I saw Austin Kleon’s post about 100 things that made my year (2022) and felt inspired to create my own. For me, 2022 often felt like A Series of Opportunities For Personal Growth, but as I made this list, I realized 2022 was also packed with awesomeness, fun and a lot of love.
- Thanksgiving. It was the first time I saw my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces since Thanksgiving 2021 and we had such a lovely visit. Plus, so much good food.
- Celebrating Christmas Eve with my extended family for the first time since 2019. New location, because my aunt and uncle moved during the pandemic, but same delicious lasagna and pink jello side dish (which sounds like it should be awful, but is actually transcendental).
- The remote control Megalodon All-terrain monster truck that we gave Julian for Christmas.
4. White Lotus, which I didn’t even know existed until a mom casually mentioned it during soccer picture day. Nathan and I went on a bender and inhaled Season 1 and then caught up with Season 2 just in time for the finale.
5. Reading The Measure with my book club in November and pondering what it means to lead a meaningful life. It’s been over a month, but I still keep thinking about this book.
6. Going to Disneyland on Julian’s birthday! The Haunted Mansion decorated a la Nightmare Before Christmas, Julian screaming with sheer joy on Space Mountain, Nathan getting absolutely drenched on Splash Mountain, gorging ourselves on ice cream at our favorite spot on Main Street and then forgetting to feed the children dinner. It was the perfect day.
7. Being an art docent for Julian’s class and leading three fun art projects with the kids.
8. Attending Underwood Family Farm‘s fall festival with my kids, friends and my dad. Always an autumn favorite. (Except the first time Nathan and I ever went, when Pippa was teething and miserable and thought we were monsters for taking her into the corn maze.)
9. Lunch at Banana Bay in Temple City with Nathan. My new favorite Thai restaurant.
10. My mom’s puppy Scout
11. Lunches at Corfu with Nathan
12. The frozen s’mores bars I made during the summer and now I can’t find the recipe! Shit! But I’m pretty sure I just spread fluff and Nutella on graham crackers, stuck it in the freezer, and deliciousness ensued.
13. Dinner at Union with my best mom friends
14. A Christmas Carol at A Noise Within
15. Being a chaperone for Pippa’s fourth grade field trip to see Annie. It was my first time getting to volunteer with Pippa’s class in any capacity since February 2019!
16. Pippa scoring her first goal during a soccer match.
17. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. I read a lot of great books in 2022 but this is my favorite of the year. Bonus: it takes place in the San Gabriel Valley and describes the food in mouth-watering detail. Now I want to visit more restaurants in the 626.
18. Another season of The Crown.
19. Indulging in all the royal gossip.
20. Reading The Christmas Pig to both my kids.
21. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
22. Smartless
23. Publishing my first novel!
24. Hahamonga Watershed Park
25. Visiting the Renaissance Faire with my sister and kids. The jousting! The ambience! But not the terrible lines for archery!
26. Volunteering at the kinder luau in May, my one and only time volunteering in person with Julian’s kindergarten class.
27. Painting our kitchen cabinets white! An ass shit ton of work but it transformed the room.
28. Moving Pippa into her own bedroom. I painted her room, my first time ever painting a room, and this gave me a lot of confidence in the home improvement department. (See #27)
29. Decluttering.
30. Bridgerton, which I finally got around to binging when I had an awful cold in May. Almost made me glad I was sick.
31. An epic day at Raging Waters with my kids in June, with perfect weather and nonexistent crowds.
32. A family beach day with cousins, uncles, aunts and boogie boarding galore.
33. This purse that I got Pippa for Christmas.
34. Getting a red velvet cake from SusieCakes for our anniversary, exactly like the one we had at our wedding.
35. Visiting the Pasadena Model Railroad Museum’s open house. It’s a model railroad about the size of my house. Wes Anderson really should make a movie about this place. I just thought I’d put that out into the Universe
36. Running our elementary school’s Scholastic book fair. The kids’ excitement was INTOXICATING.
37. The Circus Circus water park. I went down each slide once and will never go down them again, thank you very much, but I was happy to hang in the cabana while the kids had the time of their lives.
38. The Conservatory at the Bellagio. We hit Vegas on our way to Nebraska, deciding it was actually easier to drive to Vegas and fly out of their airport than deal with connecting flights from LAX. I know, we’re crazy.
39. Baby elephants (plural!) at the Omaha Zoo.
40. Watching old Looney Tunes cartoons while working on a cross stitch project at my father-in-law’s house in Omaha.
41. The entire Fourth of July scene in Omaha. #EpicFireworks
42. Spending a day with family at a lake in Schuyler, Nebraska. Kayaking! Floating! The kids getting pulled by wave runners!
43. Lunch at Cracker Barrel in Omaha and then exploring the gift shop.
44. Visiting Scheels in Omaha for the first time so the kids could get “sweet Nebraska merch.” There’s a Ferris wheel inside the store. Enough said.
45. Becoming a leader for Pippa’s Girl Scout troop.
46. The Bad Guys movie. I enjoyed reading the books to Julian but was blown away by how entertaining this was. Nathan also thoroughly enjoyed it.
47. Going on a digital detox for the month of September.
48. Hosting pool parties. S’mores! Guacamole! Fun in the sun!
49. Taking the kids to Philippe’s during a heat wave.
50. The Angkor exhibit and IMAX movie
51. Getting Julian a desk. First, I bought him one at IKEA that was an absolute disaster but IKEA accepted the return of the mangled desk remains, no questions asked. Then, I successfully put together a desk that he loves from Amazon. It was a journey but worth it.
52. Showing my kids Willow for the first time.
53. And Hook. Which has a really low rating on Rotten Tomatoes – pay no attention to that, this is still one of my favorites.
