.

When I looked at my friends, and family, I smiled. The name of this season is goals and dreams as I am trying a new system to reach my goals and dreams more effectively. This was not a goal that I had going into this year. And yet I think that's the beauty of this new system. It's a way more flexible way of reaching my goals and it allows me to add new goals as I go.

Have a Greattastic Day and be Safe, 

J. Mitchell Ulibarri, SBT

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 31: Koblot 30

Kobolt 30

As I’ve said many times, my parents own an art studio called Kobolt. It has been around for as long as I can remember. On Friday, December 12th, 2025 Mom and Dad hosted a party to celebrate Kobolt’s 30th anniversary! 

I picked Paige up at 3:00 pm, we returned home and got ready, (Mom had asked us to dress up), and then we went down to the studio. We arrived at 4:30, and the party started at 5:00. Josh, Luke, Will, and a friend of Dad’s played Christmas songs (Ryan would have, but he was sick), and my job was to be a greeter with my cousin, Maci.

Maci had to leave at 7:00, and during that time over 80 people showed up. Out of those 80 people about 5 of them congratulated Maci and I on our engagement, clearly mistaking Maci for Paige. The funniest part of that was, Maci was wearing nice jeans and a sweater and she felt underdressed compared to me. After one of the people confused her she turned to me and said, “You know if I was your fiancée, I would be very upset that you didn’t tell me the dress code!”

“That’s what you’re offended about,” I laughed.

When it was almost time for Maci to leave, Mom came out and told me that I didn’t have to guard the door anymore and I finally joined the party. I spent the remainder of the night hanging out with family, friends, and Kobolts’ clients past and present.

I spent the first chapter of my first book, setting up Mom‘s family tree and ending it with her dating Dad. The second chapter starts, with Dad quitting his previous job, then I gloss over the bureaucracy of starting a business, then in the next paragraph Mom is pregnant with me. I bring that up because the immediate nature of her pregnancy/my birth in the context of Kobolt is something I have never thought about before.

While I knew that Koblot was only 2 years older than me it always seemed like it was more established than that to me.  Like obviously it feels like it’s been around forever from my perspective, because it’s literally been around my whole life, but as an adult thinking about how unstable Koblot had to have been (because all new businesses are) when I was born, is completely unfathomable to me. Because, I think Kobolt is why my brothers and I are where we are today. I don’t mean in a, “It’s how Dad and Mom financially support us,” kinda way. I mean Ryan would not be in Cousin Simple, (or any band), Box Seats probably wouldn’t exist, and I wouldn’t be a writer and autism advocate if Dad hadn’t showed us what dedication and creativity looks like through Kobolt. 

Congratulations Dad heres to another Greattastic 30 years

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Thanksgiving Special: False Safety or Right Where We Left Off (Refresher)

 Season 8 Thanksgiving Special: False Safety or Right Where We Left Off (Refresher)

CHANGE… change, change, change, change, change. Change has been an ongoing insecurity of mine, throughout this whole series, and this season, especially the theme, has reared its ugly head again. Last year in the installment Mitchmas (27) Part 2: The Last Pizza Night, I said that Rich and Barbara Anderson were planning on moving to Wyoming. In the spring of this year, they in fact did move. Last month, Kid moved to Cincinnati, finally fulfilling the insecurities I had about the Andersons moving away that have plagued me for nearly a decade now. Last season, I wrote an installment called October-December, about my mental health declining during those months last year.

On Saturday, November 22, 2025, a week after Kid moved to Cincinnati, Paige and I drove down to celebrate a friendsgiving with Arden, Marshall, Aspen, and Kid. Coincidentally, Rich and Barbara were visiting them too and when we arrived, Barbara‘s sister and brother-in-law were there as well. After Arden gave her aunt and uncle the tour, we visited with them for a while, and they left to go back to Wooster, Rich, Barbara, Arden, Marshall, Aspen, Kid, Paige, and I went out to an orchestra concert.

After the concert, we walked to a restaurant called Albert’s. Our waitress was named Clarissa. She took our orders, watched as we loudly caught up, and got to know us throughout the dinner. When we had finished eating she said, “would you guys like to go onto the roof?” 

