Entries Tagged as 'brad'

Early Thanksgiving Dinner

November 18th, 2012 · No Comments

Dallas had to work all weekend, but Caroline convinced me to go to early Thanksgiving dinner at Aunty Laura’s anyway. Fun catching up with everyone!

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Doug and Naoko’s Labor Day Party

September 3rd, 2012 · No Comments


Vince, Tommy, Kenji, Harmony, Ty


Kenji


Kenji & Dallas


Tommy & Vince


Ty & Dallas


Kenji & Harmony trying to make a basket. Friend looks on.


Vince & Eddy


Getting ready for dinner.

This is the 7th year that we have gone to Doug and Naoko’s Labor Day barbecue. We drove from the Lake House to the barbecue and only could stay for a few hours because Dallas had Josh’s birthday dinner to go to that night. Even though our visit was short, it was great to see everyone and catch up. .. see how big the kids had gotten. Always bigger than expected, right?

Doug & Naoko like to have a Labor Day party every year. Here are some photos from years past:

- 2005: we played a lot of horseshoes
- 2006: Jordan brought fresh smoked salmon from Alaska. He’d just been on a trip there.
- 2007: No Party? Or just no photo or post?
- 2008: Lots of kids. First year I noticed that?
- 2009: Also celebrated Aunty Gail’s retirement. One more photo from that year.
- 2010: Doug & Naoko have a new house
- 2011:Two new babies – Eddy and Ty – and Caroline and Danny expecting one more.

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Meeting Rory

February 28th, 2012 · 1 Comment


Rory


Proud Daddy, Danny


Proud Grandma, Aunty Laura


Cousin Amanda, (2nd?) Cousin Tyler, Great Uncle BB, Great Aunty Glenna, Rory, Cousin Brad


Dallas and I got a turn with Rory.

This weekend we also went out to Danny and Caroline’s to meet their son Rory who was born on Monday, President’s Day, making him 5 days old when we met. I was surprised to see he had so much hair! And it wasn’t jet black, more brownish or auburn like Caroline’s. Also, I thought he’d just be laying there sleeping the whole time, but he was so alert and looking around the entire time. So cute.

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Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s

December 28th, 2011 · No Comments


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:

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Roundarch Holiday Party

December 5th, 2011 · No Comments


Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

Some highlights from the buffet


Geoff, Jim & Jeff thanking everyone for coming to the party.


Awesome fire!


Kelly, on the right.


Ashanth & Dallas catching up and drinking the mojito bar dry.


Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

This year the Roundarch holiday party was at ZED451. I’d never been there, but really liked it. Roundarch basically took over the whole first floor and the second floor was someone else’s holiday party. I really loved the space. It was very warm and inviting. The colors were very rich and the fire was an awesome touch.

ZED451′s main dining room area had this HUGE round buffet. We thought it was one of the biggest buffets we’ve been to, not counting Las Vegas. There was everything on this buffet: shrimp, crab, poke, charcuterie, all the cheeses, duck pastrami. Craziness. It was so good. ZED451 is kind of like an upscale Brazilian steakhouse where they come to your table and offer you all sorts of meats, which they cut off right in front of you. Since this doesn’t scale, they cut all the meat ahead of time and skewered it and there were guys constantly offering you choice cuts of “aged 48 hours blah blah blah.” Point is, it was delicious. There were all kinds of steak, a Mediterranean chicken, fish, etc.

The party was, of course, open bar. And a nice touch was the mojito bar where you could get all kinds of different mojitos: blackberry, pineapple, cucumber, blueberry, cranberry, etc. I had to try hard to keep myself in check, something which Dallas did not do! But that’s ok. I was the one with big plans (cookie party) the next day, not him.

Roundarch never skimps on their holiday parties and this year was no exception. We had a fun time talking to all of my coworkers and their guests. Dallas got to catch up with the people from my office he doesn’t get to see much. Great time! Oh, and here’s a photo my coworker, Rose, took of Adam, Brad and me:


Rachelle, Adam, Brad. Gray is the new black!

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