2018 in Review

2018 was another busy year. The adventures added up quickly. It just didn't seem as busy as last year.

Here's a quick look back on 2018 by the numbers

• 13 official bucket list adventures
• 30+ extended bucket list adventures
• 13 states (3 new ones)
• 4 State Capitols (3 new ones)
• 194 Counties (107 new ones)
• 8 states watching baseball(2 new states)
• 2 state we played mini golf in (2 new states)
• 4 Major League Stadiums visited (2 new ones) for a total 11 major league games
• 4 Minor League Parks visited (4 new ones) for a total of 7 minor league games
• 3 Spring Training Stadiums visited for a total of 4 Cactus League Games
• 3 Brewer Play off Games
• 1 State Park.. a lone trip or two to High Cliff
• 10 Museums 
• 1 World Heritage Site
• 7 National Parks
• 2 National Forests
• 3 Great Lakes

• 1 Big Ten Stadium (1 new)
• 6 wineries in 2 states (4 new ones, 2 of which are my new favorites)
• 1 Brewery
• 2 states that I had ice cream in (1 new)
• 1 movie in the theaters
• 110 Books Read (including 2 off the bucket list)
• 18 new movies watched
• 7 Visits with Sisters
• 5 Random Postcards to arrive (thanks Danielle and Alison)
• 2 5Ks

I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for me.

Gridiron Glory at the Castle

The History at the Castle Museum was hosting the traveling Football Hall of Fame Exhibit Gridiron Glory. It was going to be there through the end of the year and I wanted to go. We could have gone in October but that's when I hurt my foot and thought more walking wasn't a good idea. With the hubby's limited availability during the holidays, I made sure to find a day that we could go. Although it was slightly pricing at $15/person, I knew it was going to be worth it.

The Gridiron Glory highlighted artifacts from the NFL. You came into the entry of the museum and you could try your hand at instant replay.. there was even an instant replay booth. The hubby tried his hand at instant reply as we left and of course he got it right.

Because of the layout of the museum, the exhibit was spread out on all three floors... pretty much where ever they had space to put it. There was artifacts from the early days of the NFL including the heating cables under Lambeau Field that Lombardi had installed.

There was also memorabilia from the modern era and the players that kids today recognize.

It is always amazing to see what players wore as protection back in the day or should I say lack of protection. Some of my bras probably have more padding than those shoulder pads did.

The Gridiron Glory did not take up the entire museum and there were a few other exhibits going on including the mainstay Houdini Exhibit. However, the one that the hubby was most impressed with was the model railroad exhibit of Appleton in the 1950's. It was an N-Scale model railroad of downtown Appleton which was pretty much spot on.. a few minor tweaks had to be made for space issues. The model railroader was there and explained the model railroad as well as answered any questions. The hubby was in his glory.

Of all it was a nice afternoon. If you haven't gotten to the History at the Castle to see the Gridiron Glory exhibit, I'd say hurry on over before January 6th. It definitely worth it especially for football fans. Hopefully the museum continues to get traveling exhibits... maybe one from Cooperstown??

Celebrating Festivus

I heard about Festivus, even though I'm not a Seinfeld fan but I never celebrated it before. The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass was celebrating Festivus as part of their Art After Dark series. I told Danielle to mark it on her calendar, we were going. Between work and sickness, we almost didn't make it but the Festivus Gods were in our favor and we were able to celebrate Festivus.

What is Festivus? Well as I like to say "Airing your grievances so you can be joyful and thankful at Christmas". Festivus is more than that. According to Wikipedia "Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season." Apparently it's been around since the 60s but really has gotten popular since Seinfeld in the 90s.

There are many aspects to Festivus:

There is the Festivus Pole which is just an aluminum pole in the middle of the room. It's actually kind of boring. I guess it's supposed to represent the lack of commercialism in your life. There were songs you could sing around the Festivus pole such as "It's a Pole", "The Festivus Song", and "O Festivus".

