Christmas Memories, Traditions, Presents (in Photos)

Cheers with our Christmas Eve Irish Coffee's

Getting treats out for Santa

Waiting for Santa and his reindeer

Alva was "hot" so decided to play in the rain in her swimsuit Christmas Eve

Christmas morning presents!

The aftermath 

Playdough Pizza Parlor 

Last Christmas?

For the past few years my Granny Fran has been making comments about not being around for much longer. And every time I brush the comment aside since Granny is four years younger than Grandpa Vic who normally doesn’t talk such nonsense and physically, spiritually and mentally speaking they have always been healthier than my 20, 30 and now 40 something self. It wasn’t until recently that Grandpa, at age 99, has started voicing what we all know but don’t want to address. He is getting old, has had an amazing life and he might actually not be around much longer. And yet I have been able to put that thought aside each and every occasion and focus on the fun at hand.

For some reason this Christmas was different. True, we had our normal chaos of opening presents, Grandpa Vic enjoyed his glass of wine (with a watchful eye from Granny) and we still had our crab and ravioli dinner followed by the traditional snowball candle challenge. And yet things were different. Grandpa didn’t say his normal grace for dinner (Granny was adamant he didn’t need to which I am sure was partly because she hears enough of the Lord at home already). Which meant there was no chance for the kids (now adults) to side eye each other and stifle their giggles. And it wasn’t until my crab-shell filled plate was cleared and I looked up to see what was going on (I will admit, when there is crab on the table I tend to get tunnel vision that doesn’t extend past the bowl of legs and pinchers) that I realized Grandpa was the only one still eating, my dad and others having long since thrown in the towel.

True to tradition I made a comment about him being the last one standing/eating and he expressed his disappointment in me giving up so early, noting how it is normally just the two of us at the end of each Christmas dinner never quite getting our fill of the seasonal treat. Ignoring the nagging in my heart and deferring to my extended stomach, I told him I was full but promised to finish with him next year taking for granted there would be a next year.

And with his short comment of “I am not sure there will be a next year” (or something to that effect) the façade of naivety came crushing down. This may in fact be my last Christmas with Grandpa Vic. And I stupidly didn’t finish out the meal with him in solidarity. This will be up there in life’s true regrets (for which I have few).

Granny must have seen my world crumbling in my eyes (or felt the attention shifting) for she took the opportunity to bring me back, as she always does, to reality.  While Grandpa finished his crab and wine, Granny grabbed my hand, looked me in my eyes and told me she was going to be okay, she had all of us to look after her, but I was to take care of the paperwork when the time comes.  It was our little moment, our little secret, just the two of us alone at a table full of 11 people all chatting, eating, enjoying each other’s company while the two of us knew what was really going on.  With this statement, she gave me the gift of focusing on the tactical to prevent me from getting lost in the emotional.

I don’t want this to be a downer of a post, the evening was anything but that. It was absolutely perfect, with both families coming together for a fun evening of good food, good wine and good fun. Alva spent the night scooting around the house on her new scooter. Oskar spent most of the time building Legos and playing with his hot wheels track, my dad kept the fire going nice and hot and my mom was the perfect hostess. It might have been our best Christmas since Martin and I got married and started spending the holiday together.

And even more telling on how amazing the night was, it was the first time in a really long time that Granny and Grandpa left not at the encouragement of Granny stating “come on Vic, it’s time to go” but rather because their prescheduled taxi had arrived. Everyone had had a wonderful night.

And as for Grandpa, I still plan to eat crab with him until the end of Christmas dinner next year.

Merry Christmas From The Breuers

The photo was opportunistic: we didn’t have the time or patience to try and schedule a professional photo shoot with coordinating outfits and perfectly posed pictures.  We were going to let it happen naturally and hope for the best.

So Thanksgiving morning, while out for a walk along the river in Dunsmuir, we asked Brenda to take one for us.  I hadn’t brushed my hair or put on makeup, Martin had his eyes closed in this one so I had to photo shop them in and neither of the kids were looking at the camera. But I would say all things considering we are looking good.

And the photo on the back.  Well that is a gem from up at Timber Cove.

A Christmas Miracle

This is Blue. He has been with Oskar since Oskar came home from the hospital. He has travelled everywhere with us and is Oskar’s favorite friend. Come bedtime, they are inseparable.

That was until Wednesday night the week before Christmas while I was off enjoying my quarantined forced staycation. Blue was missing at bedtime and, after an hour of searching and an hour of tears, Martin and Oskar finally gave up and Oskar went to sleep without his Blue in over 5.5 years.

While most likely still in the house (Martin searched everywhere including the garbage he had taken down earlier that week), Blue appeared to be officially missing. And so life went on without Blue and, coincidentally or not, Oskar joined us in bed most nights thereafter.

That is until Christmas Eve, when all seemed lost, we found Blue! I was grabbing a new pair of pajamas from Oskar’s closet and found him in the bin along with all of his other pajamas.  I haven’t seen Oskar that genuinely happy or full of joy in a really long time.

It was a Christmas miracle!!

As a side note, I realize that at some point Oskar will most likely outgrow Blue and move on, I mean he will go to college eventually, but it was heartbreaking to think it wasn't on Oskar's terms. 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Early in December, we asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas.  Their ideas were relatively simple: Alva wanted a unicorn stuffed animal and pink rain boots and Oskar wanted a Trolley Lego set.  It seemed easy enough, especially since Ernst and Annegret had already purchased pink rain boots for Alva which also happened to have unicorns on them.

But the devil is in the details and not wanting to disappoint, I asked a few follow up questions. The unicorn stuffed animal was in fact Isa’s unicorn stuffed animal (Isa is a friend of Alva’s from school, who happened to bring her stuffed unicorn to school one day).  And the trolley Lego set was not a cable car, train or tram but rather one of the old fashion trolleys that Oskar sees on his was to school each morning.  

