And That’s a Wrap

Consider this my 2023 holiday season scrapbook of events in pictures, quotes and short stories. 

The holiday season started off strong with the lighted tractor parade in Calistoga where Oskar and my favorite float was sponsored by a local gym which showcased Santas and elves working out and touted the phrases “Merry Fitmas” and “Happy New Rear” on the side and back of the trailer. I didn’t know it then, but those phrases have now become a classic in the Breuer Household. The parade was just as great as last year and included the addition of my parents to the tradition. 

Keeping tradition from last year we also went to see the Nutcracker again. I am not sure if the kids really like the show or just the hot chocolate and snacks during intermission but they wanted to go again, so I was more than happy to oblige. We sat in the orchestra section this time and two memories will always stick with me from this time around. Before the show started Alva turned towards me, grabbed my face with both hands, leaned in close so our noses were nearly touching and squeezed… This is her normal “I am so EXCITED” move that I thought nothing of it.  That is until, in that split second gesture, she managed to cough directly into my mouth. Man, I love being a mom. Then during intermission I told Oskar that my favorite part of the show is when the three dancers jump out of the large Faberge eggs. As soon as the eggs were rolled on to the stage, Oskar turned to me and shouted out “Mama!!”  He was excited to let me know my favorite part was coming up. 

We followed up our cultural experience with Charlie Brown at the San Francisco Symphony. My parents joined us for the occasion along with Ernst (unfortunately Martin and Annegret missed out due to Annegret not feeling well). Unbeknownst to us, the first half of the show was just music (which I loved) but resulted in the kids asking every five minutes when the movie would start. And then come to find out they didn’t actually show the movie but rather had actors on stage acting out the key parts of the movie. In the end, it was much better than the actual movie and might need to be added to the holiday tradition rotation.  We especially loved the sing along portion after the main event including the classic “We Wish You a Merry Christmas (and a Happy New Rear)… the last part might have only been sung by Oskar and I. And while there was no intermission for snacks we did have a brownie afterwards. 

We rounded out the “cultural” portion of the holidays with a Christmas Eve church service at the Norwegian Seaman’s church. I suppose we might have set ourselves up for this one… before the service Oskar asked if we had to pay for our seats. And after the service Alva was pissed that she didn’t get any sweets.  According to her “she even told us during the show that she was hungry”. 

On our way to the "show"

The views from the church balcony are one of the reasons why we go to a Norwegian speaking service

Live shows aside, it was also inevitable that with three weeks off from school there would be plenty of TV time. And while I normally love a good Christmas movie binge (Love Actually, Elf, Holidate, Die Hard anyone?) I didn’t get to watch a single one. We did however watch plenty of kids movies and possibly one too many Grizzy and The Lemmings (which we have been binging since my parents introduced us over Thanksgiving break). 

We brought back the festive Gingerbread house decorating party (on pause since 2019 due COVID), complete with seven kids and a thoroughly trashed apartment. And we ended the holidays with demolishing the actual gingerbread houses with a hammer on Jan 3.

The parents couldn't help themselves.

And let’s not forget about the food! Fresh crab, Martin’s Christmas backerei, Irish Coffees, dim sum and the now famous snowball eating competition cheating scandal of 2023 (the Breuer siblings winning the doubles competition and I came in first for singles).  The kids also really stepped up their kitchen game this year: they perfected making morning coffee (including delivery direct to me in bed) and assisted in baking ginger cranberry bread.  

We had adventures to Union square and an adventurous trip via bus and BART to my parents house on Christmas Day.  We did arts and crafts and homemade presents (bookmarks for the family). 

I had to try this one from Miller and Lux Provisions

We even had a Santa sighting on Christmas Eve … Oskar decided to pull a fast one on us and pretended to be asleep. As the story goes he heard some crunchy noise by Alva’s door (most likely the carrots or cookies she left out) followed by crunchy noise by his door (same story). He then saw a person in black (or it could have been red) walk to the living room and when Oskar followed shortly after, there were presents under the tree. And while Martin and I were in the kitchen, Martin was asleep on the couch and my back was turned from the tree (I was doing dishes) so we both missed him. 

