Entries Tagged as 'tommy'

Early Thanksgiving Dinner at Aunty Laura’s House

November 17th, 2010 · No Comments


Tommy


Dallas in the basement playing video games with Tommy, Kenji, Mitch and Chris.


Kenji will be 2 in December.


Brad and Amanda getting ready to eat.


Aunty Gail helping her grandsons Chris and Mitch get dinner.


Pretty blurry, but Naoko is always the cutest pregnant lady. And she told me she’s never gotten morning sickness!


Matt, Aunty Gail, Uncle BB, Brad, Amanda, Danny

On Sunday Aunty Laura hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner at her house. I think Laura does this every year but we have only been able to go one other time, in 2008. Funny Naoko was pregnant then too, and Tommy was about Kenji’s age. Doug and Noako are expecting the baby in January and they don’t know if it’s a boy or girl. I hope it’s a girl!

Great food. Good to see everyone again. We hadn’t seen much of these guys since early September.

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Danny & Caroline’s Wedding

June 21st, 2010 · No Comments

On Saturday Danny & Caroline got married at Cheney Mansion in Oak Park. We left our house with plenty of time to make the 18 minute drive to Oak Park, but didn’t realize the Puerto Rican parade was on Saturday. The parade itself is downtown, but in all of the communities with large Puerto Rican populations… ours and the neighborhoods surrounding ours… it’s mayhem! People just run around, bike around, drive around waving flags and celebrating. I’m sure it’s a good time, but we had to be somewhere. There were tons of road blocks and redirects and it took us more like 45 minutes to an hour to get out to Oak Park. I felt like we were in that Seinfeld episode.

Finally we arrived. The ceremony was just beginning. Attendants were walking down “the aisle.” Caroline was about to take her stroll down so we got to see her “backstage.” After she made her entrance we were allowed to make our way across the lawn and watch the ceremony. Cheney Mansion has such beautiful grounds. And the weather was so nice too. The day before we had tornado-like storms. Saturday’s weather called for it to be sunny and in the 90s. A bit too hot, but actually by 5:30 p.m. it was perfect.


Danny & Caroline’s Wedding Ceremony


The Bride and Groom Kissing


All done!

I couldn’t hear everything that was said during the ceremony because we were so far in the back, having arrived late. It seemed pretty traditional. I saw parents stand up at different points. It was quick, though. 15 minutes? 20 minutes? Afterwards Danny and Caroline greeted everyone in a receiving line.


Danny & Caroline greeting everyone

We had cocktails outside for an hour or so. Very nice. Like I said, the weather was perfect and the gardens at the mansion were gorgeous. The wedding was odd in that Dallas’s family was there, but then I’d turn and a lot of our friends were there too. I wasn’t used to seeing these people all in the same place.


Ed, Jen, Chad, Kristin


Jen & Chad


Cory (bridesmaid) & Miko


Aunty Glenna & Uncle BB


Dallas’s parents Kathy & George


George, Kathy, Rachelle, Dallas


Dallas, Uncle Neil, Scotty (Danny’s brother and Best Man)


Caroline & Danny


Rachelle & Dallas


Loden & Trent

After a while, Caroline’s dad announced that it was time to come inside the mansion for dinner.


Caroline’s dad announcing dinner


Wedding Program

It was expected, but I always like it when my name is spelled right.


Wedding Placecards

And I loved these poppies.


Centerpieces


Aunty Peggy, George, Kathy, Aunty Karolyn, Uncle Sonny, Aunty Gail, Aunty Laura, Aunty Glenna, Uncle BB, Uncle Neil

Look at this. Chris is almost as tall as Dallas and Brad. He’s 14!


Brad, Dallas, Chris

After dinner we all kind of mingled and visited while waiting for the band to start up.


Aly, Danny, Amanda

If you didn’t notice earlier, Danny’s boutonniere is rosemary. Fitting, since he works in a kitchen. Here’s Dallas trying to get a whiff.


Brad, Danny, Dallas


Brad, Danny, Dallas

The dance floor is on the 3rd floor of Cheney Mansion. The wedding band was JT and the Clouds, a popular Chicago band. One of Danny and Caroline’s first dates was to go see them play. Also, the lead singer, Jeremy, aka JT, works with Danny.


JT and the Clouds

Kenji arrived on floor 3 ready to dance!


Kenji

Tommy and Derek? Not so interested.


Tommy & Derek

Caroline and Danny had their first dance.


Danny & Caroline


Danny & Caroline

Some were a little shy to get dancing at first, but it wasn’t long before the dance floor was packed.


Dance!


Loden, Trent, Caroline


Loden, Danny


Danny & Rachelle


Loden & Ed


Loden & Danny

Fun wedding. It went by SO FAST! Congratulations, Danny and Caroline! I wish we were done already! :)

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Christmas Dinner at Auntie Gail’s

December 27th, 2009 · No Comments


Derek & Mitch


Tommy was tickling Kate and Kate was giggling like crazy.


Derek playing the pinball machine that’s so old his dad and uncles used to play it at his age.


Ben, Derek, Chris, Mitch – Nintendo DSi was a popular gift this year.


Chris & Kenji setting up for the adult’s gift bag swap.


Mitch in the midst of the swap


Aly was excited to win a Snuggie in the swap. Cool, because we brought it!


Aly modeling her new Snuggie


Kids are all ready to go home and to bed: Derek, Tommy, Ben, Kenji, Kate

On Christmas day we always go to Dallas’ Auntie Gail’s house in Mt. Prospect. This was the first year we had a car to actually drive ourselves out, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but in the past it’s always been a hassle to try to get a ride.

Auntie Gail made the same dinner she makes every year: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and her mom’s lettuce/mayo/crab/pea/something salad. Not a huge fan of the salad but everything else was fantastic, as always.

All of the adults have a $10 gift bag exchange after dinner. This year didn’t get too crazy, except when someone took away Aly’s gift. She had her eye on one and it turned out to be a Snuggie, which she was really psyched about. And it was awesome for us because that was one of the gifts we brought. Dallas ended up getting a metal water bottle and I got a scrapbook with two $5 bills taped on it. Not sure how that works out. Aly brought it and tried to explain it to me, but I wasn’t following. Ha.

Previous Christmases at Auntie Gail’s:
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005

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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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Fun With Sparklers

July 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment

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Kyle & Kate

At the house in Michigan, we had a bunch of fireworks to light off on the fourth of july. The older kids, Chris (13) and Mitch (10), were really into the big explosives and spraying tubes and crazy displays. Tommy and Kate, who are only 3 years old were very reserved. Their dads helped them with a sparkler, but they didn’t seem to be into it much at all.

The middle kids? All they wanted were more FIRE STICKS.. aka, sparklers. More, more, more! Light it on fire! I don’t think they even cared about the big fireworks. Just the sparklers and the snake fireworks, which they loved because they thought it looked like poo. POO ON FIRE! Oh, and those little snap things you throw on the ground. I’m afraid we may have turned Ben into a pyro. After the sparklers were all gone he just wanted to light things on fire. Have fun with that back home in California, Kyle & Winnie!

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Ben

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Derek

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Derek

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