Roadwarners

Merry Christmas Eve 🎄 When we were growing up we always celebrated Christmas the European way so Christmas Eve was always Christmas. As a family now with our children we celebrate Christmas in the traditional American way but to me, once its Christmas Eve, its Christmas. And I love Christmas 🙂 🎄

Nana made an amazing brunch for Christmas Eve. It’s obvious she’s spent days in the kitchen getting ready for today and the next few days. Nana has a flair for parties and presentation so its especially fun to see her new recipes and how everything is presented. We had a lovely Xmas Eve morning brunch with family and friends.

We headed back to Oakland for the 5 0’clock Xmas eve mass. It was nice to see and give hugs to many Corpus friends that evening.

Julia’s came over to my moms and we had a delicious and our family (growing up) tradition of having mushroom soup and fish for xmas eve dinner. But better than any other year…was that we ate the amazingly fresh fish Edwin and Vera caught the other day. It was so delicious. Julia’s stayed for a bit after dinner, but not long because we knew tomorrow would be a big day and we wanted the girls to get a good nights sleep.

Edwin and I did our usual Xmas eve evening of after getting the girls asleep and helping the Christmas elves, we went down to Jason and Adams Xmas eve party and had a night cap.

Christmas is close. We must complete the gingerbread house. So we assembled the house and decorated. The girls really stepped up their decorating game this year. Loving it. Baking in general, making a gingerbread house is definitely one of my favorite memories with my sister as we would get ready for xmas.

While I let the girls decorate the house without micromanaging this year… I made a Buche de Noel for Christmas dinner tonight.

We drove the RV up to Nana’s tonight to celebrate Christmas, spend the evening, and have Christmas Eve brunch together. We knew there would be traffic, but wasn’t expecting it to take 2 1/2 hours to get to Santa Rosa. Every time we are in a home for a few days, we inevitably forget what its like to drive our home again. The drive up felt crazy…so much moving.

Nana is an really good cook and of course we had a really nice dinner with Lee and Sally. It was a real nice evening around the Christmas tree. I got an amazing little red hat from Nana for my birthday that Vera quickly adopted and I’m pretty sure I’ll never see it again. Nana had a big brunch planned for the morning so after we enjoyed each other’s company, the lights of the Christmas tree, opened presents, and played some piano we all retired on the early side.

The FITNESS SF Christmas party is tonight. I thought I had an outfit, but its raining and the last thing I feel like is wearing a skirt or heels in the rain walking around the Transbay building and touring the gym.

I borrowed a few things from friends, but still ran down to Nordstroms last minute and found something comfortable to wear.

The party was fun as usual. There was an open house of the gym, which still has a lot of work to do to get opened this Friday. But every day it is getting closer. In reality, everyone is concentrating on getting the gym ready so it wasn’t the best holiday party but we always have fun…. BUT The food was amazing! The girls spend half the night in the photo booth and we walked home with about 30 strips of pictures. The dessert bar was great. And the best part was by far the girls cat-walking 🐱 with Miss Mark. He was a good teacher and the girls were eating it up.

I knew there was a good chance we would be back for Christmas so I’m glad I scheduled all 4 of us teeth cleanings.

We then went off to the city to go to our annual Christmas tradition with my mom of going to the Smuin Ballet. I don’t generally like ballet, but the Smuin Christmas program is really beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Vera had a big day today. Edwin took her fishing. Her first time on a big boat on the bay. She woke up early and was on the boat still in the dark.

I was a bit nervous that she would be cold, get sea sick, get bored, fall off the boat, I don’t know, I guess I was just nervous for her. It didn’t help after Edwin sent this picture of her.

Her and Edwin had an amazing day! They caught their limit on fish (10 each) and crab (10 each). Vera came home after a long 10 hour day exhausted but with smiles.

Isabella and I cleaned the RV, which we had not done since we had come back to Oakland. Since we were back last time we have rented the house. It sucks. But at the same time Yay! So the RV is parked at my moms house and we are staying with my parents through Xmas.

Isabella is turning 12 next week and lucky miss Isabella got to have a birthday sleepover in the RV with her book club. What a great group of girls they are.

??pictures have disappeared from my phone, 🙁

Back to the office with the girls and my mom and Edwin in Transbay. More boxing up of end of the year files, giving odd jobs to the girls in the office to do and journaling, and math.

Another nightly game of canasta.

Edwin and Kati at Transbay again.

The girls did more baking with mom and went and got decorating supplies for the cookies. The girls were busy doing beautiful work decorating all the gingerbread cookies. The girls are really getting older. I came home and they are really taking the lead in the cookie department this year. And they are totally competent. It’s pretty exciting. I’m missing the baking part a little bit, but its fun being in the gym and its nice to see the girls being independent and taking care of business. Plus, my mom is really enjoying their company.

Edwin and I both went into Transbay today. I helped with sales while Edwin continued in the locker room. We took the V commuter bus which leaves from Montclair and could not be more convenient. It drops us off in the Transbay building and we just went up the escalator to the gym.

The girls stayed home with my mom and became the Christmas cookie angels. They made and baked 4 batches of almond crescents. They made the 3 batches of gingerbread dough needed for cookies and the gingerbread house. they also cooked paprikas csirke for dinner.

When I got home we had a big canasta game. The girls and I baked gingerbread cookies and the pieces of the gingerbread house. Christmas is coming.

My family is opening up its 8th FITNESS SF location, 6th in the city in the heart of San Francisco on the 2nd floor of the Transbay building. My brothers are very excited about this flagship location. I’m continually impressed with the level of work they accomplish. They are the real deal.

Opening day is Friday, December 27th and there is still a lot of work to do. My brothers have not only been able to provide quality facilities but they also deliver on time. The business began as a family business, but has evolved really into my brothers business. My parents, sisters, and I are there for support or when needed but it is really their deal. But at times like this, its always impressive to see my family come together when needed. We came back a bit early to help for the final stretch. Equipment is to be delivered starting today and the subcontractors are still not done and the pressure is on to open on time as promised.

Edwin went into Transbay to help out. They’re working on getting the locker rooms done and everyone was happy to have Edwin there helping move lockers. My mom, the girls and I went into the office to do some work. I typically box up the files at the end of the year to help out so I taught the girls how to build filing boxes, I boxed up files and the girls worked on their journals.

It’s nice to be back home and helpful.

I hate leaving the beach so we sat on the beach until we had to go.

It was still windy today but at least the sun was out.

We rode our bikes back to Huntington to have a yummy brunch at Duke’s. Yummy poke and orange coconut french toast.

Then the long drive back to Oakland.

With a stop at the UCSB boat house at Lake Cachuma.