2026: A Year of Little Expectations

I love seeing friends and family. I love spending time with those that I love. I love planning and cooking and enjoying a big meal with people. But turns out my excitement and energy has a limit, and my general five day rule for being a guest no longer than 5 days also applies to being a host. After five days of hosting the extended family, I needed a break.  After ten days I needed a change of scenery.  And after fifteen days I needed a lot more than just personal space and another vacation. This mama needed a break from responsibilities and commitments.  

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising then that this year I am setting very low expectations and no personal goals for 2026.  So while there are things already planned for 2026 (including a trip to the five national parks in Utah, a summer break in Italy and Christmas in Europe) I am not committing to any personal growth, arbitrary goals or otherwise. 

• I might get a new job, get a new job title, or get new responsibilities at work…. Or I might win the lottery and retire all together

• I might write in my blog a little more… or a little less… or I might finally draft up the great American novel of a 40 something overworked mom living in a big city but dreaming of settling down in small town in another country (I might have watched a few too many Hallmark Christmas movies this year)

• I might work out and I will maybe be a bit stronger at the end of the year when compared to today, but maybe not 

• I might visit a new country, I might travel solo or I might go on a silent retreat

• I will probably read a few books but no where near the “one a week” I averaged in 2025

• I might join the kids in learning a new language on duolingo. They are learning Italian, I might finally make progress on my German

• I might finally find a hobby

• Who knows, I might end up taking the Bar Exam just to see if I could pass

Even if I do nothing but enjoy the time with my family and friends, I will call 2026 a success.  In the meantime, please enjoy a picture Alva drew of me:

50+ Books in 2025!

I officially did it! 52+ books in a year:

Strongmen, Ruth Ben Ghiat 

Far From The Tree, Robin Benway

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Lydia Davis 

Nuclear War, Anne Jacobsen 

Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 

The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt 

Shattered, James Patterson and James O. Born

Men Without Women, Haruki Murakami 

All Fours, Miranda July 

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Stout 

American Kingpin, Nick Bilton 

Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar 

The Metabolism Plan, Lyn-Genet Recitas 

Breathe, James Nestor 

Modern Poetry, Diane Seuss 

Careless People:  A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams

Heartwood, Amity Gaige

White Tiger, Aravind Adiga 

Outline, Rachel Cusk 

My Stroke of Insights, Jill Bolte Taylor 

10:04, Ben Lerner

The Vegetarian, Han Kang 

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 

The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex 

Ghost of the British Museum, Noah Angell 

Marble Hall Murders, Anthony Horowitz 

The Usual Desire to Kill, Camilla Barnes 

H Is For Hawk, Helen Macdonald

A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman 

What Kind Of Paradise, Janelle Brown 

Abundance, Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson

There’s Nothing Like This, Kevin Evers 

First Lie Wins, Ashley Elston

My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

Mystery in Rocky Mountain National Park, Aaron B. Johnson

The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman

Your Brain on Art; How the Arts Transform Us, Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen 

Adventures in Sand Dunes, Aaron B. Johnson 

Adventures in the Grand Canyon, Aaron B. Johnson 

Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer,  Iris Jamahl Dunkle  

Die With Zero, Bill Perkins

Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor

Adventures in Zion,  Aaron B. Johnson

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, Marian Zapata

Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl 

Butter, Asako Yuzuki 

Bright Young Women, Jessica Knoll

Maggie: Or a Man Walks into a Bar, Katie Yee

The Colony, Annika Norlin

The Maid, Nita Prose  

How To Dodge a Cannonball, Dennard Dayle

And 3 Bonus Books, read out loud to the kids during the year: 

Order of the Phoenix, J.K Rowling 

Half Blood Prince, J.K Rowling  

The Deathly Hallows, J.K Rowling  

Germans in America - Part 2

I honestly didn’t think it would ever happen again.  After Martin’s parents last visit to the US, Annegret stated that the trip was her last.  She was getting too old to travel (she turned 86 in June) and the last trip resulted in pneumonia so her stance was warranted.  But somehow, through powers of persuasion, and maybe a little guilt, Martin, the kids and Meike convinced the entire Breuer clan to come back to San Francisco for another year of Christmas celebrations.  

Martin’s parents landed on December 15 and Meike, Regina and 15 month-old Rasmus joined on December 18.  

For the holidays we planned on the usual traditions: Christmas Eve at the Norwegian Seaman Church, followed by (Irish) coffee and cookies and dinner at our house, Christmas morning unwrapping presents, Christmas Dinner of crab and raviolis at my parents’ house, including Christmas crackers (aka poppers) and finally wrapping up with Boxing Day Dim Sum…all before the German contingency headed up to Arnold for a six night break from the city and ideally for a bit of skiing. 

We had our bumpy moments: Annegret and Ernst both tested positive for Covid the week before they were supposed to fly and they were informed at the airport that their premium seats were overbooked, Rasmus arrived with a cold, Meike brought the rain with her and come to find out eight people + one baby in our small apartment for more than five days is too much for me to handle. 

But we also had some really great moments and bright spots: The overbooked flight for  Annegret and Ernst resulted in an upgrade to Business class, Martin showed once again that he is a true baby-snatcher and great uncle, the rain from Meike in San Francisco guaranteed fresh snow for us at Bear Valley and a resulting two amazing days of skiing, and the kids were super excited and grateful for their presents from both Santa (a Lego Train Set for Oskar and a racing bicycle for Alva) and from the parents (each got a Mighty music player).

Other fun memories of the holiday break included: introducing the kids to Griswold's Christmas Vacation, enjoying the performing arts at both the Symphony Deck the Halls event and the San Francisco Nutcracker, taking Granny out to lunch at Nations Burger with my parents and having so much time with the kids during the break. 

German visit number two wrapped up with our traditional New Year’s Eve fondue dinner in Arnold and an early bedtime… the Germans had an early afternoon flight home on New Year’s Day and we still had to drive down the mountain to get to the airport in time.

Germans in America - Part 1

We just wrapped our first of two waves of German visitors this Fall/Winter. 

Quick background on the first visit: in Germany, students must complete a two week internship during their tenth year to see what work and various professions are like.  This is a requirement and as a result, German tenth graders get two weeks “off” to complete the assignment.  Ava, who is Peter’s (Martin’s closest friend from Germany) eldest daughter, had her two week break around the same time as our Thanksgiving week off, so Peter and Ava came over for a 10 day visit. 

The majority of the trip the included some father daughter bonding for Peter and Ava and some travels and general craziness with the American Germans (aka the Breuers). 

The group enjoyed great meals, exploring the city and some sightseeing.  Peter took all 3 kids to Alcatraz and all of the Germans went for a bike ride across the bridge.  And in addition to time in San Francisco, we spent two nights at Timber Cove and a few nights up in Dunsmuir for Thanksgiving with the bigger Gimbel Family. 

And in addition to all of the fun, Ava spent a day with me in my office and a day with Martin at his place of work. I gave her a full picture of my day; early call with India, coffee with a colleague in SF, arrival at the office around 11:30 (e.g. just in time for lunch), two meetings and then an afternoon of shopping. During our time we did complete some actual work including fielding questions on a system implementation, approving some vendor payments, evaluating FX currency risk, field a question from sales and researching a technical accounting issue. 

It was great having Peter come visit again and it was really nice spending time with and getting to know Ava. I also loved introducing them both to my family and all of our fun traditions of Thanksgiving.  And even better, I can’t wait to host Peter again when his middle child Ida turns 15 in a few years and completes her two week internship in San Francisco.  Ava plans to join again as well (assuming she isn’t already here studying at Berkeley or Stanford).