Entries Tagged as 'laura'

3rd Annual Cookie and Tree Trimming Party

December 14th, 2009 · 3 Comments

On Saturday I hosted a cookie and tree trimming party. The day before I’d taken off work to prepare for the party, but that night we went out for Dallas’s birthday. We drank too much at the Whistler and stayed out til midnight. I was feeling it a bit in the morning, but it was not nearly as bad as last year. Still, I’m starting to think I can’t host this party NOT hung over!

Many of my friends and family came over and each brought a few dozen cookies. We laid all of the cookies out and sampled them over the course of a few hours. This year we had a lot of cookie party first timers, which was fun. In general there were more people than usual. In previous years people have been really busy, but this year the stars all lined up and we had a great turn out.

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Cory, Jen, Tommy, Eleanor

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Cory, Mary, Jen, Tommy

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Aunty Laura, Kristin, Amy, Eleanor

To counter-balance all the sweets, I also served a Wisconsin cheese plate, a mix of crackers and breadsticks, chopped veggies for dipping, some Lit’l Smokies, and 3 dips: crack onion dip, olive parsley pesto spread, and roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip. Naoko also made some queso that was really addictive when paired with potato chips! To drink we had hot apple cider (spiked or not) which I had Steph in charge of, using Julene’s Chicagoist recipe.

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Kate and Natalie (due any day now!)

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Eleanor, Amy

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Mom & Eleanor

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Laura, Amanda, Margo

I do a lot of shopping for the party after Christmas and just store it in a box for the next year. This year when I opened the box I’d purchased two different gifts for some reason… so I was able to give away a door prize as well as a best cookie prize. My mom got everyone to put their names in a bag. Aunty Gail was standing by me as I drew a name. I asked her if she was feeling lucky, then I looked down and I was holding her name in my hand! So weird!! Tommy helped her open her gift.

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Tommy

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Aunty Gail

We passed time talking and eating. This year we had a lot of kids at the party, which was fun. Steph and Jess were there, of course. Kelly brought Tessa again, she and Jess are such great pals. Quinn and Tommy came this year. They’ve met one time before and ran around together and with Jess and Tessa. Kenji didn’t run around too much, since he’s just turned one year old this past weekend. And then there are the little babies! I finally got to meet Margo, and Jill brought Halle as well. They’re only a week apart in age!

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Jessica

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Margo

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Halle

Since there were so many people and cookies, today has been a bit of an exercise in matching the cookie with the recipe with the person. This may be slightly off, but here’s a pretty complete list of all the treats we sampled:

  • Toffee Chocolate Walnut Bar (Caroline)
  • Swedish Oatmeal Cookie (Kristin)
  • Peanut Butter Truffle (Cory)
  • Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie (Jen)
  • Walnut Thumbprints with Pumpkin Apricot Marmalade (Joanna)
  • White Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Balls (Kate)
  • Deliciously Dandy Ding Dongs (Natalie)
  • Gingerbread Spice Cookies (Cinnamon)
  • Mint Cookie Gems (Mary)
  • Chocolate Crispy Cookies (Gail)
  • Melting Moments (Jill)
  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Katrina and Narni)
  • Triple Chip Peanut Butter Cookies (Eleanor)
  • Godiva Liqueur Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cream Tart (Amy)
  • Peanut Butter Blossoms (Laura)
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies (Glenna)
  • Outrageous Brownies (Amanda)
  • Snickerdoodles (Amanda)
  • Chocolate Truffles with Hawaiian Sea Salt (Rachelle)
  • Red Velvet Bon Bons (Rachelle)
  • 3 Truffles, Spiked with Baileys, Coffee and Raspberry (Kelly)
  • Pebber Nodder – Danish Christmas Cookie (Molly?)
  • Caramel Pecan Bars (Molly?)
  • Orange Chocolate Cookie (Naoko)
  • Chocolate Almond Cookie (Naoko)
  • Strawberry Cookie (Naoko)

As you can see, everyone stepped their game up this year. Everything was so delicious!! Since no one can ever pick one favorite, I handed out cards to get everyone to say what their top 3 cookies were. Steph and I tallied up the votes by giving a 1st place vote 3 points, a 2nd place vote 2 points and a 3rd place vote 1 point.

