our family

As a family, we value the outdoors, family, friends, giving back to our community, our environmental footprint, the local farmers of Northern California who nourish our bodies, our health, the countless museums that open up the world to our children, and the culinary artists in San Francisco. I was drawn to this city for it’s progressive views and its ability to accept others for who they are. We hope our daughters come to appreciate this and the many other reasons we love this city. On of my favorite family traditions is dinner together each night, and we are grateful at this point in our lives to be able to make this a reality. On any given night, you can find us in our home or somewhere around town inspiring our little girls to cultivate their own taste buds with the flavors of the world.

We are a family that prefers to celebrate our differences. Myself as a multi-racial woman, adopted as an infant and grew up in a black, Catholic family. I was raised by a father who spent his childhood surrounded by the Jim Crow laws of Mississippi, along with a grandfather who left the South as his boss thought he owned him. I had a mother who was the first African-American woman to attend her high school. Michael was born into and raised in the Jewish faith with grandparents who were released from a concentration camp, and escaped through Cuba to land in New York City with little to their names. The experiences that weaved our separate families histories were very much rooted in intolerance, hate and hardship and yet our families had the fortunate opportunities and luck that allowed them to rise above these circumstances and thrive. This is the common thread that has allowed us to weave our own family together today.

As a family, we fit together quite easily. A series of steps in both of our lives lead us to appreciate our history and accept that religion allowed our parents to flourish, but no longer played a central role in our own spirituality. With this shared understanding, it was easy for us to find our path forward as a family with vastly different backgrounds in many ways. I was initially concerned that our lack of choices would not allow us to cultivate clear traditions. With family traditions often provoking great childhood memories for myself, it was important to me that I created this for my children. I’m thankful that our family traditions have come together quite organically, with little effort on our part.

Today, we celebrate our pasts, embrace the choices of those around us, and define our own paths moving forward. We are thrilled to now raise our daughters together without a commitment to one tradition or religion, but a celebration of the traditions of all the important people in our lives. We are grateful to have friends and families of many different faiths and cultural backgrounds, who invite us to celebrate and experience their important family traditions each year. This Holiday season has been filled with a range of experiences, including Winter Solstice, Diwali, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year and Christmas. We are now more than ever clear that our children are learning to celebrate everyone and could not imagine anything more beautiful.