I have 250 acres in Cass County, in North-East Texas. The West property boundary is a nice creek and is heavilly wooded.
My sons and I hunted several times, 3 or 4 days each time, and this was the first year since 1987 that none of us bagged a deer.
I spoke to a few of the local folks and the Texas Forestry Service guy about the scarcity of sightings. They all said that this past deer season had been one of the lowest harvests in a long time and no-one knows the reason. They said that on opening weekend, anyone in the woods would usually hear 25 to 30 shots. This year, no-one heard more than 7.
Anyway, regardless of whether we got deer it was totally enjoyable and we did get in some pig and squirrel shooting, along with great dad and son camp time.

My year was the same. My daughter and I saw 6 deer, three bucks chasing three does at full run speed 200 yards off each time. No shots. We heard two other shots in a full week plus. But like you said, the time together was invaluable.

2 years of drought and power line crews have done in the hunting on the lease.

It has happened before but this year we didn't see many does at all.

Seems to be a common theme this year,

This is the first time since 1997 i didnt kill a deer. I did shoot over one with my bow. More concerning was lack of sightings. Only 24 deer from sept. - Jan.
On the flip side when i went to kentucky i saw 22 deer in 6 days on public land.

They all migrated to Iowa to eat our corn, I'd guess. We've seen a few more than normal out behind my place.