Christmas morning was a practice in patience… Our present opening on Christmas morning took so long that I had to call an intermission after 90 minutes for breakfast. No exaggeration. 

I think this photo sums it up nicely (another beautiful candid moment, captured by Martin)

We, meaning I, even “enjoyed” a minor cry session in the bathroom on December 26 because I fundamentally needed a hug and a way to release the built up stress of trying to bring the holiday magic to life during the entire month of December while having house guests for ten of those days. 

And then we were done. And I was done. We packed our bags that afternoon and Wednesday morning we drove up to the mountains for a week of skiing and to celebrate NYE.  Spoiler alert there was no snow.

Thanksgiving Week - Lassen

In a year where everything seems to have gone sideways (failed Spring Break, chaotic summer, no true vacations), Thanksgiving was shaping up to be the same. 

Cody and Brenda decided to go to Pillsbury for Thanksgiving instead of Dunsmuir. Which put the family in an awkward situation. With us still going to Dunsmuir, we were making my parents decide who to spend the holiday with: Dana and Cody in Pillsbury or our family in Dunsmuir. It didn’t seem like a fair position to put them in (choosing their favorite child) so I actually floated the idea with Martin of doing something completely crazy with just the four of us...like going to some place completely new, maybe Hawaii or Mexico. Stupid me forgot how much of a nightmare (not to mention how expensive) it is to travel Thanksgiving week. 

So then came the search for a place driving distance from SF where we could spend the week. But then that felt odd. Going somewhere just to struggle to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner for four in an unknown kitchen. So plans were further refined where we would spend Thanksgiving at Dunsmuir with my parents (who judiciously decided to spend the weekend before Thanksgiving at Pillsbury with Cody and Dana and the following weekend in Dunsmuir).  But I still wanted a little adventure and so began the hunt for a fun location in between SF and Dunsmuir that had small cabins we could rent for a two night stay before we arrived in Dunsmuir on Tuesday for the rest of the week. Seemed easy enough...

After a few google searches and a few attempts with ChatGPT, I had narrowed it down to the area around Lassen. However, in the end, it was good old fashioned word of mouth and suggestions from my mom that secured us a great cabin in Mill Creek just outside of Lassen. It checked all of the boxes that I wanted for the two nights (except wi-fi, which I learned once we got there). 

We had an early night on Sunday at the cabin, a full day playing in the snow in Lassen (which come to find out was mostly closed in the winter) and then a quiet dinner again back at the cabin Monday night before heading to Dunsmuir.  It was exactly what I wanted… including the lack of wi-fi. 

As an aside and more of a mental note for the future. Come to find out every restaurant near Lassen and Mill Creek is closed on Mondays in the winter so we had to drive the 30 minutes to Chester to get a late lunch on Monday after Lassen. With terrible cell service and no wi-fi we drove to Chester with no idea where to actually go to eat. We made the expert move of driving through the entire town before making the decision to eat at the restaurant that had the fullest parking lot. It was a hit. Lock this tip away for when we finally get around to our epic roadtrip with no GPS or Google!

Halloween

 Just a picture so I can remember what the costumes were.

Hei Hei and Rosie

Rapunzel and Skeleton

Out of my Element

It is very rare for me to travel and to feel completely lost, turned around and out of my element. I have complained before about no longer experiencing the “oh fuck factor” when travelling. So imagine my feelings of confusion and surprise when confronted with exactly these feelings a mere 45 miles away from home. I was out of my comfort zone. 

Quick background. Oskar and Martin had their special weekend planned up in Nevada City and given that Alva and my official special weekend was in San Francisco I opted to get out of town for our weekend alone. I am still not sure how I decided on San Jose but that is where I booked a hotel room so that is where we were going. 

With Martin taking the car I booked a rental car which sounds straightforward enough. Except when I went to pick up the car my two options were either a pick up truck (not ideal) or a fully electric car (how hard could it be). Electric it was. And so began my first new experience in a really long time. 

