December Newsletter 2025
Tis’ the Season
We are publishing our newsletter a bit early this December, as we know many of you will be off and spending time with friends and family.
Let us start by thanking you for a wonderful 2025. Although it was not without its challenges, we enjoyed every minute of providing you with world-class housecleaning services.
This holiday season, we want to show appreciation for all cultures, so we did a bit of a deep dive into the different celebrations that many of us will engage in. Along the way, we learned a lot, so here we go:
Bodhi Day – December 8
Also called Buddha’s “enlightenment day,” Bodhi (Bow-dee) marks the day Siddhartha Gautama attained awakening and became the Buddha. While not all Buddhists recognize Bodhi, observers of the holiday celebrate it in a variety of ways. Some pray. Some adorn trees with lights. Some have special meals like rice and milk. And some participate in acts of kindness.
Learn more about Bodhi Day and other Buddhist celebrations at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
Christmas – December 25
Traditionally a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Christmas in the United States has been observed by Christians and non-Christians as a secular holiday since the 20th century. In celebration, families and friends gather, share gifts, attend religious mass or church services, decorate pine trees with heirlooms, strings of lights, tinsel (and more), prepare meals centered around roast turkey or ham, and participate in a wide range of traditions and activities depending on the region.
Hanukkah – December 25 – January 2
Hanukkah or Chanukah is the Jewish festival of lights. While the days on which it is celebrated vary between November and December depending on the year, the holiday always lasts eight days and is in recognition of the Jewish people winning a battle against the Greeks and practicing their religious freedom many years ago. Over the course of the eight days, the menorah is lit in the evening. Observers also play a game with a dreidel or spinning top. And some offer one another a small present on each night of the celebration.
Watch this YouTube video by the Jewish Museum in New York, NY if you’d like to see a sample of menorahs and oil lamps in their collection (and learn more about them, too).
Kwanzaa – December 26 – January 1
Kwanzaa, a celebration of life, is a solely African American and Pan-African holiday. Always celebrated from December 26 to January 1, this relatively young holiday centers upon five common values and seven principles and greatly resembles the American Thanksgiving or the Nigerian / Ghanaian Yam Festival. Ron Karenga (Dr. Maulana Karenga), an activist, author, and professor, created the holiday in response to the Watts Riots in Oakland, CA in 1966 as well as the commercialization of Christmas.
Immerse yourself in the traditions and history of Kwanzaa through exploring videos, an interactive map, and more at the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Omisoka – December 31
Omisoka, the Japanese word for New Year’s Eve, is a time of preparing for the new year through cleansing and purifying homes as well as celebrating. Because children and college students are on holiday, they share in the celebration with their families. Traditionally, about one hour before midnight, observers share bowls of udon, and at midnight, visit a temple.
We love the traditions that we celebrate as humans. In today’s tumultuous climate of political divisiveness, we truly hope that we can all find peace and common ground this holiday season.
For us, it begins with respecting everyone’s views as well as their belief system, and we felt like this was a nice way to demonstrate that.
As always, we wish you a peaceful and relaxing holiday season, and we hope you get lots of quality time with family and friends.
We hope to do the same, and in that spirit, want to confirm our holiday hours as well. We will be working today, Christmas Eve, but will be closed on both Christmas and Friday the 26th.
We will be back at it on Monday, the 29th, and will work through the 31st. We will be closed on New Year’s Day, and back to work on the 2nd.
Enjoy your holidays and be safe out there!!!!
(special thanks to the Marin County Free Library for providing the holiday list)


Colorado Drivers
As we have traveled the world, we have come up with one tenet.
Everyone thinks the drivers in their city are the “worst”.
We are here, courtesy of Lending Tree, to debunk that myth.
Sort of.
Let’s start by crushing the myth that Colorado drivers are bad. In fact, the survey shows that Colorado drivers are actually the 3rd BEST in the country.
Hmmm. We were surprised, too, as we have seen just about everything on Denver roads and streets.
As it turns out, North Dakotans are actually the worst drivers in the country, with 64 incidents per 1000 drivers.
Contrast that with Colorado, where we have an incident rate of only 23.7 incidents per 1000 drivers.
Michigan drivers were deemed the safest, with only 20.9 incidents.
From the article on Fox 31 News, the best drivers in Colorado reside in Centennial. They had an incident rate of only 4.6 per 1000 drivers. Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Boulder, and Arvada rounded out the top five.
Well, where are the worst drivers in our state, you ask?
Windsor, with 23.0 incidents. Followed by Greeley, Brighton, Thornton, and Erie.
Definitely a rural vibe going on there. Maybe it’s the wide open spaces up north?
The full article from Fox 31 can be found here.
Be safe out there, Denver, and let’s keep those incidents down!

911 Drones?
We hope that you haven’t had to call 911 in Denver for any reason.
If you do, however, you may hear a whirring sound above you. Do not be alarmed, that is simply Denver’s newest tactic, which involves deploying drones to 911 calls.
How does this possibly work, you ask? We are glad you did.
From CBS News Denver, “The pilot program using Drone as First Responder (DFR) technology launched in October, and the department said that in 95% of the missions the pilots have been able to provide critical information to officers on the ground.”
“Two pilots monitor incoming service calls and determine if the drone could help responding officers. Denver police say its two DFR drones have been deployed to 215 service calls, including robberies, burglaries, assaults, fights, weapons-related offenses, narcotics reports, and more.”
“Officials said that over 80% of the time, the drone is the first to arrive at the scene, and it has helped find suspects, clear calls that don’t need an officer, and reduce service wait times.”
Wow, fascinating use of technology.
There are privacy concerns being raised, however, and it seems that Denver has contracted with the controversial Flock to utilize their drone fleet.
Flock has been the center of lots of controversy lately, not only with privacy concerns but also with the way the contract was extended.
The Denver Post (paywalled) did a good piece on this, and it is here.
The full (and free) article courtesy of CBS Denver can be found here.
We are all for officer safety and faster response time, but we also hope this isn’t the start of an Orwellian surveillance plot!

2026 Tax Changes
The worst part about the holidays?
The imminent arrival of tax season.
In that spirit, we wanted to update you on some of the big changes coming in 2026.
Some of it is quite good news.
For starters, the tax bracket adjustments are as follows:
- 10% tax bracket: $0–$12,400
- 12% tax bracket: $12,401–$50,400
- 22% tax bracket: $50,401–$105,700
- 24% tax bracket: $105,701–$201,775
- 32% tax bracket: $201,776–$256,225
- 35% tax bracket: $256,225–$640,600
- 37% tax bracket: $640,601 and up
On average, brackets rose 2.8%, very close to the consumer price index from 2025 to 2026 (projected).
It should be noted that this increase is significantly smaller than in 2023 (7%) and 2024 (5%).
The IRS has also increased standard deductions to match inflation. The deduction is now $16,100 for single filers and married people filing separately. The deduction is $24,150 for heads of household.
The deduction is $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. The earned income tax credit will rise from $8,046 to $8,231 for families with at least three children in 2026.
Seniors may also get extra relief with a new $6,000 senior tax deduction. This senior deduction is part of the tax changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Finally, a topic that got lots of news coverage, the “no tax on tips” program begins in 2026.
Details on how that will be implemented and accounted for can be found here, courtesy of IRS.gov.
Tax changes will also begin to allow interest deductions on car loans.
For those of you curious about state tax law changes, those can be found here.

Are you an “Otrovert”?
It turns out that introverts and extroverts are not the only two types of people in the world.
When we saw the term “Otrovert,” we had to learn more. If you have ever felt like you don’t fit into either box, this piece is for you.
In 2022, Dr. Rami Kaminski out of Mt. Sinai in Manhattan coined that term and when we saw this we needed to investigate further.
Most of us have likely been pushed into one of the two boxes. As a refresher, extroverts face “outward” and introverts face “inward”.
Your normal extrovert is someone who is chatty, gregarious and often times the life of the party. They gain energy from others.
Introverts are more likely to keep to themselves, they don’t love social situations as much and are very comfortable being alone. They gain energy from solitude.
Now that is done, what is an “otrovert”?
Quite simply, otroversion is for people who don’t quite feel like part of the group. Almost like the feeling of being an outsider, an otrovert might describe themselves as being “in this world, not of this world”.
Interesting stuff.
From the Science of People article we found, “Think of it this way: if social dynamics were at a party, introverts would be slow dancing in the corner, extroverts would be leading the conga line, ambiverts would switch between both… and otroverts would be the DJ—involved in creating the experience but fundamentally separate from it.”
The nice folks at Medium also did a great article on this concept and it is here.
We are pretty sure that we are Otroverts, and we bet that many of you feel the same way we do!!!

Monthly Award Winners
Our monthly award winners for November were Socorro Gonzalez, Rosario De La Rosa, Silvia Anguiano, Josefina Quinonez, and Veronica Sanchez.
In the Team Leader ranks, it was Socorro Ibarra and Laura Varela.
We are so proud of our winners and of all the folks who are in your homes each week.
We are also very appreciative of being a part of your lives and your homes. You provide the platform for our teams to perform, and for that, we are grateful.
Please join me in congratulating our best performers for November.
Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter where our annual winners will be crowned and recognized!!

Queen Bee Corner
by Angela
At the approach of a new year, it’s natural to take a look back to see where we have been.
At Denver Concierge, we can look back over 26 of those years, which is how long we have been cleaning houses.
26 years of being in business. That is a good chunk of time. So, what has changed for us over the years?
The word concierge in our company name hints at a service we briefly offered as part of our original house cleaning enterprise.
However, in Denver at the time, while there was little interest in a concierge service, there was quite a bit of interest in house cleaning.
We wisely (or luckily) shifted our efforts toward making Denver Concierge the best house cleaning company in Denver.
We did not start as a green, eco-friendly company as such either. It didn’t take us long to realize it was the way of the future, not only for the health of our planet but for the health of our employees, our clients, and their families.
We became the first Colorado member of the Green Clean Institute back in 2007.
In the beginning, our teams by default would clean the entire house, top to bottom. Minimal instructions, such as don’t dust the Picasso or go anywhere near the Art Deco vase.
In response to client requests for different areas to be cleaned each visit, we have gradually evolved to a point where most clients text instructions geared to their immediate needs on a specific clean day.
Texting has become more popular than either the telephone or email as a mode of communication with our clients and teams in the field. It is at hand, simple, and immediate in emergencies.
Certainly another change we never would have envisioned back in 1998 when we started.
As we look forward to 2026, we will continue to adjust and adapt to whatever circumstances arise.
As always, our aim is to continue to offer the best house cleaning experience for our clients and a safe and healthy work environment for our workforce.
Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!
Bee


































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