Thankfully, I had recently met Isa’s mom and we had connected a few weeks earlier so I was able to reach out to get a picture and the brand of said unicorn.  And while the exact same one was no longer available, after a quick google search, I was able to find one that was almost identical to Isa’s along with a unicorn coloring book. Alva’s present was set.  

I wasn’t so lucky with Oskar.  Turns out Lego doesn’t make a trolley set, although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  They did make one that was close to a trolley a few years back which I could have bought off of eBay for $500 but that seemed a bit ridiculous.  They currently make two Lego sets that have trolleys/trains in them.  I bought the one with the train that had batteries and drove on a circular track, but upon further interrogation of Oskar I changed my mind, and opted for the Lego City set that included an S-Bahn like tram along with a city hall, burger shop, helicopter and limousine.

But even that didn’t seem right.  It wasn’t a trolley and it seemed like just a small part in the overall set. And so I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find a Lego set that looked similar to the street cars that run the F-Line in San Francisco.  Countless google searches and most likely the first layer of the dark web later, I settled on purchasing two different Lego instructions from eBay to build my own tram/trolley.  Along with the instructions, and most likely malware embedded in the downloaded files, I was given a list of pieces to buy on the unsanctioned Lego block website BrickLinks which connected me to local dealers for either new or used pieces (it all felt very shady, like buying drugs on the street corner or in a back alley, but turned out to be legit). Too much time and money later, I officially had instructions and pieces for back-up trolley (one that looked like a Lisbon Trolley) that would be a present from us in case the present from Santa wasn’t what Oskar had in mind. 

Turns out all of my fretting was for nothing.  The kids were super stoked with their presents from Santa Christmas morning and it seems like they would have been excited with anything.  Dana ended up getting Alva another unicorn stuffed animal that she loves just as much, if not more, than the one from Santa (which required the back channeling and called-in favors).  For Oskar, turns out the actual present mattered less than who brought it: when talking about the large Lego set from Santa that included not just the tram but all of the other city pieces, I called it a City Lego set for which Oskar remarked “No, it is a trolley Lego set, it has to be… Santa brought it for me and that is what I asked for.”

And as for that other trolley set I bought through the dark web that gave me a virus and a few extra grey hairs.  Oskar and I tried to build it together but he (or me, or both of us) got frustrated after 10 minutes of trying to work together and he went back to his shiny new Legos from Santa.  Unwilling to admit that my search was a waste of time, I spent the next 90 minutes of Christmas morning, sitting next to our Christmas tree, surrounded by opened presents and wrapping paper, in my Christmas jammies, building my own Lego trolley.

My fancy new trolley

Out of An Abundance of Caution

After 20 months of not being in the office or physically sharing a space with the team that I had previously spent most of my waking hours with, we were officially getting back together.  We were having a team offsite!!

The offsite was planned for Tuesday through Thursday and we were going to spare no expense: the team was flying in from all parts of the country and while in San Francisco we were going to enjoy cocktails at Hubert’s Tuesday night, spend a day in the office for “work” on Wednesday, have a fancy dinner at Spruce Wednesday night and then loosen up with a day of wine tasting on Thursday before everyone went their separate ways again on Friday.

With Martin’s family coming in Thursday afternoon, I decided to get a hotel room for Thursday night.  While I might be fun company after a day of wine tasting I am not sure they would find me charming or entertaining after not seeing their son and grandchildren for 2 years and flying 12+ hours to see them.   It seemed like the responsible and polite thing to do.

And then omicron arrived and, though slim, the risk of me bringing home the dreaded virus from my festivities resulting in potentially having Martin and kids in quarantine right when the family landed didn’t seem worth the pain… so out of an abundance of caution, I extended my hotel stay to include Tuesday and Wednesday night to officially separate Martin and the kids from potential exposure.

The week started off great. There was a Controllers All Hands on Tuesday morning in the office followed by a lunch and party with the entire Controllers Org Tuesday afternoon.  Thanks to our plans, a lot of other teams decided to have offsites the same week resulting in one larger gathering of all groups and, in hindsight, the perfect storm for potential exposure.

Cocktails at Hubert’s house were amazing as always and Wednesday started off strong with canid conversations about burnout, energy levels and team accountability.

And then it all came to a screeching halt. Someone who had attended the Controller’s Org lunch and festivities the previous day had tested positive.  And out of an abundance of caution, their manager informed the leadership team before going through the normal channels of communication.  With this information in hand, we had no choice but to do the responsible thing.

By 11am Wednesday morning, our offsite was cancelled.  Dinner was cancelled.  Wine tasting was cancelled. Fun bonding time with the team cancelled.  We all immediately got tested again in the office and those who flew into San Francisco rebooked flights out for later that day. And me? Out of an abundance of caution, I headed back to the hotel where I would quarantine for the next two nights until I could test again 3 days from potential exposure (Friday).

And like all things in life, I made the most out of my “quarantine/staycation”.  With only cute outfits packed for the offsite, I bought a pair of comfy pants online from a store next to the hotel that offered curbside pick-up, I had Martin leave a bag outside our house with my kindle, an at home COVID test and a few other necessities (which I walked to pick up) and then in hunkered down my hotel room with room service, Christmas movies and plenty to read. I even snuck in a SLO girls happy hour on Thursday night.

The team continued to test on Days 3 and 5 and we all came back in the clear thankfully. And I was able to reunite with the family on Friday as planned, refreshed and ready for the Christmas chaos to come.

As a side note, if we hadn’t been informed by the manager, we actually wouldn’t have been notified at all since we weren’t deemed to be in “close contact” with the individual based on contact tracing and the offsite would have continued… but again hindsight.