2005

Happy Holidays!

A few months back I could have created quite a stir with that greeting. Well, let me assure you that I am not trying to be politically correct. I’m just later than usual with my Christmas letter. So late, that the “Holidays” I refer to up above are St. Patrick’s Day and of course, Vernal Equinox Eve. But before I can start celebrating, I need to get this letter written again. “Again?” you ask quizzically. Yes again. Because a couple of weeks ago I was all the way up to November, starting the last page when my new hard drive bit the dust. Everything was lost. And that’s too bad because that letter was the best ever written! And now I will try, broken hearted, to recreate that literary masterpiece.

January

Not a whole lot happened this month. Emily had a birthday for the 17th time in as many years. Of course, all of you faithful longtime readers of this letter are asking yourself if this is the year she finally got that pony. No, not this year, maybe next. I really can’t remember anything else about January except that in the first edition of this letter, it was a hilarious month!

February

Do you realize how many “R”s are wasted in the United States alone each year during this month? Who really says Fe-BRU-ary? It’s Feb-U-ary. Anyway, during this month in Indiana you have a lot of time to sit around and think about things like that. It’s cold and wet and gray and as you can see from the photos, we tend to spend most of our free time doing stupid stuff. Like dressing up in silk robes, grass skirts and cowboy hats. Note how my high school letter jacket still fits! And we are the intelligentsia of Hoosierdom. You can only guess about the photos that are in our neighbors Christmas letters.

March

There were a few real things that happened this month. Sarabeth turned 12 on the 18th. Jane loaded up a bunch of Sara’s friends and took them out to eat and then ice skating. This is pretty much her gang, and you may see photos of this group in future letters. At the end of the month Emily went to Washington DC for a weeklong leadership conference. She spent the week with a bunch of smart kids from all over the nation visiting Congressmen and Representatives and even a Secretary or two. I think she enjoyed herself and managed to learn some stuff in the process. The only disturbing thing is that when I compare the photos from Emily’s fancy educational extravaganza with Sarabeth’s not so fancy 12th birthday party, the only real difference I see is the ice skates.

April

We start this month in South Bend with Sarabeth playing soccer. The rest of the calendar is full of practices and games scattered across the state. Emily is going full swing with the high school tennis team. Practices or matches everyday. I think this is about the time that I headed back to the tennis court myself. It’s been 4 months since my surgery, and I should be as recovered as I’m going to get. It feels good to be doing something active again, other than yelling at the girls. Emily finishes the month with the conference tennis tournament and the prom on the same day. She did OK with the tennis but enjoyed the prom much more. Jane and Emily had a great time shopping for prom dresses. Serious bonding experience. And Sarabeth tagged along to pick up a few sympathy purchases herself. She knows how to work the system. Emily went with a guy that I liked enough to include a photo of in my Christmas letter. They had a good time and probably the best thing about this experience is that 30 years from now these kids can look back at the photos and say they looked good! The guys had short hair and classic tuxes. The girls were simply beautiful. I can’t say the same about the pictures from my prom. Long hair, odd colored crushed velvet and bell bottoms. Need I say more?

May

This month was pretty much like last month except warmer. A lot of tennis and a lot of soccer. Emily had the high school sectional matches about mid month. She played against the eventual state champion and got killed. Someday when that girl turns pro and is on TV, Emily can tell all her friends about the time she aced this girl. Maybe she will even put it in her own Christmas letter someday. The best part of this month was near the end. Race weekend. You know how I always end these letters by inviting everyone to stop by and see us sometime. Well, our old friend Marty decided to come to Indy to see the 500. Jane and I met Kathy and Marty 25 years ago while on vacation in Germany. We got to be good friends as we rambled across Europe together. We have kind of stayed in touch during that time. A few visits early on and then mostly just Christmas cards and this letter. But after a phone call early in the year, a plan was set into motion. Marty came up a few days before the race and stayed a few days past. We went to Carb Day, saw all the basic Indianapolis sites, and went to a baseball game and to the race. We drank a beer or two and talked about the last quarter of a century. We really had fun. Friendship sure is a neat thing.

June

I started the month in Columbus, OH for a work thing. I met Don Overmyer for lunch. We just talked about all sorts of things and then went back to work. More of that friendship stuff I like to talk about. I stayed with my sister Marky. We stayed up way too late hunting up old songs on the internet. Family is kinda neat too. Some poor middle school math student didn’t get his money’s worth that Friday morning. After reading over last years letter for clues about things that typically happen in June, I just realized that we never invited the Levitt’s over for dinner. We really should have invited them over at the first of this month. The house was still clean from Marty’s visit! As soon as I finish this letter and get the house clean again, we are going to invite them to dinner. I promise. I’m sure that I’ll get them here before Emily gets that pony.

