Photo credit: Lark Doolan, standing atop Beaverhead Rock at Camp Tuolumne
Congratulations to Willa, who solved last year’s puzzle the fastest! There is no puzzle this year. This is not a puzzle.
This has been a year with a lot of joy and a lot of strife. We feel profoundly lucky for all of you: our family, our community, and our friends near and far. The world’s events this year remind us how important it is to show up for one another. We mourn the losses and celebrate the wins. We seek to build strength in community.
Now, as we reflect, we choose to dwell on some of the highs of 2025.
Asher is 8. He loves reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, dancing hip-hop with Dance-a-Vision (his recital is December 20th in Oakland), and burning mix CDs of original music he creates with his piano teacher Isaiah and his music therapist Rob. This year his favorite video game is Mario Party Jamboree, his favorite board game is Hues & Cues, and his favorite travel memory from the year is riding the tube in London.
Fenton remains 13. He plays D&D with friends after school, recently joined robotics club, and has a clarinet recital on December 15th. His Coder School had a nationwide competition and out of several hundred competitors, Fenton came in first - even though some of the other kids were 16-17 years old, working in teams, or both. His favorite video game is Minecraft, his favorite board game is Fireball Island, and his favorite travel memory of the year is scaling Beaverhead at Camp Tuolumne.
Laurel’s great joys come from family time, her handcrafts, and gardening. She’s serving on our neighborhood’s Firewise committee and as I write this she is cooking Thanksgiving dinner. What a mensch. Her favorite video game is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, her favorite board game is Hues & Cues, and her favorite travel memory is family time on Martha’s Vineyard.
I went to a yoga retreat in Hawaii for the second time in the spring, and it gave me a nice, quiet place to meditate and reflect, as my dad had recently entered hospice. He died just after I returned on June 4th. I was glad to have been with him when he took his last breath, and that my family came together to celebrate him at a memorial at the Oakland Zoo. Creatively, I’m glad that this year I competed in the 48th Annual O. Henry Pun-Off in Austin TX, participated in “Ghost Town Alive” at Knott’s Berry Farm, and took Fenton to Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the first time, where we saw “Into the Woods” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and also found time to do an escape room. My favorite video game is Trivia Murder Party 2, my other current favorite games are Dungeons & Dragons and The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, and my favorite travel memories include a family visit to NYC where we saw “Maybe Happy Ending,” played a Hermès escape room, and ate crazy milkshakes at Black Tap.
In 2026 we remain committed to the resistance, and to you.
Come visit us in Berkeley: we’d love to have you.
Love, FLAM