Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s

Back: Bill, John, Chris, Peggy, Caroline, Brad, Johnny, Danny, Mitch, Rory, Jeff, Scotty
Middle: Doug, Derek, Kyle, Ben, Kate, Winnie, Eddy, Gail, Neil, Laura, Tyler, BB, Charlotte, Evan, Glenna
Front: Heather, Kenji, Rachelle, Dallas, Makai, Naoko, Hanako, Tommy, Miko, Austin, Hideto, Krystyn, Alexia, Carter, Amanda, Aly, Everly

Photos from inside the crowd!

Caroline, Danny, Winnie, Krystyn, Aunty Gail, Aunty Laura, Naoko

Dallas, Kyle

Brad, Amanda, Uncle BB, Jeff, Rachelle, Makai

This was the 12th year in a row that we have gone to Dallas’s Aunty Gail’s house for Christmas dinner. The thing this year that I really came to realize is that the kids who were the little kids when I first started going to Aunty Gail’s house are now adults and there is a whole slew of other little kids. Tons.

Makai and Hanako. Hana is one day older!

Back: Kenji, Hideto, Ben, Eddy, Chris, Mitch, Alexia, Charlotte
Front: Hanako, Kate, Austin, Makai, Rory, Derek, Johnny (trying to escape), Tommy, Everly, Tyler, Cartter

Make a silly face! (photo by Heather)

Makai, Johnny, Carter with Hana and Eddy climbing the banister. (photo by Heather)

Hana and Lulu (Alexia)

Charlotte

Makai loves to play with all of his “cousins.” I don’t even keep track of where he is or what he is doing. Someone is there to hopefully make sure he doesn’t crack his head open. (I saw kids jumping off the steps and off the couch.) Makai ate a good dinner, I’m not sure how, since he LOVES to help himself to the M&M dispenser in Aunty Gail’s kitchen.

Jeff

Makai, Rory

Rory

 Eddy, Hanako

 Kenji, Derek, Tommy

 Tyler, Carter

 Hideto, Kate (Mitch and his girlfriend Cassidy in the background.)

Naoko’s delicious and beautiful cake

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. This year Jeff carved the roast beast. I made a tray of cookies to share for dessert. There were a few other desserts too. Naoko made an amazing chocolate cake.

The annual gift exchange.

Doug, Aunty Gail, Danny, Kyle, John (photo by Heather)

 Danny forcing Mitch to hand over his gift (photo by Heather)

I knew what I wanted in the gift exchange because I saw Scotty wrapping it in the other room. So I kept stealing it and we got it. An Amazon Echo puck and some smart outlet plug thing.

Back: Aunty Peggy, Aunty Laura, Aunty Glenna
Front: Aunty Gail, Uncle Neil, Bill, Uncle BB

Aunty Gail’s Family (photo by Heather)
Back: Mitch, Jeff, Chris, Aunty Gail, Hanako, Naoko, Doug
Front: Heather, Tommy, Kenji, Eddy

Uncle Neil and Aunty Peggy’s Family (photo by Heather)
Back: John, Miko, Peggy, Neil, Austin, Kyle, Kate, Winnie
Front: Ben, Derek

Aunty Laura and Bill’s Family (photo by Heather)
Scotty, Krystyn, Bill, Aunty Laura, Hideto, Johnny, Caroline, Rory, Danny

Uncle BB and Aunty Glenna’s Family
Back: Brad, Evan, Tyler, Uncle BB, Aunty Glenna, Alexia
Front: Carter, Amanda, Charlotte, Aly, Everly

Christmas Dinners Past:


2018

2017

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Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s

img_1206Makai and Hanako – Hanako is one day older!

fullsizerender-42 Jeff, Kyle, Dallas (Photo by Heather)

fullsizerender-43Back: Brad, Heather, Danny, Jeff, Johnny, Caroline, Kyle, Chris, Winnie, Ben, Brian, Evan, Scotty, Krystyn, John, Mitch, Doug.
Middle: BB, Glenna, Tyler, Peggy, Kate, Neil, Sonny, Tommy, Gail, Eddy, Hideto, Aly, Kenji, Laura, Bill.
Front: Dallas, Makai, Rachelle, Derek, Carter, Amanda, Rory, Miko, Austin, Hanako, Naoko.

img_1217 Gift exchange. We took the last gift, a bottle of wine, to end the game.

fullsizerender-44 Aunty Glenna and Makai

img_1219 Aunty Glenna, Heather, Rachelle, Aunty Gail, Naoko, Krystyn

img_1220 Aly and Evan are expecting a girl in February!

fullsizerender-2 Most of the cousins – Chris, Makai,Tommy, Mitch, Rory, Kenji, Tyler, Eddy, Hideto, Hanako, Ben, Johnny, Austin, Derek, Kate

fullsizerender-4Makai opening a present.

