happy holidays from the bodebroz gang

2020 has been a strange and challenging year. It's highlighted, for us, the many ways in which we are lucky. We hope that all of you have been weathering this "storm" as well as can be hoped for - and we look forward to seeing you all again in a post-pandemic world.



Mimi

Mimi turned 1 in February, and her growth continued its explosive pace. While she started the year crawling, she finished it running! Go, Mimi!

Some of Mimi's highlights (we think):

  • Zooming around on her bike!
  • Enjoying cheese, fresh herbs (she eats mint, rosemary and basil straight - and calls all herbs "menta" (mint)), and apple sauce pouches.
  • Learning songs, making art, going on hikes, and visiting playgrounds with DD, her nanny, and Emilia, her nanny share "sister".
  • Hats!!
  • Books are great, especially Sachen Suchen and music books. Mimi lately enjoys "assigning" each of us a book to read (including her stuffed animals), assigning us hats to wear, and then sitting in companionable silence.

blueberry

"Hello!"



aa

First amigurumi: a squid

Angela

I continued working as a Senior Data Scientist at Optoro, I'm now in my fourth year there and still really enjoying it. I was working from home quite a bit before the pandemic hit, so it was a relatively smooth transition to working from home full-time.

My highlights from this year:

  • I accomplished my 2020 resolution of cooking 1 new recipe per week. Thanks to NYT Cooking, and being home a lot more, I cooked 91 new recipes! The best one was olive oil granola.
  • I (re)discovered the joy of creative endeavors like: knitting and crochet (thanks to Ravelry; I've made sweaters, hats, booties, and more!)), drawing and watercolor (thanks to the London Drawing Group and Atlas Obscura's online courses), and linocutting.
  • I had a lot of fun learning Vim, a really great text editor (yes, one of my 2020 highlights is using a new text editor - but it really is super great), and learning how to learn.



Max

I love being a papa and being with our "little stranger". It’s truly amazing watching her persist through frustration, master skills, scream in joy when her nanny arrives, and be comforted by Rascal – her (and formerly my) no. 1 stuffed animal.

In the spring, I joined the World Bank, leaving behind the non-profit consultancy I helped build. While it was hard to leave an organization I had poured myself into, I could not be happier with the decision. I still get to do all the technical design work I love so much, however, on a much larger scale. Most importantly, I now have much more time and energy to spend with my family.

To stretch our legs, we go for walks in the neighborhood and along our local creek. I also enjoyed playing badminton with Angela in our backyard and going on bike rides with Mimi – who sits in the back singing "Fahrrad fahr'n" (German for "biking"). We have also engaged in the pandemic’s most popular sport: watching TV. Often with Potato on our lap, we enjoyed shows such as Unorthodox, Dark, the Mandalorian, and His Dark Materials.

The hardest thing about the year has been not seeing our families and friends in Germany, Italy, and California. I have tried to compensate through many video calls and truly leaned into German Christmas celebrations, with Advent Sundays, calendars, and a copious amount of cakes and cookies. We cannot wait to hopefully seeing you all again in 2021!

mb

Quarantine haircut



potato

Potato!



Potato

Potato continues to be funemployed and held captive with stringent enforcement by Mimi, who screams "No! No! No!" and "Meows!" when she tries to escape.

Highlights for Potato (we think):

  • Numerous successful escape attempts.
  • Gained trust from captors so that they stop giving chase when outside.
  • Daily wet food breakfast served by the small captor.
  • Occasionally, the largest captor remembers to clean my litter box. 🍾
  • Captors are generally ignoring me. 🍾
  • Smallest captor learned how to pet me without pulling my tail or hitting me. She (?) is working at not screaming in my face.