The era of American travel chaos might not come to a close anytime soon, as a potential deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security — and Transportation Security Administration workers’ paychecks — appears to be falling apart.
Republican members of the House’s Freedom Caucus are signaling they won’t move forward with a proposal to fund DHS, potentially lengthening a shutdown that began on February 14.
Early Friday morning, the Senate voted to move forward with a proposal to end the partial shutdown that’s currently preventing TSA workers from getting paid. The Senate-approved proposal excludes funding for immigration operations and came as Congress prepared to depart on a scheduled recess Friday evening. For that legislation to become law — and get TSA workers paid — it needs to be passed by the House.
“Could the Senate be any more lazy than to send to us a bill that doesn’t do the job and then leave town?” Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas and member of the House Freedom Caucus, said at a press conference. “So we’re going to stand up and say no to that. We’re going to send back a bill that’s responsible to the American people.”
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
The US added 50,000jobs in December, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report on the employment situation.
Economists expected to see 70,000 jobs added in the final month of 2025, and an unemployment rate of 4.5%.
The report wraps up a year of a job market marked by a “Great Freeze” in which companies haven’t been hiring very much, employees haven’t been switching jobs a ton, but large-scale layoffs that would mark a deeper downturn haven’t materialized yet either.
Check back here for updates leading up to and following the biggest job market data release of the month.
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President Donald Trump announced new “Trump-class” ships for the US Navy Golden Fleet.
Trump said up to 25 ships will be built, with construction starting immediately.
The first of these ships is the USS Defiant.
President Donald Trump on Monday shared details about new additions to what he’s calling the US Navy’s “Golden Fleet.”
Two “Trump-class” ships, which the president described as “battleships,” were announced Monday afternoon at a press conference alongside Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump said they would be “AI-controlled” and have “lasers,” and he said that the design would be led by the US Navy with his aesthetic input.
The first of these ships will be called the USS Defiant, Phelan said. Posters of the warship were on display at the press conference held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
“We’re desperately in need of ships, and I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin construction of two large battleships,” he said. “We used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Alabama. These will be 100 times the force and power. Each one of these will be the largest battleships built in the history of our country.”
The president said that eventually “20 to 25” of the “Trump-class” ships will be made, and construction will start “immediately.”
The ships will be triple the size of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, according to the US Navy, and they will be capable of launching Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic missiles and the Surface Launch Cruise Missile-Nuclear.
Cookie baking, decorating, stuffing stockings, building a holiday village scene with Iron Man and Thor action figures — just like a huggable snowman discovered, everyone has traditions for that time of year.
We’re a blended family with kids ranging in age from 17 to mid-30s. As our kids have moved from being wide awake at 5:30 am to testing Santa to creating their own holiday magic as adults, our traditions have grown and changed with them. As a result, it’s all less stressful.
We’ve expanded the days of the holiday
A Christmas Tweve holiday lunch with Christmas crackers and cassoulet.
Courtesy of the author
Right around Thanksgiving, I am reminded that it’s not just wonderful, it’s also a wacky and wearisome time of the year.
I grew up in blended families. By middle school, both of my parents had remarried, doubling the number of families to see during the festive season. By the fifth stop on a whirlwind Christmas Day in high school, my brother and I were stuffed with cookies and even burned out on opening presents.
For most of our 20-year marriage, I’ve felt like I’m reliving those teenage years all over again as we try to squeeze in his family, my multiple families, and the kids’ other family commitments into two overstuffed days of festive cheer.
As the kids got older and added commitments to their significant others and time for their own families, we realized Christmas is too short. Two days were just not enough time to cram in all the festivities and have at least a little time left for our family.
So, some years, we celebrate what we call “Christmas Tweve,” the day before Christmas Eve. We spend most of the day hanging out, having a festive feast, and then opening gifts. Sometimes we have a houseful overnight, and everyone stays up late watching Christmas movies and eating my feeble attempts at pancake art for breakfast.
We have scaled back the decorations
Our Advent calendar is surrounded by my favorite decoration, kid’s artwork.
Courtesy of the author
We are down to two kids living at home, and the number of holiday decorations has reduced.
One year, we had multiple trees, each decorated in a different theme — a candy-themed 5-foot tree, a mini tree in the kids’ rooms, and a fancy ornament 7-foot tree.
There were two Christmas villages, one in the kitchen. The kitchen and living room looked like Christmas exploded in them. Every room had a few decorations — a tree, figurines, holiday towels, and a wreath on the door.
There was a time when seven of us were decorating. Now it’s down to four, and we’re focusing more on the nostalgic and sentimental decorations. Our tree is covered in ornaments from places we’ve traveled and the kids created.
I used to frame the sliding door in our kitchen with the kids’ artwork – cotton-ball snowmen, sparkly handprint reindeer, and a painted winter scene.
A few years ago, my youngest and I had a holiday moment of tension when I displayed elementary school artwork with their previous name. They’re nonbinary, and it bothered them seeing that name plastered all over the kitchen.