July

Big month here folks. Don’t be wandering around the kitchen reading this part of the letter. Sit down! I don’t want anybody to get hurt. This is the month Sarabeth has her summer vacation, so we have to cram a lot of excitement into just 31 days. Pete Ineich, my old, I mean former, college roommate and his family stopped by for a couple of days the week of the 4th. Who would have thought that a mere 30 years after we graduated, we would both have kids looking at colleges. They were combining a family vacation / college visit trip and his daughter Katie had IU on her list. Smart child. So, they spent a day or two with us. They got to visit the Children’s Museum as a highlight, but mostly they were subjected to listening to stories from Pete, Jane and me about the good old days. The next week we gathered family from across the country and had a Willis in the Woods Weekend. My mother, my brother and all my sisters along with assorted spouses and nieces and nephews shared a couple of big cabins in Brown County State Park for a few days. We did all of the traditional Willis activities. We compared our noses. We gave each other tattoos celebrating the event. We even spent time buffing various body parts. Overall, it was a fairly typical family gathering. The celebration culminated with a party celebrating my mother’s 85th birthday. We had cake and ice cream and beer and wine. Mom was pretty excited but was a bit tired from all of the tattooing and buffing that went on earlier. We had a great time and hope to do it again if we win our court case. It was now time to quickly plan and leave on our family vacation before Sarabeth has to go back to school. No need to wait until the last minute. After a phone conference with my all-time favorite receptionist, we decided to go to Wrightsville Beach, NC. Family vacations are a little more relaxing lately. The girls don’t really feel like they have to be entertained every second of every day. We all just kind of take it easy now. We would start the day about 9:30 by heading to the beach. We would play around and lay around for an hour or so and then go to the pool. We would do more of the same there. Back to the room for a shower. It was then time for lunch and a nap. Then we would repeat the process. That evening we would go out to eat and then the ladies would find something to entertain them, as I followed carrying the credit card. We did this all week and eventually made our way home.

August

August means 1 thing nowadays. Vegas! And of course, my anniversary. And back to school for the girls. And Sarabeth’s school tennis along with the start of another outdoor soccer season. But mostly Vegas. The Secret Order of Gambling Tennis Players once again went to Las Vegas for an outing. I would really love to tell you all about it and show you pictures, but you know that old saying. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, because it really isn’t anything like you see on the commercials and you aren’t a good storyteller and everyone would know that you’re a liar if you tried to make something up so you really are better off to just smile and wink when anyone asks you about your trip.” At least I think that’s how the old saying goes. So just trust me. We had fun. Wink.Wink. Something exciting happened on the 12th. I finally got those pictures from my cousin Marci. Remember in last year’s letter how I mentioned seeing Marci and Paul when they visited my mom in Louisville? And how I would love to show everyone a photo, but Paul, according to Marci, would never send them to me. Well just shy of a year later the CD arrived in the mail. Finally, the photo you waited a year for. Marci, my mother, and Paul with the Louisville skyline in the background. I hope it was worth it. Jane and I celebrated our 29th anniversary on the 14th. I can’t think of anything funny to say about that. On the 16th, Emily started high school as a Senior. Other than the sheer coolness of being a Senior, it’s time to get serious with the college visits. We made a few visits through the summer, but Emily realizes this is a very important step in her life and she should do a thorough search to find the most expensive school possible. I’m sure she will succeed.

September

I don’t really remember anything special happening this month and the calendar pretty much backs me up. Soccer is no longer considered an event. So, I will take this opportunity to show you pictures of Kirby and Scout. That’s Kirby on the left, still trying to maintain his innocence. “What toilet paper”? And Scout on the right and he doesn’t care if you think he’s innocent or not.