The battery was only charged 60% which according to the dash would get me 130 miles. As someone who gets stressed when our gas tank only has 70 miles to go and San Jose is a 50 mile drive, the entire weekend was spent calculating and researching how much more time I had until I needed to recharge the car, looking for places to recharge the car and figuring out how to actually recharge the car. I attempted two places on Friday night while out for dinner, two new spots on Saturday during the day (finally having success at a Safeway while Alva and I ate ice cream in the parking lot) and failed completely on Sunday when trying to recharge before returning the car (opting instead to pay the fee). 

After a whole weekend driving the car (which was actually a really nice car to drive) I think I finally figured it out. And if we did have a place to reliably charge when needed I would be onboard for a fully electric car when we need to replace our current gas guzzler. But man, it was stressful in the moment. 

Car troubles aside, I was also directionally challenged the entire weekend in San Jose. I couldn’t for the life of me get my bearings of NESW! We drove almost everywhere and while everything was only 10-15 minutes away, each trip involved a new freeway which took us in a completely different direction. Thank god the car had a full screen for our google maps to guide the way… although in hindsight that may have also exacerbated the problem.  

Stressors aside, we did have a blast. Pizza at San Pedro Square, a morning of hotel breakfast, checking out the solar eclipse, playtime at the Children’s Museum, an afternoon at Happy Hallow Zoo (where we didn’t see any animals but did get face painting and ride all the rides), sushi /Thai dinner, unhealthy snacks and a hotel room where we snuggled in bed and watched TV. 

For Sunday Alva told me she wanted to see her new BFF from our previous girls weekend. With Lilah only an hour drive south, it was a date! However, while we had planned to paint ceramics at Color Me Mine (only to find out you had to wait 7 days for the items to be fired and no they didn’t ship), we settled on the Build A Bear workshop. And while we meant to go to high tea for lunch (only to realize with a phone call before heading that way that they do set seatings and were fully booked for the day) we ended up at Cheesecake Factory. 

It was the perfect day but a true reminder of how out of my element I was… after a few hours with besties, we said goodbye to head towards our respective homes, with big hugs and two incredibly happy but exhausted kids. 

Loving the rides at Happy Hollow

Fancy Dinner on Saturday

$70+ bears.. but happy girls

Cheesecake for the win

Proud Mom / Kid Moments

After a break in 2022, Martin was off to Norway for his bi-annual fishing trip. And that meant I was on point as parent for the week! For those new here, and to rely solely on the nuclear family stereotypes, Martin is the incredible, do everything mom of the family and I am the workaholic deadbeat dad. But with Martin gone I was excited and ready to step up to the challenge and have some fun along the way. Martin left Friday afternoon and wouldn’t return until the following Saturday. I took a half day on Friday to stock up on food at Costco while the kids were still at school and here is what we got up to:  

• We started Saturday off strong with a soccer game for Oskar in the morning (I brought snacks and juice boxes for the kids like the soccer mom I had always wanted to be) and we found some additional fun in the drive home, letting the kids decide what direction to turn at every intersection. With San Francisco on a grid system, at every stop sign or street light I asked the kids if they wanted to go straight or turn right/ left. We definitely didn’t take the most direct route home, but we did get a chance to explore a few new streets and neighborhoods along the way

• On Sunday, I introduced the kids to proper Dim Sum at Peony’s in Oakland. I am not sure if they were sold on the idea but I will blame that on the fact that they no longer offer the cart service. Promises were made for Yank Sing in SF in December so they could have the full experience 

• After dim sum the kids chose to check out the Lawrence Hall of Science (instead of FairyLand) where I showed my age by asking if the blue whale heart exhibit was still available (just a mere 30 plus years later) 

• Monday morning marked the start of the weekly hustle to get out the door and to school on time and me to the “office” before my day of work and meetings began 

• Monday evening also began the week of really juggling it all including cooking dinner, packing backpacks and getting everything set for the following morning sprint all while getting in a few minutes of quality time.  Thankfully the kids found a way to entertain themselves while I got dinner on the table every evening and I somehow convinced the Kids to pack their lunches each night before bed

