Books of 2011

This year I read 46 books… well, I guess “read” is kind of inaccurate, since I’ve been “reading” a lot of audiobooks, mostly while exercising. In the list below, the audiobooks have an asterisk. If you subtract those, I really read 32 books, which is still not too shabby.

Standouts for me this year were Waking up in Eden, Bossypants, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which were all biographies/memoirs. I recommend Bossypants on audio because Tina Fey reads it herself and it’s super funny. Waking up in Eden is about a woman who gave everything up and moved to Kauai. What a dream! And The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a great science read but also just really a great telling of how mistreated this woman and her family were.

For fiction, Before I Go to Sleep, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, and The Kitchen House were all books I could not put down or stop reading/listening to. I recommend each of them. I got caught up in two series this year: The True Blood series and the Hunger Games series. I enjoyed both of them. Hunger Games is 3 books geared towards tweens. Very quick reads for adults. The True Blood series is one I didn’t come close to finishing and don’t feel the need to. I think I’ve had enough of it.

This year and last year I got caught up in a few books that I didn’t really enjoy but spent a lot of time on. Last year I had a few I tried and tried to read and never finished. This year I had a few I finished just to finish. Maybe a goal for 2012: If I read a half of a book and I don’t like it, just walk away! I have such a hard time with this, but there are so many great books out there! Why should I be wasting precious time on things I don’t enjoy?

Here’s what I read in past years:

Here are all of the books I read in 2011:


finished 12.29.11

finished 12.16.11

finished 12.6.11**

finished 11.30.11

finished 11.18.11

finished 10.27.11

finished 10.15.11**

finished 10.09.11

finished 09.30.11

finished 09.26.11**

finished 09.25.11

finished 09.06.11

finished 08.05.11

finished 8.31.11**

finished 08.31.11

finished 08.30.11**

finished 08.19.11**

finished 08.09.11**

finished 08.01.11**

finished 07.22.11

finished 07.13.11**

finished 07.05.11**

finished 06.25.11

finished 06.17.11

finished 06.09.11

finished 06.07.11**

finished 06.04.11

finished 06.03.11

finished 05.24.11

finished 05.14.11

finished 05.08.11**

finished 05.04.11

finished 04.22.11

finished 04.11.11**

finished 04.08.11

finished 04.06.11

finished 03.30.11

finished 03.24.11

finished 03.17.11

finished 03.07.11

finished 03.04.11

finished 02.28.11

finished 02.16.11

finished 02.08.11

finished 01.29.11

finished 01.21.11**

Caroline’s Baby Shower


Caroline & Danny


Wisconsin Girls: Rachelle & Caroline


Miko, Aunty Gail, Heather


Aunty Laura’s soup


Heather’s salad along with Aunty Laura’s signature flank steak and cone sushi


Aunty Laura got these on a recent trip to Germany and was calling them Mozart’s Balls. They’re Mozartkugel.


Who let Uncle BB in?


Aunty Laura, Caroline, Danny


Miko, Winnie, Peggy


Packers Bib


Caroline (about the Packers onesie): Isn’t it cute!??!? Danny: NO


Jordan onesies.


Danny & Naoko


Caroline checking out the awesome green tea cake that Naoko made. (Glenna on the side.)


Just cut the cake, Danny!

Last year, while everyone was still in town visiting for Christmas, Dallas’s family in the suburbs threw me a bridal shower. This year right after Christmas they threw Caroline and Danny a baby shower. Caroline is expecting a baby boy in the beginning of February.

I bought the baby his first Packers outfit, which Caroline loved and Danny hated! It was a onesie, hat, bib and a Packers 101 board book. Caroline was holding the hat up and was like “oh look, he could wear this home from the hospital!” and I said, “yes, it will be right after the Packers win the Superbowl!” Danny was not amused.

Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s


Brad, Amanda, Dallas, Aunty Gail


Doug, Tyler, Uncle BB, Eddy, Naoko, Aunty Laura


Brad & Aunty Glenna


Rachelle & Eddy


Heather & Eddy


Tommy & Mitch

On Christmas day we always go to Dallas’s Aunty Gail’s house out in Mount Prospect, IL. Every year Aunty Gail makes beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and her mom’s lettuce/mayo/crab/pea salad. It never varies. Dessert varies because other people always bring different desserts, but Aunty Gail always makes her signature cookies. This year Naoko made a super light and airy cheesecake (usually it’s so dense and filling!), a chocolate cake and cream puffs. Naoko’s desserts are always fabulous, but Dallas and I both commented together about how great the cream puffs were. The custard was so delicious. Heather and I each brought candy trays. Mine should look familiar, since I’ve been featuring all the candy recipes here last week.


Christmas Dinner


Christmas Desserts


Kenji


Kate & Tommy


Kate, Ben, Tommy, Derek

This year there were relatively few (only 18!) people over for dinner. I think it’s the first year that we could all sit at the long table. The first year that I didn’t sit at a kiddie side table! After dinner, many other family members came over and we had the gift exchange. Every year Aunty Gail tells you a thousand times, “$10 gift bag, no junk, no junk!” Ok. Well, what can you really get for $10 that is not junk? This year she finally increased the limit to “$20 gift bag, no junk, no junk.” To be honest, I think I was already spending $15 on the gift bags anyway. And actually, the price increase helped a lot. There were many good gifts, and no junk, Aunty Gail, no junk.


Back: Uncle Neil, Uncle Peggy, Miko, John, Derek. Front: Winnie, Ben, Kyle, Kate.


Uncle BB, Aunty Glenna, Brad, Amanda, Tyler, Aly, Adam


Back: Jeff, Heather, Aunty Gail, Eddy, Doug, Naoko. Front: Chris, Mitch, Kenji, Tommy.


Back: Eddy, Mitch, Tyler, Chris, Derek, Ben. Front: Kenji, Kate, Tommy.


Eddy, Mitch, Tyler, Chris, Derek, Ben, Kate, Tommy, Kenji


Marty, Uncle Sonny, Brian


Siblings: Uncle Sonny, Aunty Laura, Uncle BB, Aunty Gail, Uncle Neil


Siblings: Uncle Sonny, Aunty Laura, Uncle BB, Aunty Gail, Uncle Neil


Uncle Sonny, Aunty Laura, Uncle BB, Aunty Glenna, Aunty Gail, Aunty Peggy, Uncle Neil


Rachelle, Aunty Laura, Dallas


Brad, Aly, Dallas


Trying to get all the cousins in one shot.


May be more difficult than the kids!


Someone with Heather’s camera got this good shot I snagged. Back: Marty, Winnie, Kyle, Brian, John, Doug, Dallas, Amanda, Brad, Heather, Jeff. Front: Naoko, Miko, Aly, Rachelle.

This year all of the golfers were fighting over a package that they thought were a pair of golf gloves. Dallas ended up with it in the end and guess what? It was a Coach key chain. Score for me! When it was Winnie’s turn to pick a gift she let one of the kids pick and they picked a very large box, which is not ideal because she lives in California and would have to travel home. So when it was my turn to pick I took her big box. It ended up being an amaryllis bulb, which I’ve always wanted to try growing, so score again for me! There were a few boxes and tiny gift bags that people thought were going to be bags of rice. Usually Aunty Gail will put a few pieces of rice in a Ziploc and wrap it and then the gift is 20 pounds of rice. Dallas always wants this gift because it’s something he can actually use. Most of the small, light gifts this year turned out to be gift cards. Aunty Gail’s gift was actually a Shake Weight that Aunty Glenna got. I don’t know how there are no photos of her, or the many people who tried it out, but it was hilarious, as you can imagine.


Aly & Eddy


Gift Exchange


Eddy playing with the Potty Putter.

As always, amazing to see how the family is growing every year. And great to visit with everyone!

