A Few of Our Favorite Things from 2022

It’s only natural at the end of the year to take a glance in the rearview mirror. Before we launch into 2023, we want to pause for a moment and reflect on some of the highlights of 2022.

Here are a few of our favorite things from the past 12 months.

Local Experiences

 

Since this is Lowell’s First Look, let’s start with our favorite local experiences from the past year.

Amanda’s Favorites

While there’s a lot to experience in the community from festivals and events throughout the year to unique shops and restaurants, below are three things that stuck out to me as experiences to remember in 2022.

School Board Candidate Forum

I’m one of those who loves to be organized and pay attention to details. When Lowell’s First Look saw a need for candidates running for the School Board to appear live before an audience, I enjoyed the experience of planning the event. I stayed behind the scenes, where I’m most comfortable, making sure all of the pieces fell into place. For our first time putting on such an event, I feel like it was a success and hope that those who participated and used the information provided when voting also found it to be beneficial.

Giving back

I’m involved in various groups and organizations within the community. I feel it’s important to give back, even if done so quietly without looking for or taking lots of credit. It’s nice being able to contribute in a positive way to something. Whether you have one or several passions, a lot or just a little time, if you can spare time and/or money to help something you believe in you can make a difference.

I look back at the areas in the community where I’ve been involved and am thankful to work with and get to know others in the community and be able to give back. While this isn’t a single experience, the process of contributing where you can was an important part of 2022 and will continue in 2023.

The Wizard of Oz

The Lowell High School Theatre Department regularly puts on great performances. In March of this year, The Wizard of Oz was the spring musical. It did not disappoint. I was even able to attend part of a dress rehearsal before opening night. My whole family enjoyed watching the show and seeing all of the hard work put in by students on and off stage pay off. The evening out at the Lowell Performing Arts Center was one of my favorite local experiences of the year.

Maryalene’s Favorites

I am continually impressed by the breadth and depth of activities offered in and around Lowell. There really is no reason to ever be bored in this town. Here’s a look at some of my favorite events of 2022.

The Wizard of Oz

I’m with Amanda on this one. The Lowell High School performance of The Wizard of Oz was phenomenal. As the mom of a child who has previously been in school musicals (outside the district), I have mixed feelings about the time commitment required of students to put on shows nowadays. But there is no denying that all that hard work results in performances that are practically professional. The Wizard of Oz rivaled the quality of anything I’ve seen at Civic Theatre, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Franciscan Rhythms Trail Run

After struggling to walk the Johnny’s Run 5K at the St. Patrick Parish Festival (another of my favorite annual events), I decided I wanted to get in shape and actually run a 5K course. I set my sights on the Franciscan Rhythms Trail Run in October and started a couch-to-5K program. Did I run the whole course? Nope (oh the hills!), but I did discover an event that I want to do annually. Next year, I won’t try to run at all though. I’ll just walk and enjoy the beautiful scenery and music.

Luminary Hike

The Wittenbach Wege Center holds a special place in my heart. Back when my now-twentysomething children were young, we used to make multiple trips a week to the center to tend our hopelessly overgrown community garden plot and walk the trails. We don’t make it to the center as much as we used to, but I always make a point to take my two youngest children to the luminary hike each year. It always feels like an enchanted evening, and I would never want to miss the opportunity to safely go for a walk in the woods at night.

Food

A good life requires good food – or at least, it seems like it should. Fortunately, Lowell is home to all sorts of good eating. Here are a few of our favorite places to grab a bite.

Amanda’s Favorites

The Lowell community has its share of fast-food chain restaurants. However, when it comes to sit-down establishments there are several excellent choices you can only find here. Three stand out as my most frequented throughout the year.

Sabor Mexicano

I tried Sabor Mexicano when they first came to Lowell and were set up literally on the side of the road. I’ve continued to get food from them while they were in a temporary location and have not stopped ordering now that they have a location to call their own. It’s not only their authentic food that is a hit, the family feel and hospitality of those who work there make supporting this business easy to do. While I haven’t had anything I didn’t like, the burrito, quesadilla, and nachos are family favorites. There’s usually enough food to have leftovers to enjoy the next day.

Mynt Fusion

Another go-to for me is Mynt Fusion. At least once a month a craving hits that must be fulfilled. Thai Fried Rice with chicken is my usual meal. But the wonton soup, crab rangoons, and eggrolls are not to be discounted. As with Sabor Mexicano, with Mynt Fusion another family is cooking for mine.

Flat River Grill

When my oldest, who is now 11, was a toddler I met some local moms at Englehardt library programming. We started going out to dinner once a month, naming ourselves the Chuckle Club early on. Since then, many of the original group of 4-6 of us have moved on. But others have joined in. Every month we find ourselves at Flat River Grill. My usual meal is the Margherita Pizza. I look forward to this evening out with fellow moms. If you’re a mom and don’t have a group to hang out with from time to time to laugh and commiserate with, you should find one or gather with your mom friends and start one.

Maryalene’s Favorites

I find myself in the Burger King drive-thru lane more often than I’d like to admit, but when we are looking for something a little less fast (and a little more healthy), here’s where I like to dine.