Then you have the traditional Festivus dinner which is meatloaf and mashed potatoes. We had meatballs and M&Ms. Close enough. It was still tasty. It is difficult to put mashed potatoes on a stick.. maybe next year they will do potato puffs.

One of the parts of Festivus I was looking forward to was the airing of grievances. After my bad day at work, I really needed to air some grievances. I probably was a little too specific but I really liked some of the grievances people aired. Next year I'll have to be more creative.

The last part of Festivus was Feats of Strength. There were several feats of strength that the entire family could partake in -- staring contest, thumb wrestling, and arm strength. Gavin totally beat me at the staring contest. However after a slows start, I managed to take two out of three in the thumb wrestling competition. To find out who won the feats of strength, we held out paper weights in each hand. The goal was to see who could keep them outstretched the longest. Even with Danielle cheering Gavin, he tired out quickly and I was named the Feats of Strength Champion. Not quite sure how fair it was since there is a 30+ year age difference.

The Festivus celebration was a lot of fun. Besides the Festivus Celebration, we got to check out some really cool new glass creations in the museum.

I hope to be back next year for another Festivus celebration. Who knows maybe I will inherit an aluminum pole myself and I can host my own Festivus celebration.

6411. Make homemade hot chocolate

I love hot chocolate and will drink it all year long. However, I am not a big fan of hot chocolate packets. I'd rather go to Starbucks and get a handcrafted one. I decided maybe I should make hot chocolate after I made my swizzle sticks since they were perfect to stir the hot chocolate with.

A Pinterest search later, I found the perfect hot chocolate recipe and it seemed simple enough. Since I was hosting a cookie exchange, I figured hot chocolate would be pair perfect with the cookies.

As soon as everyone arrived, I whipped up a batch of hot chocolate. I didn't want to make a whole pot of hot chocolate and no one wanted any. It probably took me maybe ten or fifteen minutes.

First I mixed the dry ingredients together and added water.

I heated that until it started to boil.

Then I add four cups of milk and heated it until it was warm. I actually used my 4 cup measuring cup probably for the first time ever..

To serve, I ladled into mugs and let everyone add their own toppings. I had whipped cream, mini marshmallows, and crushed candy canes (well.. more like crushed candy cane globs).

The hot chocolate was quite delicious. However, in the future I would definitely use the whole milk (or at least 2% milk) like the recipe called for. 1% milk did not make the hot chocolate very thick. I also used dark cocoa which I would use again.

It said it made 5 cups and well I got 3.5 mugfuls. I'm sure I could cut the recipe in half so I could make a single serving. Definitely worth the math.

4931. Go to the Christkindlmarket in Milwaukee

Christmas baking was down in Milwaukee this year. I was especially happy about this because this was the first year of the Christkindlmarket in Milwaukee. Years ago Stacy and I went to the one in Chicago and we were very excited to see that Milwaukee was having one too.

We decided to spend the afternoon downtown Milwaukee knocking a few things off my bucket list. Our first stop was the Christkindlmarket. It was CRAZY!!!! I checked to see if the Bucks were going to be home but I didn't think of Marquette being home. Of course the Badger/Marquette game at the Fiserv Forum which is where the Christkindlmarket is held.

The Christkindlmarket is in the public area outside of the Fiserv Forum. It is probably about the size of a city block. It was not very big. There were maybe 10 or so booths selling gifts or snacks. Then there were several small beer tents. All the good shopping was in one large tent that had a long line that we decided with two kids in tow was probably not a good idea. The prices for food was quite expensive. A cup of hot chocolate set you back $7.. $11 if you wanted the souvenir mug. Stacy got a bucket of donuts, while delicious, there were $13. Besides the time we spent in line, we spent maybe 10 minutes at the market. Outdoor heaters would be a great improvement for next year.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad during the week but on the weekend it's just not worth the hassle. I'm glad people are actually visiting it and hopefully it sticks around awhile. I would go back.. just with more money in pocket.