• Everyday after school, I embraced child taxi service duties driving them to their swim lessons, soccer practice, and music lessons 

• With an 8:30 am start to work and a hard stop at 2:39 pm to make after school pick up, I spent most nights working instead of my plan of watching terrible TV and movies while Martin was gone 

After a few days of the hustle, things started to unravel…

• I had a huge mom fail of not recognizing how painful Oskar’s growing pains were one night at 2:30 in the morning. Instead of being a caring and loving mom I pretty much told him to suck it up and couldn’t understand why he was fake crying and not sleeping. It took an hour of tears before I gave him Tylenol and to my surprise (and serious guilt) 16 minutes later he had quieted down and fallen asleep 

• I also had a moment of weakness (aka I snapped and yelled) on Thursday night (why, I can’t remember) which prompted the kids to load the dishwasher and Alva made me sandwiches for my own lunch the next day 

• But by Friday, with the promise of Martin's return the next day, I was back to my normal positive self. I picked the kids up from school Friday afternoon and we headed to Japantown for a date night... the movie premiere of the new Paw Patrol movie and bullet train sushi 

• Saturday morning we had another soccer match (snacks provided by yours truly again) And with Martin arriving a little later than expected on Saturday, we made an impromptu visit to grandma and grandpa’s house Saturday after soccer. 

I had such a fun time and I think the kids did too. But we were all definitely excited for Martin to come home in time for a full Sunday of fun.

Proud Mom Moments

Parenting is hard. And anyone who tells you differently is either lying or doesn’t care. There are good days, bad days, terrible moments and every once in a while you have a brief moment where you think “man, I think I might have cracked the code on how to be a good parent.” I have had two of these moments in the past two weeks and need to document them here to remind myself that I do sometimes know what I am doing. Especially when, hypothetically, one of my children decides to subsequently have an hour-long breakdown over the lack of mandarins for dessert or the fact that their face painting was ruined due to their tears and I didn’t know what to do.  Hypothetically, of course. 

Proud Mom Moment with Alva:  Alva has been making some great improvements in BMX but Martin still runs besides her on the track for support and encouragement. There was one day a few weeks ago that Martin kept “encouraging her” to not use the brakes but the approach didn’t seem to help.  During a break I talked with Alva and explained to her what Martin was trying to do and asked if she wanted him to say a different phrase for encouragement. We decided on “unicorn princess power.” The rest of the day, Martin ran beside her yelling “unicorn princess power” and each time he did, she managed to not touch the brakes, leaving Martin chasing behind. It might not seem like a lot, but her whole demeanor changed and her confidence increased. It was so noticeable that Martin even said thank you at the end of the day and said the talk and suggestion was a really good one. If you didn’t already know, Martin is not one with flowery words so this was a big one for me. 

Proud Mom Moment with Oskar: Oskar has really gotten into reading books at night in bed on his own. And it is so fun watching him just devour each and every story and ask for more. I have been trying to get him to start reading more chapter books or longer stories to help develop his skills and broaden his options.  He had apparently mentioned to Martin that the chapter books we had were too hard for him. So one night we read two chapters together from the Hardy Boys series. During the second chapter I stopped every once in a while to confirm if he knew what a word meant. Come to find out he didn’t know some of them which was what probably was leading to the “hard” issue. On the spot I came up with a solution. When we were done reading together, I gave him a pencil. He could underline any word he didn’t know during his quiet time reading alone in bed and after 15 minutes I would come back in and we could go through any underlined words. Coming back to his bedroom after those 15 minutes was amazing. He had underlined a handful of words and we were able to sound them out and explain what they meant. He seemed so much more confident at the end. And the next day, he asked to do the same thing with Martin and a German chapter book. 

First day of school

We made it! And man it feels good to be back. 

