We did it again! We streamed all day on 12/5/2025 and managed to raise $2070 for the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. I’m so thankful for all the people that came out and contributed some of their hard earned dollars to helping make some kids’ Christmastime a little bit brighter.
We played some great stuff this time:
- Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
- Squats for Tots (more on that in a minute)
- A Short Hike
- Peak
- Hollow Knight (sam’s stream)
- Dungeons and Dragons
We were cruising along and getting hyped for our 3rd annual Squats for Tots event which involves me and Ashley doing a squat for every $5 that someone donates to the charity. Seems like a good idea, right? It is a good idea because for the last 3 years we’ve nearly hit our goal during that 2 hour block alone. The bad idea part is when you’re 40 and haven’t exercised a lot in the last few months and are more out of shape than you’ve been in the last 3 years you’ve done then exercise. The “you” in this situation being me.
I did 60 squats and everything was going fine. I forgot to mention that I also had the brilliantly dumb idea to introduce Burpees for Benjamins, against the advice of literally everyone, so that if you donated a $100 we’d do 5 burpees. I’m not much of an exercise guru so I had no idea what I was asking of myself. That was a stupid decision and probably let to the next catastrophic event which through off the whole thing.
I had done the 60 squats and 4 burpees. That was a lot, I was already winded and the burpees were not working out. So I was already panicked that I had gotten myself into a very difficult situation. Then I went to do the next round of squats. At squat number 12 something in my back popped. Right in my lower back and I immediately knew there was no continuing this event. It didn’t pop in a way that had me on the ground and unable to move, but the pain came surging in pretty fast. I was unable to continue doing squats and spent the rest of the stream in some pretty intense pain despite the Aleve and Tylenol I had on board.
All that being said, we did it! I managed to get through the rest of it, and it was actually helpful to be a bit distracted from the pain while playing the rest of the games. I’m super bummed about not being able to do the squats though. That really left Ashley to do them and people are a lot less willing to hurt her than they are to hurt me, which seems fair. I learned a valuable lesson that I definitely need to be conditioned for the squats and I need to have proper form. I think that’s what messed me up. I was being yelled at in the chat and was just brushing them aside becuase, I mean, I’ve done this two other times to great success, right?! Learned my lesson. Thanks everyone.
Glad we did this event again though. I think everyone had fun and we got to where we wanted to go. Raising $2000 is no small feat and I’m so thankful that we have an audience and friends willing to put a little money out there in the name of helping the kids.