October

This is where things get a little tricky. The last time that I backed up my photos was October 10th. And since I lost my hard drive a couple of weeks ago, I don’t have any photos for the rest of the letter. But for your reading enjoyment, I will do my best to recreate some moments that are essential to the plot. The first big deal was my 50th birthday. I had thought that turning 50 would bother me, but after doing some serious thinking I realized that I still got it! Just look at that photo. My years of tennis have kept me in excellent condition and my mind is still sharp as a tack. It’s great to be me. That next weekend Jane and I ditched the girls and headed to Michigan. A few of us old college janitors were going to meet Doug & Diane at their cabin. You see Doug has moved up a bit from his days of stripping (floors) and can now afford a second home on a river in the woods. As you can see, quite a place!  We joined up with Mike & Mercedes and their son Taylor for a couple of days. We spent time wandering around the area, looking at the autumn leaves, checking out small art galleries and other touristy things. But the best time was a cool night around a fire with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigar in the other. We told stories for hours, and given another bottle of wine could have solved most of the world’s problems. Once again, I discover that time apart doesn’t change things when it comes to friends. During the girls’ fall break at the end of the month we went back down to Brown County. As you know, we do this every year. But this year I had some really neat photos of the girls wearing big sycamore leaves as hats. Really cute. They were smiling and giggling and boy, were they cute. You can only imagine how darn cute they looked. Honestly, it was cute. Maybe they will be cute again next year, and I won’t lose the photos. This was about the time that Emily had her senior pictures taken and those photos aren’t lost. My photographer/artist friend Wilbur spent an afternoon with Emily, and these are a couple of my favorites. Not much I can say except that his talent and the genes Emily got from Jane sure make my daughter look special. I only wish Wilbur would have tried the leaf on the head trick though.

November

About the middle of this month Emily was part of the school production of The Music Man. She was the student assistant to the conductor of the pit orchestra. She made the suggestion that it would be a good weekend to invite the Emerys to Indianapolis. As you surely remember, Dave and I were huge stars in our Senior Class production of the same musical. They came up and the first bit of excitement was that Dave and I got to play tennis together. The last time we did that was at least 30 years ago. We have been trying to play for the last 3 or 4 years, but this is the first time that we both managed to be healthy enough to play at the same time. We all went to the play that night and had a blast. The entire play popped back into our heads, and we recited the lines throughout the production. Discreetly of course. Then things got really neat. When it was over and we were out in the lobby, we started singing some of the songs. You know how Dave loves show tunes! Soon a crowd gathered around us and started cheering us on. 10 minutes later we were back in the auditorium, on stage with the music director playing the piano as we sang for probably a couple of hundred people! They kept cheering and we kept singing. I think Dave did “Gary, Indiana” at least 4 times. It was really something. Sure wish I hadn’t lost those pictures. Thanksgiving was spent in Louisville. Typical good food and hanging around with the family. I also had a chance to connect with my two favorite sisters from Valley Station. The Beck girls are doing fine, and we had a nice visit. I think maybe we should try to make it a regular part of our Thanksgiving holiday.

December

This is always a good month. I started it by spending 4 days in Phoenix. Business stuff, but that’s OK. The best way to start December in Indy is to go to Phoenix. Christmas decorations look really weird on a cactus though. A couple of weeks later it was time for Christmas. It kind of snuck up on us this year but we managed to get everything taken care of just before Santa hit the roof. We spent Christmas morning at home and then in the afternoon we headed south. Time to get the whole family together again. We had the entire crew there. From California to Italy and a bunch of places in between. And I can prove it. I lost these photos once but realized that we hardly ever erase the card in the digital camera. 3 months later and the photos were still there. These photos will show you how things tend to flow during our Louisville Christmas. The first photo shows everyone in the living room madly opening gifts. There is wrapping paper flying in the air, “thank you!”s mixed together with “what’s that?”s shouted across the room. It’s kind of like a gift feeding frenzy. We are basically a greedy lot. After things settle down it is time to take the official family photo. Actually, we take a number of official family photos. We start with the pictures of all of us, usually taken by an Overmyer and then start with all of the derivatives. My mother with all of her kids. My mother with all of her grandkids. My mother with just the girl grandkids. Then the guys. Then the dogs and eventually anyone that comes through the door gets their photo taken. With my mom. I figured I would just insert the one with everybody in it and you can write and let me know if you want me to send you any of the others. After all the photos, we just hang around, moving from room to room to refrigerator to room, jumping in and out of conversations and games and whatever else might be going on. Whatever else can be anything from political discussions and intense Scrabble games to a calm and relaxing manicure session. As you can see from this last photo, Sarabeth spent an hour doing some sort of French nail thing to her Uncle Mike. As you can guess, this took place right next to the refrigerator and that little light in the fridge was going on and off like a strobe light in a disco. And that my friends, pretty much is the last thing we remember from 2005.

PS

It was a good year but not all good. In October, Jane’s mother passed away. It was a hard time, but tears turned to smiles as we had the opportunity to celebrate her life. At her memorial service family and friends gathered and reminisced. We heard stories from when Jean was a little girl and college stories and work stories and growing old stories. Stories from family and friends that helped shape an extraordinary lady. Stories that would make a pretty good Christmas letter.

Thanks for being our family and friends.

Merry Christmas,

Wayne, Jane, Emily & Sarabeth