Tuesday night GISSV hosted their back to school night where we got to “meet” the teachers, see the classrooms and visit with the other parents and kids. It felt like a mini reunion catching up with all of the families who we hadn’t seen all summer and sharing notes with the ones we had recently seen. The kids were ecstatic to see their friends and it felt familiar and comfortable. It is crazy to think that just 2 years ago I was so overwhelmed and worried I wouldn’t find my people amongst the formal German school system. 

Here are the kids on their first official day: both in need of haircuts and baths, both of which we failed to do before the first day. It was so bad I ended up putting dry shampoo in Alva’s hair! 

And here the kids are in the shirts I purposely bought for their first day of school photo op… taken 2 weeks after school started.

Alva's First Girls Weekend

Even a new job couldn’t stop me from spending time planning our girls' weekend in San Francisco. Oskar got his weekend at Nascar. Alva got the ultimate city staycation with a few new friends before a few of them started Kindergarten

The pictures say more than I can: 

A fancy dinner, including a limo to get us there

Checking out the cable cars with Kelsey, Lilah, and Samantha

Doing the touristy thing at Pier 39 

A later than normal lunch called for drinks... including in the bathroom with the kids

Slumber Party!

Class of 2036! 

Summer 2023

I am not going to sugar coat this one. This summer was brutal. Full stop. It was a logistical nightmare and both Martin and I agreed: never again will we repeat the summer of 2023. 

To really capture the failure of the year, let’s do a quick recap of last summer. I took 6 weeks off. We had a full week at the lake, a week in Dunsmuir, three weeks in Europe. Yes. I appreciate last summer was a unicorn. But I didn’t think this year would turn into such a shit show. 

And yet here we were. Summer 2023. New job which meant rebuilding my work reputation, new expectations about coming into the office, and a new busy season. But we maintained similar plans as last year, including summer camps all over the city and state, a week at the Lake, a three week visit from the in-laws and a week at Dunsmuir.  It has been a challenge to say the least. And yes, while I have had a tinge of jealousy at all of the time Martin has gotten with the kids, Martin has had a tinge of resentment for me not being there for our planned trips. It really was a lose-lose situation. 

School is back in soon and I am ready for my three week vacation to Europe.

Summer started off great with a week at Pillbury... Cody and Brenda were even able to join!

Oskar living his best life at the Lake

One week at Timber Cove without me

Oma and Opa came to SF the day before we got home from the Lake and left the day before we headed up to Tahoe

One night in Homewood with some friends

Alva's Birthday at Soda Springs (complete with Dino Tacos)

Woodwards Camp for the week 

Camping at Lake Siskiyou (while I worked in SF) 

Finally back together again at Castle Lake 

BMX

I have been hesitant to post this one. It is just too much of a gem to share broadly, but then again, I really don’t think my reader base of 10 people will be the tipping point of exposing the broader world to this amazing program. 

In short, for the past few months, we have spent our Sundays up in Napa for the kids to participate in a BMX “class”.  And it has been so much more fun than I could have ever expected or imagined. 

Oskar signed up with a few friends for the early spring five week session back in March where he learned the basics of BMX racing from an Olympic bronze medalist and experienced a huge boost in confidence. And after seeing Oskar receive a trophy at the end of the program Alva announced she was going to participate in the next session despite previously not knowing or wanting to learn how to ride a bike. 

The first week of Session Two Alva was hesitant but loved going around the track on her balance bike with Martin running by her side. Even more, she loved the hi fives she got after each race from Donny the director of the program. 

Before week two began, Donny reached out to encourage Alva to start using her pedals and that was all she needed. A day of practice at Joe D playground and the pedals were officially back on the bike. 

And by week five she was pedaling around before, during and after each practice and Martin was able to let her go on her own for over half of the track.  She just needed a little external encouragement to make it happen and she is now unstoppable. 

Oskar has also really excelled and improved: placing second in his Moto even after missing an entire day of races for Nascar. 

What I originally perceived as an inconvenience (having to wake up early every Sunday to drive to Napa for the day) has now turned into my favorite thing to do. 

Session 1, cheering on Oskar

Session 2, Week 1

Session 2, Week 2 (at the top of the Gate)

Going on her own!

Living her best life