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Rachelle, Steph

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Tallying Votes

The results? There was a 3rd place tie between Jen’s Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie and Cory’s Peanut Butter Truffle. In second place was Kristin’s Swedish Oatmeal Cookies. First place was a surprise to me. I could see what cookie won but I had no idea who made it! Surprise! It was Caroline! She won a Christmas hotpad and oven mitt as well as my all time favorite cookie book, Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

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Caroline is crowned the winner!

I think my cookie party was a success. It seemed like everyone had a great time. I’m already looking forward to next year’s party!

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Thanksgiving Dinner at Makino’s in Las Vegas

December 1st, 2009 · No Comments


Dallas’s parents and sister :: George, Kathy, Caroline


I think this is the relative from HI who won $30k last year. We made him pay for dinner for everyone.


I know Uncle Neil in the back (from MI) & Great Aunty Mary in the front left is Dallas’s grandmother (Doris)’s sister. The rest? Hawaiian relatives.


In the back left and right are Hawaiian relatives. In the middle is Aunty Gail & Uncle Sonny. In the front are Aunty Glenna & Uncle BB.


Peggy & Neil with their daughter Miko and her fiance John. They got married the next day.


Dallas and I with our friends Molly, Matt, Adam & Sarah. Matt & Adam are brothers.


Hawaiian cousin (?) in front. Cory & Chris in back.


Uncle Neil with some Hawaiian relatives


Aunty Laura & Hawaiian relative. They look alike, huh?


Uncle Sonny in the back. Aunty Glenna & Uncle BB in the front. All from Chicago suburbs.


Aunty Glenna, Chris, Uncle BB, Uncle Sonny, Dallas’s dad George.


Aunty Glenna, Chris, Uncle BB, Uncle Sonny, Dallas’s dad George.


Great Aunty Mary, George, Aunty Laura, Uncle Neil, Aunty Gail


Aunty Gail, Aunty Laura


Dallas with his brother Jordan

For Thanksgiving dinner, about 40 or so of Dallas’s family gathered at Makino. As well, our friends joined us for dinner. Makino’s is a Japanese buffet. We had dinner there a few years ago with all of the family, and this dinner was pretty much the same. Except with more relatives putting us on the spot and making a fuss about our engagement.


The Paparazzi

There are always a ton of people taking photos at this dinner and usually I’m not one of them. These photos are Aunty Gail and Uncle Sunny’s photos. Hopefully they don’t mind if I share them.

After dinner we went out for a while then headed to a club. Dallas’s brother Jordan’s friend is a promoter in Las Vegas and got us into one of the hottest clubs on The Strip, Tryst (located at the Wynn). As VIP guests we didn’t have to stand in line to get in and we didn’t have to pay the $40 cover either. SCORE! The club itself was pretty cool. Dancefloor that opened up to an outdoor pool of water and a waterfall, crazy lights, go go dancers. We drank and danced like crazy until something like 4 a.m. We would never go to a place like this in Chicago and never go dancing here either, but when in Vegas….

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Down by the Lake

July 9th, 2009 · No Comments

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Ben

Aunty Peggy and Uncle Neil’s house in Michigan reminds me a lot of my parent’s house in Wisconsin. Both are situated up on a hill with the driveway coming into the front of the house. In the back, both houses walk out on the lower-level basement to a yard that slopes down to a body of water. At my parent’s house there’s a pond that is surrounded by thick woods and is home to a lot of wildlife. At Peggy & Neil’s there’s a lake with a small sandy shore and you can swim and boat.

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Kate

Uncle Neil told me he’d just gotten more sand poured recently. The kids loved this. Tommy didn’t want to get wet or dirty. He told the other kids to get him buckets of water from the lake. Then he had them set the buckets down by him and so Tommy could dump them in the dump truck. Tommy is destined to manage the family business some day!

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Tommy

Naoko and Heather were up at the house making dinner for that night. Most of the other non-golfers were just lounging around. With the kids it was actually still relaxing. It was when all the golfers got home that things got loud and crazy.

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Tommy, Aunty Peggy, Caroline, Kenji, Cory

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Aunty Laura, Aunty Glenna, Caroline, Tommy, Kate

Kenji was lounging too. This is a rare moment for him. Usually he screams bloody murder when he is not by his mom, Naoko. And not just by her, she has to hold him. It’s worse when he can see or hear her and she’s not holding him.

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Kenji

This is Trixie:

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She loves to do this:

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And remember Tommy? Who didn’t want to get wet? Trixie did this to him.

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We all saw it coming, but Tommy was shocked. Then he started to giggle.

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