1998

Hello to everyone out there in Christmas card land!

It's somewhere past the middle of January, so it must be time to write the letter. The cards are bought....they were 90% off........the photo has been shot, developed and manipulated. Now it's time for the letter. So lets get started!

January

January was quite anaqu...WAIT A MINUTE, I just remembered something! Last year I lied to you. I thought I would spice things up by throwing in a little fiction. Well trust me folks, it won't happen again. Remember that I wrote about Jane and me being in some sort of Ballroom Dancing contest last year? How I joked and made fun? Those lies came back to haunt us in 98. A very nice lady at church, whose family is into Competitive Ballroom Dancing, asked us if we would have room at our house to put up a few members of a dance team from Pennsylvania that was coming to Indy for the National Competition. We said yes, and became part of the CBD scene for a weekend. We learned way too much about Ballroom Dancing that weekend. And I learned not to lie in my Christmas letter. Now, let's get started with January again.

January

It was pretty good this year. Jane started her new job at Methodist Hospital on the 6th. It was a big move for her but she appears to have made the transition from old pro to new kid on the block pretty easily. She's good, and everybody there figured that out quickly. Emily was a part of a community theater production of The Music Man. She had rehearsals 2 or 3 times a week and I spent a bunch of time sitting in the audience thinking about high school. A lot of you will understand that last sentence. A lot of you won't. Anyway the show was great. She did a real good job and seemed to enjoy it. Emily also had her 10th birthday at the end of the month. She enjoyed that so much that we decided to make it an annual event.

February

A bunch of soccer. It was cold. A Ground Hog, Lincoln, St. Valentine, and Washington all had birthdays. I didn't get any of them gifts though.

March

More soccer and more birthdays. I think just about everybody is born in March. The one that really matters though is Sarabeth's. She turned 5 on the 18th. She's not a baby anymore. My cousin Vernal Equinox came to visit on the 20th.

April

April is when all the fun started. Soccer became an outdoor sport again. That means Emily plays once or twice each weekend and gets to practice 2 nights a week also. No problem. We're used to that. Been doing it for a few years now. But the plot thickens. Remember that Sarabeth turned 5 last month. I said that she is not a baby anymore. (If you don't remember, go back and read the last paragraph. The rest of us will wait for you....... OK?) Well, she's not a baby, she's a mean, green, soccer machine! This little girl has been going to soccer practice for years. Kicking the ball on the sideline while her sister hustled out on the field. Trying to play with the older girls in the front yard. Learning the subtle nuances of the game, as if through osmosis. This girl was going to be good. Visions of scholarships were dancing through my head. And now her time has come. As a member of the Fighting Cucumbers, she took the field. I will always remember that day. The official sets the ball down, steps away and blows the whistle. Sarabeth's soccer career is underway. I would describe her relationship to the ball as being similar to that of two magnets. Opposite poles. She was always 10 feet from the ball. Never closer. Never further. She ran the whole time, having fun and giggling. But never getting near the ball. I'm on the sideline, pale and feeling faint, with visions of community college now dancing in my head. At half-time, I told Emily to go tell Sara that I would pay her every time she kicked the ball. That day accidentally cost me 3 cents. She later told me she was afraid of the girls on the other team because they were so big. April turned into a long month.

May

7 games and 15 cents later. Another early Saturday morning at the soccer field. The whistle blows and here we go again. But wait. What's that green blur kicking the soccer ball? I'm not sure who it was, but she just scored. Hold on a minute. Sarabeth? Is that you darling? What happened sweet heart? Before I could get an answer, the whistle blows, she steals the ball and does it again. The other parents on our team, who have been trying to get me into counseling all season, look at me with a blank, "What did you do?" type of expression on their faces. I reply with a "duh" kinda look. I don't really know what happened that day, except Sara scored 5 goals and I had to stop at the ATM on the way home from the fields. The rest of the season continued in the same manner. We renegotiated her contract in the off season.

Also in May, Jane and I went back to IU for a college dorm reunion. We met up with some friends at our house and went down together the next day. We stayed in the dorm for the weekend, just like the good old days. Saw a bunch of great people that we have really been missing, and spent a lot of time walking and talking.

