2025 Holiday Letter

Hi and bye to 2025! We hope the year has been gracious to you, and that you and your family have been in good health and spirits. This year has passed so quickly with so many things that happened locally (LA fires) and nationally (!!).  We are fortunate to have weathered it all and have been in good health except for back pain from ski falls and lacerated ankles related to electric bike antics. 

Sophie-Inez is in 2nd grade, and has quickly picked up reading as a pastime. Additionally, she has taken a real interest to knitting and we now have matching hats and scarves (even for our cat Salty!). 

She’s been growing at lightning speed and has advanced in swimming, soon to be taking on the butterfly stroke next.  Vivian continues to work at USC (18 years and counting) and Michael has been involved in camera projects such as as commercial shoots for Skrein Films.

We were fortunate to be able to travel near and far. We started the year with the starkness and beauty of Joshua Tree National Park and continued on with winter ski trips to Mammoth and a little bit of Kauai, Hawaii thrown into the spring mix. Sophie-Inez and Michael made their annual summer sojourn to Austria to see Michael’s family, with Vivian joining several weeks later and taking a sidetrip to Istanbul, Turkey, with Michael. A beautiful city with Eastern and Western traditions, we suspect it will soon be overtaken by its resident cats which likely number over a million.. Michael also developed a fond appreciation (ahem, forced) of being observant in a Muslim nation, and had the pleasure of wearing a skirt to cover his scandalous knees when entering mosques.

In September, Michael took on and conquered his first IronMan 70.3 triathlon in Santa Cruz, CA with a respectable finish, and followed it up Hyrox Pro competition in Anaheim, CA in mid-December. In between these competitions he has skinned up Mammoth, trekked up Mt. Tyndall and trail ran Strawberry Peak.

Lastly, we have been using our ADU compound to the fullest extent, now replete with an endless pool, sauna, rogue rig, cold plunge, and deck for entertaining. If you ever find yourself in LA, we’d love to host you! To end 2025, we plan to travel to Taiwan and then onto Banff, Canada. Hoping for a calm and peaceful 2026!