As I sit here waiting to head to church and sing at Midnight Mass later tonight, it seems like a fitting time to hand out some holiday wishes….
- To all our readers and commenters at Chipalatta: We wish you a wonderful 2026, filled with a comeback season for the Astros (or whatever your favorite team may be). And if not that, good health and happiness throughout the year.
- To Hunter Brown – Enough runs in your starts to give you the 20 wins you so richly deserve.
- To Cristian Javier – A big jump in performance a year further away from your surgery.
- To Lance McCullers Jr. – A miracle season where you find better control and the velocity that you lost in 2025.
- To Ryan Weiss and Nate Pearson – A taste of the magical Astros’ coaching boost that turns pitchers into PITCHERS.
- To Mike Burrows – A sixth inning in every start
- To Spencer Arrighetti and J.P. France – Full health and a return to your best times pitching
- To Yainer Diaz – Channel your inner 2024 and lay off those out of zone breaking pitches
- To Yordan Alvarez – Good health and a return to the greatness you have shown when healthy.
- To Jose Altuve – At least a plateau in your hitting and maybe a little more range in your fielding (God can perform miracles).
- To Christian Walker – A season more like 2022-2024 than 2025 (unless he is traded) in which I wish you God’s blessings off the field.
- To Isaac Paredes – A spot in the Astros’ lineup 90% of the time.
- To Carlos Correa – A continuation of your performance after you were traded back to the Astros.
- To Jeremy Pena – Another great season like 2025 with one less injury.
- To Cam Smith, Zach Dezenzo and Zach Cole – A big step forward in 2026.
- To Jake Meyers – The ability to ignore the trade talk and play your buns off
- To Josh Hader – Full recovery from your injury and a continuation of the great work you did in 2025
- To Bryan Abreu – No residual scars from your late season fumblings with the closer’s role.
- To AJ Blubaugh – The opportunity to show that 2025 was not a small sample fluke
- To Steven Okert, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa – More of what you showed in 2025
- To All Astros Prospects – To be ready to fill in and even take over as needed in 2026.
- To Joe Espada – Some better health luck with your squad than you had in 2024 and 2025.
- To Dana Brown – Good luck with your moves as you thread the needle with a club with a closing (closed) window. Oh and go find a backup catcher and some left-handed hitters.
- To Jim Crane – Have the strength to only get involved when absolutely necessary with the club personnel.
Folks – your turn – what are your wishes for this coming year?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 
7 responses to “Merry Christmas from Chipalatta”
A sincere wish to you all to experience a Merry Christmas and many Blessings for you all.
Dan, we were going to midnight mass ourselves but we have tuckered out.
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Good Christmas morning to everyone at Chipalatta that I commiserate with regularly through Dan’s hard work, and especially to those of you that are not able to be as involved as you once were. I think about you often and my wish to you is for a wonderful Christmas and for good health in the New Year.
Dan, you sure did put together a stocking stuffed list of joyful thoughts for the coming season. If we all believe in Santa, you never know!
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Merry Christmas to everyone. I’m very thankful to be able to read Dan’s thoughtful insights and the responses on the forum. My Christmas wish is good health to the team, breakout years for our youngsters and good years for our veterans.
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Merry Christmas Chippalatians! The list above is incomplete without Jesus… Jesus Sanchez will need a double Christmas miracle to fix his bat and glove, or maybe we can trade him for a backup catcher.
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Merry Christmas to all here. I asked Santa to bring me that elusive “Hole in One” that has eluded me for many years. We shall see. At our church service yesterday I am grateful for all the things that we have been blessed with over the years and those to come. I hope that Santa fulfills at least some of those items on the Astro’s Christmas list but we’ll hope for at least a few of them if nothing else.
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Sarge – I understand that about Midnight Mass – my family used to go to see us sing – but it just is too much too late – so they go to the 4 PM service. My choir rotates between 9 PM and Midnight every other Christmas.
daveb – As Hans Gruber said in my son, Adam’s favorite Christmas Movie, Die Hard, “It’s Christmas time, Theo. It’s a time of miracles….” OK – I am hoping that God will take care of more important things – like the Russian-Ukraine war, but if He gets tired of the serious stuff – maybe he can spend a couple seconds on our team.
Larry Leach – Very nice wishes, Larry!
AstroNut – I should not have left Jesus out of Christmas – that is for sure. And welcome back – have not seen you comment in a while.
Z – Yes, a hole in one would be a nice present for you my friend. And yes, we will hope for at least some Astro wishes to come true.
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Old Pro – are you with us still. I know you have had your own challenges along the way.
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