Dallas won this at Kelly & Jeff’s holiday party a few years ago. We came across it in the Jeep when we traded it in. I could throw it away…… or donate it to a museum! I tried to give it back to Kelly when she was visiting but she wanted nothing to do with it!
Tags:bodyguard·cassette·dallas·jeep·jeff·kelly·whitney houston
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:
Tags:adam·aly·amanda·bb·ben·brad·brian·chris·christmas·dallas·derek·doug·eddy·gail·glenna·heather·jeff·john·kate·kenji·kyle·laura·marty·miko·mitch·mount prospect·naoko·neil·peggy·sonny·tommy·tyler·winnie
Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451
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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!
Tags:adam·ashanth·brad·buffet·Chicago·dallas·geoff·holiday·jeff·jim·mojito·near north side·rose·roundarch·steak·zed451
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!
Tags:dallas·heather·hideto·jeff·kenji·naoko·new years day·pork shumai·schaumburg
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
Tags:aly·amanda·bb·ben·brad·caroline·chris·christmas·cory·dallas·danny·derek·doug·gail·glenna·heather·hideto·jeff·john·kate·kenji·kyle·laura·miko·mitch·mount prospect·naoko·neil·peggy·tommy·winnie