54. The Harbeck family won The Great Christmas Light Fight this year, and their house happens to be in our favorite Pasadena neighborhood for admiring Christmas lights. Of course the kids and I parked the car and got out to admire the spectacle.
55. Enjoying a croissant at Tartine with several friends after dropping our kids off at school. Totally worth the hype.
56. Teaching Julian to read. Special thanks to Mo Willems and Dr. Seuss.
57. Shadows in the Forest is our new favorite board game.
58. But Sleeping Queens also brought us a ton of joy.
59. During a trip to the L.A. Zoo, a chimp climbed up a palm tree, and then leapt back and forth between two trees multiple times while gathering food. A crowd of spectators applauded the chimp’s efforts. It was magical, both to see a chimp fly through the air and to share that moment with a group of strangers.
60. Lunch at Gladstone’s and then a meandering walk on the beach with Nathan.
61. Hosting Halloween at our house.
62. The recipe for turkey meatloaf in the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook.
63. Hosting a Christmas party for Pippa’s fourth grade class. Fourth graders are so civilized!
64. Coaching my kids’ soccer teams. Exhausting and I’m never doing that again, but I’m so glad we have the memories.
65. A neighbor gifted us several avocados and we had an after school guacamole lab. I cannot recommend this enough if you have kids who like to cook. Both kids got to mash their own avocados, dice tomatoes, squeeze lemons, and mince garlic. Then they assembled the guacamole, tasting and adding ingredients as they went. Messy AF but I’ll gladly do it again.
66. Attending my kids’ holiday concert, the first in-person concert since December 2019. Bonus: fourth grade sang first and first grade sang second, and then I snuck out.
67. A lot of amazing memoirs that I listened to while painting cupboards and doing chores, including I’m Glad My Mom Died, Normal Family, and I Was Better Last Night.
68. The Dangerous Damsels series, you’re welcome.
69. Plants vs. Zombies 2 brought me so much joy during the last quarter of 2022.
70. Using my button maker.
71. Taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge over spring break. The water park! The buffet! The magical quest!
72. NOT sending holiday cards this year.
73. Starting 2022 at the Rose Parade with friends.
74. Shopping with Pippa. I’m not much of a shopper, but her energy and enthusiasm for the mall is contagious.
75. Watching my kids play basketball.
76. Eaton Canyon, especially the time Julian and I went after the rain and splashed around in icy streams.
77. Working at the Little League snack bar: the requests for additional nacho cheese; the parents who thought we could make a cappuccino (only in California, folks); and the guy who asked if the ice cream sandwich was homemade. No, sir, it’s a Little League snack bar; all this shit comes from Costco.
78. Turning a Pokemon piñata into a Snitch piñata for Pippa’s 9th birthday party.
79. The Henry Ford in Michigan. I went to Detroit for my uncle’s funeral, so it was a sad trip, but I went to the Ford museum with my dad, brother, and assorted extended family, and that was amazing. They have the car that Kennedy was riding in when he was assassinated. Also THE BUS on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. And a totally bitching collection of cars, trains, and vehicles. Sad trip, but a good memory.
80. Pippa reaching the top of a rock climbing wall during a Girl Scouts outing. It took her several tries, but my girl would not give up.
81. Our unicorn pool float. Technically Pippa’s, but beloved by all.
82. Walking through a sunflower forest at Underwood Family Farm.
83. This is going to sound lame, but I loved picking up my kids from school. During the 2021-22 school year, everyone had to pick up their kids from car line (you couldn’t park and walk up) UNLESS your child was in kindergarten. Kinder parents parked and walked into school for pickup and I was so grateful I could walk onto campus and chat with Julian’s kindergarten teacher. Now in the 2022-23 school year, parents are allowed to park and pick up their children at the gate. I do this and hang out with several friends, and I am very grateful for these moments.
84. Listening to my kids practice the piano.
85. My hedgehog tape dispenser. The moment I saw it at Target, I knew we were destined for each other.
86. I rearranged our living room furniture and love the new setup.
87. The Milk Street: Tuesday’s Nights cookbook which I bought in April 2021 but used so much in 2022, it has to go on this list.
88. Wordle! Partly I am just a sucker for a good word puzzle, but I also love the daily texts that my dad and siblings send about the game, which might involve abusive memes.
89. My new laptop! I got a new Apple laptop in late January and damn, I needed it.
90. The Wild Unknown Archetypes Deck and Guidebook, which I stumbled across while considering new tarot decks on Amazon. I use it sometimes while journaling and am always amazed by its insights.
91. Hot yoga!
92. The makeover I gave my old office chair. It was a banged-up black leather chair that Nathan brought to our marriage. The seat was torn and oozing stuffing, so I stapled on a fuzzy pink blanket and sprayed the plastic parts gold. The gold paint has worn off the armrests but I still adore the transformation. (I was checking my phone for a photo to share just now and realized, I’m sitting on the damn chair, I can just take a photo now, so here’s a photo of it, six months after the makeover.)
93. The fact that a strip of lights on our Christmas tree stopped working AND I GAVE EXACTLY ZERO SHITS. (See photo above.)
94. Listening to audiobooks while doing chores.
95. Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, which really showed what the fantasy genre can do. I just pre-ordered the second book of the trilogy, which comes out in May.
96. I’ve been slowing working my way through an embroidery sampler from Dropcloth Samplers, along with the accompanying class on Creativebug, and it’s very relaxing and grounding. I love the sound of a needle piercing through fabric.
97. Making homemade strawberry jam.
98. All the snuggles with my children.
99. Knitting everywhere – from softball and t-ball games to PTA meetings and while watching reality t.v. with Nathan.
100. Finally understanding crochet enough to embark on an amigurumi project (a turkey which I did not finish in time for Thanksgiving) and now I have the skills to crochet all sorts of wonderful things for my children in 2023.