This was the 12th year in a row that we have gone to Dallas’s Aunty Gail’s house for Christmas dinner. The last two years in a row my parents were staying in Chicago, but not this year. Several people asked about them!

Makai is old enough to run around with all the kids now. I didn’t even know where he was most of the time. He was also getting very brave about sliding down the steps, even head first at times. Makai also discovered the M&M dispenser, and discovered he could reach it on his own when I told him to lay off of them for a while.

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. Makai ate a whole piece of steak himself and a roll too.

I made a tray of cookies to share for dessert. There were a few other desserts too. Naoko made a chiffon cake to celebrate Aly and Evan’s baby.

Makai got several gifts from people and in the gift exchange Dallas and I came out pretty good with a box of Big Island shortbread and a bottle of wine.

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img_1165.jpg(null)fullsizerender-3This year, before going to Aunty Gail’s house, we stopped in at Damian and Vanessa’s house. They live literally 8 minutes away! It was a short visit, but Makai had a great time playing with Dylan, Derek and Davin. And petting Miles. Damian and Dallas finished setting up this crazy electronic mouse trap game that Derek and Dylan got for Christmas.
Christmas Dinners Past:

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2016
2015christmasdinner
2015
2014christmasdinner
2014
2013christmasdinner
2013
2012christmasdinner
2012
2011christmasdinner
2011
2010christmasdinner
2010
2009christmasdinner
2009
2008christmasdinner
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2007christmasdinner
2007
2006christmasdinner
2006
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2005

Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s

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Photo by Heather

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Photo by Heather

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Photo by Heather

This was the 10th year in a row that we have gone to Dallas’s Aunty Gail’s house for Christmas dinner. My parents are visiting from Wisconsin this year and we contemplated not going, but in the end we did and dragged my parents along. I’m glad we did because it is so nice to see all of the family, including many who fly in and we don’t see very often. Of course, everyone made my parents feel right at home and they had a great time.

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couch
Photos by Heather

playing

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kids

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Photo by Heather

Last year Makai was just a baby. This year John was the smallest baby. Makai was running around and trying to get right in there with the bigger kids. That was fun to watch. He and his pal Hana are getting to the age when they can finally play together. When they were hugging I almost died. Cuteness!! Also, we keep Makai away from our stairs at home as much as we can, but at Aunty Gail’s tri-level home, there are a lot of stairs and they’re carpeted with VERY plush carpet and Makai would not hold back on going up the stairs. He’s a pro now.

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kitchen_crew
Photo by Heather

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. Someone made brownies, my parents brought a tray of their homemade Christmas candy and Naoko made a delicious yule log.

gift_exchange

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everyone
Photo by Heather

Every year Aunty Gail reminds you a hundred times to bring your grab bag, “no junk!”. The gift exchange was a little more lively than it had been in the past couple years. Maybe because with my parents and Marty’s new wife, there were a few newbies. I just wanted the bottle of wine, dangit! My gift ended up including a bottle of wine, though, so that was nice.

Christmas Dinners Past:

2013christmasdinner
2013
2012christmasdinner
2012
2011christmasdinner
2011
2010christmasdinner
2010
2009christmasdinner
2009
2008christmasdinner
2008
2007christmasdinner
2007
2006christmasdinner
2006
2005christmasdinner
2005

New Years Day

As we do most years, this year we spent New Years Eve at Dallas’s cousin Jeff and his wife Heather’s house in Schaumburg. We always sit at home hungover on New Years Day and debate whether we should go or not. One of the biggest motivating factors for me is always the pork shumai they make. They’re not like the traditional pork shumai that I get when I order in restaurants, more like a pork dumpling, but they are so delicious. Heather and Dallas’s Aunty Gail make so many that it’s basically all-you-can-eat pork shumai, plus they always send some home with us. We also always have homemade maki sushi, cone sushi, sashimi, somen, mochi soup, chicken salad, char siu, teriyaki chicken, and about 100 other things, including a red bean for luck. .. but it’s those pork dumplings that I load up on. Then sit for a few hours, then eat some more. It does wonders for the hangovers. .. though I am starting to wonder if I’ll always associate this dumpling with being a hangover cure!