Flat River Grill

Amanda was nice enough to bring me into the fold of her monthly “Moms Dinner” at Flat River Grill, and I look forward to these gatherings for not just the conversation but also the food. I’ve been working my way through all the entrees, and with two exceptions, have liked everything I’ve tried. Although not cheap, my top recommendations would be honey and black pepper brisket for something fancy and the country fried pork if you want comfort food.

Hong Kong Buffet

Our family’s go-to restaurant is Hong Kong Buffet. It feels like we’ve been regulars since it first opened years ago. When I had toddlers, it was a great place to sit down, eat and get out quickly if needed. Now that I have a mother with Alzheimer’s, I like Hong Kong Buffet for that same reason. Plus, it has a good variety of food so everyone can find something they like, and the staff is personable and pleasant. As with any buffet, there is always a chance that some dishes might look like they have been sitting for a while, but we find that food is regularly refreshed.

My Kitchen

While baking is the pits (everything must be so exact – ugh), I love cooking new and different dishes for dinner. For Christmas, I treated myself to an annual subscription to the New York Times Cooking website/app, and I feel like it is changing my life. While I enjoy browsing magazines, cookbooks and Pinterest for recipes, that approach is time-consuming and the results are uneven. With NYT Cooking, meals are easy to search and organize, and I find their recipes consistently provide good results. I made this creamy chickpea pasta with spinach and rosemary (gift link) weeks ago, and I am STILL thinking about it.

Media

We’ll talk about books tomorrow, but when it comes to screentime, here’s what we enjoyed in 2022.

Amanda’s Favorites

I don’t regularly find myself sitting down to watch a television show or heading to the theater to see a movie. My family tunes in to LEGO Masters and Battle Bots (Note: Amazon links are affiliate links.) but otherwise will sometimes have some sporting event on in the background while playing a board game or working on a puzzle. Unless I’m working on a podcast for an independent contract, I don’t tune in to those either. And while I have a saved song list on Spotify, I listen more to zen music for another independent contract than those favorited tunes. I was still able to come up with some favorite media items for the year.

Television Show – Resident Alien

The only TV show other than those mentioned above is Resident Alien. I binged watched the first season in preparation for the second to start. And now I wait for the beginning of the third season in 2023. The witty and creative type of humor is what I liked. In general, I’m not a fan of (cheesy) comedies. Alan Tudyk plays a great alien with supporting human characters that are likable.

Streaming Service Show — Red Oaks, The Wilds and Sneaky Pete

My household isn’t a Netflix subscriber but we do have Amazon Prime. There are three series that I enjoyed watching this year even though they’re not current and have ended. Red Oaks, The Wilds, and Sneaky Pete all caught my attention.

The first was from a friend’s suggestion. The second was recommended by my husband. And the third I *discovered* on my own when looking for something new to watch. A common theme in all three shows for me is the strength of the characters. I wanted to know what happened to them. They drew me in. I have similar reactions to books I feel contain well-developed characters I want to know more about.

Movie – Jurassic World Dominion

Is it sad that I can only think of one movie that I saw in the theater this year even though I know I’ve seen at least two or three? I’m an infrequent moviegoer. My family and I did see Jurassic World Dominion. While it wasn’t the best in this movie franchise, it was entertaining enough. And it was a good reason to have movie theater popcorn. I’ve yet to go buy popcorn and take it home without actually watching a movie but I have been tempted.

Maryalene’s Favorites

Since I am staring at a screen all day for work, I’m not keen to flip on the TV at night. Instead, my onscreen media consumption is generally limited to anime night with my adult daughter on Fridays and movie night by myself on Saturdays. Here’s some of the best things I’ve seen this year.

Television Show — Detroit Lions

My parents weren’t sports fans so I am not sure who is responsible for setting me up for this lifetime of disappointment, but with the exception of a few teenage years, I have religiously watched the Detroit Lions lose since I was a child. The second half of this season has been a treat though – is this what it feels like to be a Patriots or Packers fan most years? To watch a game and just expect your team to do well?

It probably won’t last (after all, the “same old Lions” showed up last week), but it’s been fun and I hope we end on a high note even if we’re not playoff bound.

Streaming Service Show – WandaVision

While waiting for season 11 of The Walking Dead to finally hit Netflix, I decided to revisit all the MCU – that would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe – starting with Iron Man and working my way through the recent releases. While I had seen almost all the older movies, all of Phase 4 is new to me. And of all the Disney+ original series, I think I liked WandaVision best, if for no other reason than the nostalgia factor.

Each episode is set in the format of a different era’s sitcoms, starting with the ‘50s and moving to present time. So you end up with one episode set like The Brady Bunch and another like Malcolm in the Middle. The underlying story probably won’t make sense if you aren’t familiar with the Marvel movies though.

Apparently, the series What If…? is next in order, but I am thinking about skipping it and going straight to Shang-Chi. Thoughts?

Movie — Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Once upon a time, it seemed like I would find myself in a movie theater at least monthly, if not weekly. Sadly, times change and going to the movie theater is a rare occurrence now. Of the two movies I saw this year at the Ada Lowell 5, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was vastly superior (although its competition was Minions: Rise of Gru). In all seriousness, it was a fun movie that the kids liked, that I liked, and that didn’t have anything objectionable in it that I can remember offhand.

As for the small-screen, I think my favorite movie to stream this year was – don’t laugh – The Pacifier with Vin Diesel. Apparently, I am at a stage in life in which I need my entertainment light, fluffy and a little bit ridiculous.

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