The Nutcracker

I am all about family traditions around the holidays! And with Martin’s family coming over to the US for Christmas this year it gave us a chance to share some Gimbel family traditions (fresh crab and homemade raviolis), incorporate some Breuer family traditions (Annegret’s plated Christmas Eve veal and chicken ragout) and develop some of our own traditions for Oskar (Christmas Eve service at the Norwegian church and New Year’s Eve dinner at Cafe Maddelena’s in Dunsmuir.)

One tradition I was excited to share with Martin's family this year and eventually introduce to Oskar when he is old enough was going to see the SF Ballet’s Nutcracker.  One of my favorite memories growing up was going to see the Nutcracker in San Francisco during the holidays.  It was always a magical evening with the dancing snowflakes, Sugar Plum Fairy and Russian dancers (my favorite)…and It was a family tradition that I have embraced and look forward to passing along.   Or so I thought.  Upon mentioning this tradition to the Breuers over Christmas Eve dinner my parents both looked at me like I was crazy and proceeded to burst my bubble by saying we had never been to the SF nutcracker. 

Say what?!

How is this possible?  I have vivid memories of seeing the Nutcracker every year growing up and knew most of the songs and dances when Martin and I rekindled the “tradition” a few years ago.  If this was untrue, what else from my childhood had I made up?!  My world has been rocked… It took a few days and a few good laughs to get over this confusion and embarrassment…   So even though it turns out this was not a tradition growing up, it is one I would like to continue going forward. 

Side Note:  After a few follow up questions and discussions with the family we agreed that we most likely went to the SF Nutcracker twice growing up and for a few other years I watched dances from the Nutcracker during the annual Holiday Performance of my dance company.   Combine this with my memories of going to San Francisco to see the Macy’s window displays and it is feasible that I merged the two memories. 

A Little Place Called Aspen

“We gotta get out of this town!

Oh yeah, and go where? Where are we gonna go?

I'll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen.”

It was with these immortal words from Lloyd Christmas ringing in my ears, that I boarded my flight to Aspen for my first night away from Oskar.

To take a step back for a moment, I had the privilege of spending an incredible weekend in Cabo last year with 7 amazing women for Lyndsey’s bachelorette party.  The trip was so memorable we spent the following 10 months trying to find another weekend and location to do it again.  And after all of the efforts, emails and text messages, all it took was for Erika to send out an invitation to spend the weekend at her newly built home in Aspen the first weekend in December to lock it in.  30 minutes later flights were booked and the weekend was set.  I had done the math and realized that Oskar would be 6 months old and it would be time to have a night away.  As my coworker put it: he will eventually go to college so might as well start now.

I left on the early morning flight on Saturday and was set to come home a little over 24 hours later on Sunday afternoon.  The rest of the crew had arrived Thursday evening so, like always, I was coming in late to the party, but I was coming in hot.  I headed directly from the airport to downtown (with luggage in hand) to meet the ladies for a late lunch and some shopping. 

 

The afternoon rolled into evening which we kicked off with ugly sweaters and a white elephant gift exchange back at the house followed by an elegant dinner served to us by three amazing gentlemen.  No, not Erika’s husband (she kicked him out for the weekend); but rather three guys who work on the family ranch and also happen to be professional chefs.  Yup, it was a plated, four course dinner of salad, soup, roasted chicken with broccoli and blackberry cobbler paired with countless bottles of red wine. Similar to the Cal Poly Girls, this group of ladies shares the love of sitting around a large dining room table and catching up over wine rather than go out (although to be fair, they did have a big lavish dinner out in Aspen the night before… I just missed it). 

We spent the rest of the night catching up, laughing at the terrible presents and sweaters and making a “Mannequin” video.  For those, like me, who required Google’s (and their millennial coworkers) help, a “mannequin” video is the current 15 minute trend of the moment where everyone stands still like a mannequin and someone films it.   

The anticipated moment of the trip for me though was the idea of being able to sleep more than three hours in a row without interruption from a hungry little 6 month old.  I said good night to the girls early (at 1am) and was excited for restful night’s sleep.   Unfortunately for me, my Arcadian rhythms had other plans.  I ended up wide awake at 5am and was able to get only one more hour of sleep before finally getting out of bed at 7. Ugh.

The bright side of the morning: waking up to the smell of maple bacon, French toast and sausage. Yup, the private chefs returned the next morning to cook us breakfast.  And while the rest of the ladies were too hungover to enjoy all of the offerings (did I mention the salmon benedict, yogurt parfait and fresh fruit?) I went to town like a crazy woman going back for seconds and helping to clean the plates of a few others. 

The weekend ended shortly thereafter with promises to plan the next weekend getaway soon and I returned home to my two favorite men in the whole world.  