Previous Christmases at Aunty Gail’s:

Christmas Eve

This year we went to my brother’s house for Christmas Eve. Originally Amanda was supposed to work until 4 p.m., so we were going to go early to help get dinner ready for when she got home. Unfortunately/fortunately, she hurt her knee and had to take a few days off of work.

I randomly found this blog post about some simple ornaments and thought they would be fun to make. My mom had all of the supplies so she brought them over. Steph wasn’t really into it, but we had fun making ornaments with Jess. Oh, but Steph did like to wear them as earrings.

My brother made homemade eggnog for the first time. I’m not a huge eggnog fan, but I really liked the eggnog he made. It was much lighter than the stuff you buy in the store. We also had some spiced cider and many different kinds of beer. There was one that was spruce flavored and it was not good. Even so, Milo wanted a taste of it!

Even though Amanda was going to be home because of her injury, we still got dinner ready. Dallas and I slow cooked some pork and brought that down. My mom made coleslaw and beans. And we had a ton of sweets that everyone made as well as cheese and crackers that we snacked on all day.

This year my parents gave us each a set of china. They each had one set so my brother and I each took one. My set is smaller with a black and white pattern. My brother’s set had many more pieces, which was good because they also had inherited a china cabinet to display a larger set in, where our storage space is much more limited. Also, when I looked online, it looked like you could get replacement pieces for the set my brother has, so that is good if they plan to use it more. Anyway, the china came out for Christmas dinner and this is the first time it was ever used in 40 years! I was so nervous that I was going to drop a plate or something, but everything went fine.

After dinner we opened gifts. Stephanie and Jessica opened gifts from me and Dallas and my parents first. We got Steph a few small things and a couple gift certificates to shop for clothes at H&M and Forever 21. Stephanie’s big gift was an iPod Touch. She was so shocked!

Jessica got lots of clothes and a games that she dug into right away. Jessica got a lot of Hello Kitty things. She told us that she loved Hello Kitty, so I hope she really loves it, because she’s all decked out now!

There were three gifts that were from Jessica to me, my parents and Amanda. These were all handmade things that Jessica did. Jess made a ton of Christmas snowflakes and drawings for my parents. For me, she made this long wooden stick that was painted like a snowman and wearing a fabric scarf. For Amanda she made a reindeer out of a hanger and pantyhose. So cute! I have a lot of things that Stephanie made when she was younger, but not a lot of things that Jessica has made, so it was fun to get a keepsake.

We each also had a gift from Amanda. Inside were spcial-edition Sports Illustrated Packers books. Dallas didn’t like this gift, but everyone else did!

Next we did our adult gift exchange. We draw names and have a $40 limit, so it doesn’t get too crazy. This year I had Amanda’s name. She has started getting into drinking tea, so I got her a tea infuser mug, some Argo tea and Tazo tea, biscuits and a book. Amanda got Dallas some Christmas Story pint glasses and a bunch of microbrews and a subscription to Wired Magazine. Dallas got my dad two Packers shirts. My dad gave me several books, an oven thermometer, and some Hawaiian treats. Richard gave my mom a Christmas tree made of Lindor Truffles and a gift card. Finally, my mom gave my brother a Packers t-shirt, a video game and a gift card.

Finally, this year was Richard and Amanda’s 10th wedding anniversary. My mom gave them a personalized Christmas tree ornament to remember the year. And she gave Dallas and I an ornament for our first Christmas after getting married. Here’s what it looks like:

I like how the guy is doing a shaka and the girl has a camera! Also, here’s a photo of the snowman ornament Jessica made:

Christmas Cards 2011

For our Christmas cards this year I decided to use one of our wedding photos. We paid enough for them, afterall, and it was the only year we’d be able to do it. I custom ordered the cards from an artist I found on Etsy, Mattie from Puddle Duck Paper. I thought 75 were enough cards, but I ended up sending out over 100!! I’m sorry if you didn’t get our custom card, but at least I could share them with you here!