This year most of the kids were all in the downstairs playroom for almost the entire party. We played with Hideto a bunch. He’s visiting from California and is about 4 years old. I think the play room was a little much for him, so he was up in the living room. Fun kid. He can totally do this belly roll from the top of his belly all the way down and is happy to demonstrate! We also played a lot with Kenji, who is 2 years old. Kenji has always been a major mommy’s boy, but this time we played football with him in the living room using a little water bottle for a loong time. This is probably the most open to people as he’s ever been. It will be interesting to see what happens when his mom, Naoko, has the new baby in just over a week!

Basically we ate, watched football (Badgers lost in the Rose Bowl), played with whatever kids were in the living room, ate more, and watched more football. Oh, and drank sake whenever Jeff came around with it. This is about how New Years goes every year, which is totally fine by me! Can’t wait for next year’s shumai!

Christmas Dinner at Aunty Gail’s


Cory, Miko, John


Kenji, Hideto and Derek playing the super-old pinball machine


Tickle fight with Tommy


Dallas & Rachelle. I don’t know why I’m so squinty. Wine?


As you can see, the kids were really focused on eating dinner (Tommy & Kenji)


Mitch & Hideto


Cory, Chris, Aunty Laura, Scotty, Krystyn, Hideto. In the front: Danny & Caroline.


Chris won the prize for figuring out how to fold up the chairs.


Aunty Glenna and Uncle BB


Trying to assemble for a family photo.


This always takes a while.


Getting closer…..


Almost there….


Made it! (Photo by Heather)
Back: Jeff, Heather, John, Kyle, Miko, Dallas, Chris, Caroline, Danny, Chris, Aly, Brad, Amanda, Cory.
Middle: Uncle Neil, Kate, Aunty Gail, Kenji, Aunty Peggy, Derek, Aunty Laura, Hideto, Uncle BB, Aunty Glenna.
Front: Doug, Naoko, Tommy, Mitch, Ben, Winnie, Rachelle


Dallas, Hideto, Cory


Kenji


Tommy


Some of the older kids help facilitate the gift exchange.


Derek, Chris, Mitch


Gift exchange in full swing.


Amanda and Brad. Brad got bacon popcorn that we brought.


Danny got Spam in the gift exchange.


Mitch & Chris


Tommy & Kenji


Dallas with his rice. (Photo by Heather)

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. Now, I’m not complaining that it doesn’t vary, because it’s not like I’m eating steak and potatoes every night! And dinner always tastes super good.

After dinner all of the adults have a $10 gift exchange. There were a lot of people participating in the gift exchange this year. 25, I think, but it wasn’t very crazy at all. Not compared to some of the other years. We’re going to have to kick it up a notch next year. This year I came out with some votives and Dallas got a big bag of rice. Actually, he got something else and traded for the rice. He always wants that rice gift that Aunty Gail puts in every year.

This year it was amazing to see all the kids in the family. .. and more on the way!

Previous Christmases at Aunty Gail’s:
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Kids on the Lawn

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After the Camp Fukuda photos, Uncle Neil went to the shed to get out his riding lawn mower. Not to mow the lawn, but to give the kids – Mitch, Ben, Kate, Hideto, Derek & Tommy – a in the ride in the trailer that was attached.

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The kids loved it!

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I think Uncle Neil may have liked it more!

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Caroline & Mitch :: Brighton, MI

Dallas and I spotted these familiar tubes in Aunty Peggy & Uncle Neil’s garage. It was the same ladder golf game that my dad made for us. Aunty Peggy said that someone made it and gave them the game but they never played it before. Dallas and Mitch, who’d played at our house before, set the game up and we showed everyone how to play. Aunty Peggy and I won 5 games in a row before she purposely lost so that she could go refill her wine!

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Chris & Dallas :: Brighton, MI