I got creative and modified my favorites — erasing letters, trimming corners, and folding back edges. Now I display favorites onl,y and it’s down to one wall shared with our Advent calendar.
Our Advent calendar changes along with our family
One year the kids weren’t into the Advent calendar, so we did it with the dog instead.
Courtesy of the author
When the kids were younger, we had multiple Advent calendars — one with treats and one with toys. One year, it was Disney Tsum Tsums, there was “Star Wars” Lego, and then socks. A few years ago, no one was really interested, and we got one for the dog.
Now, our Advent calendar is a meaningful tradition. It’s the same one each year, and this year, my youngest helped shop for the candy, hopefully marking the start of a new tradition.
Our kids have started their own traditions
Our kids have made our holiday village their own.
Courtesy of the author
When she was in college, my stepdaughter started making an annual ornament with a silly picture of herself. The perfect gift on a tight budget — inexpensive and very meaningful.
Now she’s a mom, married, and decorating her own place. Every year, my husband, the two youngest kids, and I put all 11 ornaments she’s created on the tree — her with Chipotle burritos, in a snow globe, and with her son.
A few years ago, our oldest came to stay when his spouse was out of town. I put him and his two younger siblings in charge of the holiday village.
When I heard my youngest rummaging through their toys, I knew the holiday village was going to have a different vibe than it had in past years. Lego minifigs, Power Rangers, and assorted superheroes perched on festive rooftops and hid in the snow.
Every stage of our kids’ lives means something new. Sometimes it’s capped with a major milestone, such as a driver’s license, wedding, or graduation, as a reminder to stop and savor this time.
With the holidays, there wasn’t a big event to mentally prepare for the change. Gradually, things were different — gone were the days of classroom holiday party crafts and a big group decorating the tree. Now it’s crafts from doggy day care, Christmas Tweve, and Spider-Man in the village. And I love it.
I have not spent Christmas with my mother in more than a decade. We have spent our Christmases apart simply because of geography. We’ve been living on opposite sides of the country: a five-hour flight or a 26-hour car ride through unpredictable weather.
So, she’s kept to herself for the holidays, and I’ve become the keeper of Christmas for my immediate family. Even as my sons grew up and moved away, taking on their own roles to make our holidays special, I’m still the list-maker, the “don’t forget” reminder, and the decider in all things.
My four sons, all between 25 and 31 years old, have helped lighten my load over the years, especially as their partners have come onto the scene. Christmas was just starting to take on a new, easier shape.
But this year, my mother lost her husband of nearly 40 years, so she’s coming to visit, and I’m realizing how far I will need to stretch my budget.
I have to be my mother’s Santa this year
At first, I didn’t really think about how my mother’s arrival might change my own role for the holidays. I just thought about my mom, exhausted and heartbroken and unmoored by the loss of the husband she has lived with for more than half her life.
But as she gets ready to fly to me for Christmas, I’m realizing she’s going to need me to be her Santa.
My mom needs a Santa. She has suffered this year in a way I cannot even imagine. She needs soothing; she needs to be reintroduced to a big family Christmas. She needs a stocking filled with fun, thoughtful trinkets. She needs me to make this year extra magical, and honestly, I’m worried I’m not up to the task.
I’m struggling to keep up with everything this Christmas
I’m finding this Christmas overwhelming because everyone in the family needs me for different reasons. My kids need me to bring them together, to cook for them and bake for them, and organize a big rental space for the group of us.
The author and her four sons usually spend Christmas together.
Courtesy of Jennifer McGuire
I’m also paying attention to everyone’s finances, thinking about who is doing well and who is not. I’m thinking about who might need a bit more and how I can give a bit more without playing favorites. How can I afford a bit more?
This is, perhaps, the crux of Christmas this year. The weight of giving to my children and my mother when they all need more. Whether it’s holiday gifts, time, or food, everyone needs me to be their person this year.
Even though everyone in the house will be a grown-up, I’m left feeling, for all intents and purposes, like the only grown-up for the holidays.
I’m struggling financially
I’m worried that I simply cannot afford to be Santa for everyone — not this year. Like many others, I have lost job after job in 2025. I am swimming just below the surface of losing everything, and I can’t seem to come up for air.
I know that no one in my family expects a lot for Christmas, but even a little something to make the day special for each person who so deeply deserves it will be a struggle. There are 10 people in our family, and $100 each means $1,000. We all know that $100 each is next to no budget at all.
And so this year, I’m getting creative. I’m buying secondhand gifts. I’m trying to become a crafty person to create something meaningful for all of my loved ones. I’m wishing I had helpful elves to take on some of my Santa tasks. I’m actively choosing to leave the stress of trying to find work at the door until after the holiday. I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying.
I’m focusing on giving my mother support
My mother’s first Christmas as a widow can’t be consumed by my own stress. She needs comfort. She needs family. She needs joy. Luckily, all of that is free.
She needs me to be the grown-up in the house. She needs me to be Santa. They all do, and I refuse to buckle under the weight of it.
Instead, I’m going to choose to feel grateful that I have all of this love in my life.