June

I started off the month in Columbus, OH for work and stayed a few days with my sister Marky. We mostly stayed up late and talked about the rest of the family. It was fun. We went to Louisville at the end of the month for my high school reunion. I went down early to play golf. Jane follows the next day, dropping Emily off with friends to play a soccer tournament in Columbus, IN. We have a great time Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Thanks to a bunch of hometown people who did a lot of work putting this thing together. We got a call from Emily that afternoon telling us they won their game that morning and were now playing in the championship game. She also told us that she scored a goal, her only one of the season, (she plays defense) That was the only game we missed all season. We packed up quickly and drove to Columbus for the final game. Typical weekend.

July

Summer vacation. No soccer for a month. Actually, it might have even been six weeks. Life is good. By the way, remember that golf outing that I always write about because I always win some big trophy?  Well, remember it until next year please. It was windy that day, and the sun was in my eyes.

August

School starts again. With the year round school that we are part of, it's usually not really a big deal. The kids are only off a month anyway. But this one is special. Sarabeth starts kindergarten. She and Emily will be going off to school together. Jane takes a first day of school picture each year, but this year both girls are in it. A serious Kodak moment.

September

This is the official Willis calendar for the month of September. It's really a pretty typical month.

As you can see, we had your basic soccer practices during the week and games every weekend. Mix in a few piano lessons and after school meetings and church meetings and other general duties and responsibilities and the month fills up quickly. Now I know that this isn't real exciting, even with the help of my visual aid, but that's life folks. It's not pretty. It's a dog eat dog world out there. It reminds me of why I resorted to telling lies in last year's letter. The only thing exciting that did happen in September was that my Aunt Autumnal showed up on the 23rd. I think maybe she was looking for Vernal. By the way, Happy Birthday to Jane on the 20.

October

This was a good month. October in Indiana always is beautiful. We went on a couple of hayrides through the park with church and soccer people. Really had a good time, although I am still amazed at the places that hay can end up, and how uncomfortable a little hay in the wrong place can make a person feel. I spent 4 days in Kansas City for business. Had a good time and left a bunch of hay there. We ended the month on vacation in a cabin down in Brown County again. The weather was perfect and the leaves were bright. Went horseback riding, hiking, shopping and all the other vacation type stuff. I had a birthday on the 13th.

November

Refer to letters from years past. I know you've been saving them. November is cold and wet. October's pretty leaves still need to be raked and I refuse to think about Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. The Pilgrims invented Thanksgiving solely to justify keeping this month on the calendar.

December

I started the month as a chaperone, a French word meaning idiot. The fourth and fifth grade classes from Emily's school went on a 3 day camping trip to a place called Bradford Woods. The camp is run by IU and was very educational and extremely structured. We spent every waking hour out on the trails, hiking uphill. I think the camp was based on an M. C. Escher drawing. We were there for three days and never walked downhill. At night, we would retire to our cabin. Myself, two other idiots, I mean chaperones, and 14 boys. I'm not used to 9 & 10 year old boys. I have girls. Sweet darling well behaved girls. There is no way I was like that when I was a kid. Only the reminder that I wasn't a teacher, and could hit them without fear of a lawsuit got these gentleman into bed and eventually asleep. I now understand why, in the animal kingdom, some animals eat their young. It was an eventful three days that I will always remember. "Moo Moo Moo Moo!" (Song lyrics that I will always remember)

The rest of the month was busy. Jane's parents celebrated 50 years together and we all gathered at our house. A visit to the zoo with church friends. A visitor from the East. A sister from the south. Christmas cards from normal people. A night at the theatre with work friends. A license plate with a fish on it. And finally Christmas. First in Indy with the family, then in Louisville with more family. Christmas is a good way to end a good year.

Well that's it. Hope you liked it. I had fun writing this thing. After reading it back, I seemed to discover an underlying theme. The word friend, or friends is used a whole lot of times. So is the word great. Thanks for being great friends. Call us or E-mail us or just show up on our door step sometime. Knock loudly, it's a little hectic inside.

The Willis's

3343 Melbourne Circle

Indianapolis, IN 46228

317-299-6764

excelwcw@aol.com