We all looked at each other and smiled. Clarissa led us up to the roof, which had already been closed down for the night. That was ideal because, while it was a nice roof, it wasn’t super big. We walked to a table toward the front of the rooftop balcony and Arden suggested, “Mitchie you should sing!” I obliged and everyone joined in as I sang a ton of songs. 

As I said the 2 part season finale last season, was about my mental health declining in the fall of 2024, and me coming to the conclusion that in a professional sense I had learned the wrong lesson from Covid. However, I learned the same wrong lesson from covid in my personal life as well.

As I depicted in my most recent book, The Greattastic Adventures 2: Fractured, in 2016, my neighbor, Greg, told me that the Andersons wouldn’t live next-door forever, and I spent the next three years dreading that moment. When it finally came at the beginning of this series, I was distraught, but by the end of season one I had learned that no matter how far away we lived the girls and I would always pick up right where we left off, when we got back together.

In season two I started to move forward, but then Covid hit, forcing August and Aspen back to Columbus. This created this weird false safety around change because while we were all moving on, we were still sort of trapped in our childhood. Then after three years, August, moved for good, got pregnant with, and married to an abusive man, and I started dating the woman who was destined to become my wife, all within the course of a couple of months. In other words, as we grew up and changed, Covid, created a false sense of security by trapping us in our own childhood, and then we struggled to cope as real adulthood hit. 

As we stood on that roof singing our hearts out I thought back on when Arden surprised everyone for Christmas back in 2019, with my help. In the installment, I wrote about that event, after everyone found out that she was back in town I wrote, “I will always be friends with my “sisters” and they will absolutely come up from time to time, but the last 6 months have basically just been me living in the past. Feeling sorry for myself because all my friends are gone, or are about to leave. I think it's time that I stop doing that, branch out and just live my life-  instead of crying because a chapter has ended. Because even though they're gone, whenever we get back together, we can pick up right where we left off.” And I think that was a lesson I needed to relearn, especially now that they are all officially living life in other cities! 

Hope you all had a Greattastic Thanksgiving, I know this is really late, but umm, there’s been a lot of planning and writing for other things and just other life things happening soo umm yeah… have a Greattastic day… bye!

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 30: A Quick Trip To NYC Part 3: Orlando Treat

 A Quick Trip To NYC Part 3: Orlando Treat

On the morning of Sunday, October 26, Paige and I got up, packed, and got on a subway to get to the bus station. You see, our flight home was actually not out of New York. Our flight was from New Jersey, to Orlando with a connecting flight to Columbus. Travel was clearly not our friend this trip because we got to this bus station which unfortunately had two levels, and we were on the wrong one and we missed the bus by like 30 seconds, so we had to Lyft to New Jersey. As if that wasn’t enough, our first flight was delayed so by the time we landed in Orlando, our connecting flight had already taken off.

“So in other words,” Pop-pop said, once Paige and I finished telling the story, “you tried to save $5.00, on a flight to New York and got stranded here.”

We laughed at his oversimplification of the story, and then Paige explained, “well actually we have another connecting flight in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow.”

Before we made it back to Sara’s house, we decided to go to dinner. We ended up at a local restaurant called F & D Italian Kitchen, which we went to when Paige and I made our last solo trip to Orlando (Final Family Introductions). As we walked in, I looked at the table that we sat at last year and realized how much has changed since then. After dinner, we went to Sara’s house and met her dog Jasper. Sara showed us to our room and after that we all spent the night watching a movie.

Now I am aware that not much happened in this installment, but I still wanted to write it. Firstly because I have been flying to Florida on my own since 2019, but usually I have access to the entire city. Despite this, and the fact that we spent most of our time at Sara’s house, this epilogue to our trip to New York was still very entertaining for us.

On top of that, Paige and I had to leave my family vacation from Florida last summer early so I could go back to work (Plane Old Friends/The Other Side Of Fear). As we got ready for bed I thought about how slightly disappointed we were about having to leave and how stressed out we had been about travel specifically during the NYC trip. The extra time in Orlando showed me that seemingly unnecessary stress is just life’s way of balancing things out.

Have A Greattastic Day and be Safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri