Two major projects at the Twin Lakes Family YMCA in Cedar Park are slated to open at the end of May, according to Laura Arredondo, YMCA of Central Texas chief marketing officer.

The YMCA broke ground on the Avery Family Pavilion and the Orr Family RCI Adventure Course in May 2025.

The details: The Avery Family Pavilion will serve as a versatile meeting space for everything from sporting events to birthday parties to weddings.

The RCI Adventure Course will feature zip lines, ropes courses, a sky trail and multilevel climbing structures for both children and adults.

The Rejuvenation Vibe Room, a Leander-based wellness business, relocated to a larger suite on Dec. 1 said co-creators David Aiello and Ellisa Mimlitsch. The couple opened The Rejuvenation Vibe Room in early 2025 as a separate extension of Mimlitsch’s primary business, Therapy by Ellisa.

What they offer: The Rejuvenation Vibe Room offers non-clinical services such as vibroacoustic sound therapy, halotherapy or salt therapy and Reiki energy healing. Aiello operates the sound and salt therapies, while Mimlitsch offers Reiki sessions. 

The business also sells a selection of merchandise and retail products such as Himalayan salt lamps, which allows customers to bring part of the treatments home, Mimlitsch said. 

Quote of note: “It's a space of full rejuvenation, and they can really restore their overall mental wellness by engaging in the sound therapy or just simply sitting in the salt room and putting their feet on a foot lamp, and we give them a warm blanket, and they can just kind of zen out,” Mimlitsch said.

• 1640 Highland Falls Drive, Ste. 502, Leander

Unlock MLS market research advisor Vaike O’Grady shared an end-of-year update on the Austin-Round Rock- Metropolitan Statistical Area's housing market, including where the MSA is seeing employment growth and projected housing trends. 

Major takeaways: According to Unlock MLS' year-to-date data on single-family homes:

• Homes spent 73 days on the market on average, nine days longer than 2024 YTD
• Total sales were down 5% from 2024 with 26,455 homes sold
• Median sale prices were down 1% from 2024 at $438,532

• Between 30,000-32,000 closed sales
• Between 10,000-12,000 active listings
• Upward of 5 months of inventory 
• Median sales prices of $410,000-$425,000

The Texas power grid is expected to hold up this winter, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Dec. 9. This is due in part to “tremendous supply growth on the ERCOT grid,” ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said, amid an influx of data centers coming to the state.

The overview: Since last winter, over 11,000 megawatts of generating capacity have been added to the ERCOT grid, Vegas said. That growth, which largely comes from battery storage and solar facilities, could be used to power about 2.8 million homes during periods of peak electric demand.

Zooming in: Under most weather conditions, there is a less than 2% chance of a grid emergency through February, ERCOT found.

However, Texas could be in trouble in the unlikely event that a repeat of Winter Storm Uri hits large parts of the state this winter, although ERCOT noted that the probability of such a severe storm happening again was "well under one percent." The February 2021 freeze devastated an unprepared power grid, resulting in nearly 250 deaths.