The Grand Finale in Carmel

This past weekend we celebrated the nuptials of Anjulee and Ryan.  As Anj is the last of us to get married we started calling the wedding weekend the grand finale so it seemed only fitting that there were to be two ceremonies (a catholic mass in Mission Carmel on Saturday and a black tie dinner and reception in Carmel on Sunday night).  And like all grand finales, it was done up right.  We had two sets of outfits to wear (costumes if you will and definitely don’t call them bridesmaids dresses… we were dubbed VIPs for the weekend), a full day in the salon getting our hair and makeup done on Sunday and a wedding toast by yours truly (one that I wrote at 1am one weekend too excited to sleep).  

It was a beautiful weekend and the photos capture all of the glam that Anj had envisioned.  Below are some photos and of course, my wedding toast:

 A Wedding Toast to True Love

When Anj and Ryan got engaged we dubbed the celebration the grand finale as she is the last of us to get married.  But in this case last is definitely not least and leave it to Anj to go out in style.

At the request of the bride (and her matron of honor Lindsay) I have the privilege of representing the Cal Poly girls and giving the toast to celebrate the lovely couple today....I hope to do it justice and will know if I succeed if either Neff or Joanna cries.  So here we go: 

True love that magical and special thing and what people can search their whole lives for. 

The wonder and joy of finding someone you want to share your life together with, raise a family together with and grow old together with.

The security of knowing you have somebody to enjoy the simple pleasures of life including drinking a bottle or two of wine and sharing your biggest hopes, dreams and regrets. 

True love.  Found through the most unusual but likely places: a chance encounter at a mountain top bar or craps table in Vegas, an introduction through a mutual friend or family member or the cultivation of a friendship developed at work. 

Yes true love.  That once in a life time experience of finding your soul mate…. Which is what us Cal Poly girls, found when we met Anjulee. 

Five of us girls met our freshman year in the dorms and we quickly bonded over our love of Jell-O shots and late night runs to VG's.  My sister joined the crowd our senior year and we met Anj shortly after graduation. Which in hindsight is probably a good thing as I am not sure we would have graduated at all if we had met her earlier… The image of pouring gasoline on a party driven fire comes to mind...

Here was this petite blond woman with impeccable style and bright red lipstick, a woman with an un quench able thirst for life and champagne, a shared love of 80s big hair rock and country, and our immediate partner in crime.  It was a match made in heaven.  

Over the years our college style shenanigans evolved as we all matured and started careers and families. But as the years went by our love for Anjulee only grew stronger.  She became our confidant, the supporter of impulse shopping purchases, the token veil maker for all of our bachloertte parties and the favorite auntie to our kids.  We used to joke that it took Anj a few years of auditions and tryouts to officially be part of the crew but the truth is she was loved by us immediately.  

And we are a tough group of women... so much so that it takes an even more special man to win one of our hearts away... Because lucky for us we have already found true love with each other.  

Poor Scottie was the first gentleman to break into the group and win the heart and hand of Ange.  And since then he has been slowly building what we call his "support group" of fellow men to match our big personalities and crazy adventures.  I don't know about you, but for me there is nothing better than seeing your other half hanging out and enjoying his time with your best friend's husband.   And finding seven men that not only match perfectly with their spouses but also with the other men in the group is unheard of.  But I can honestly say that Ryan is that match.  

He not only brings a smile to Anjulee’s face every time she talks about him (even in their early years when they were still "just friends at work") ... But more importantly he also can hang with the boys all day, drinking whiskey and talking about traveling the world or possibly deep space exploration while us ladies catch up around a kitchen table.  Yes, I can't be more thankful for our friendship with Anjulee but also having Ryan be part of our life. 

So to Anj: on behalf of Ange, Erin, Neff, Dana, Joanna and myself thank you for being our soul mate and allowing us to be your friend 

To Ryan:  from all of us ladies and all of our husbands we are excited to have you officially join the family 

And to both of you on behalf of Lindsay, the matron of honor:  cheers to your true love.  We can't wait to see you two share a life together, raise a family together and grow old together.  

Election Day 2016

Eight years ago I celebrated Election Day in Switzerland with an Election Day party.  It was an exciting time to be American with two strong candidates and the possibility of meaningful change in the country.  It was like Christmas Eve, full of anticipation and hope. 

What a difference 8 years can make.  Instead of Christmas Eve, the upcoming election this Tuesday feels more like the night before a colonoscopy: I am looking forward to it being over and am dreading the potentially bad results. There is no reason to celebrate this Tuesday; instead I plan to watch the results at home by myself in sweatpants and on the couch. With wine, and possibly tequila depending on how things are looking. 

Our future is in our hands... Let's just hope we don't mess it up.