2013
I’ve been thinking I need to start this letter but just wasn’t motivated. I have a nice big couch in front of a nice big TV and the Winter Olympics are on from the time I get home from work until past my bedtime. Figure skating is on now. Time to start the letter.
January
You had to wait a year for it, but I can now tell you what happened after midnight at Jason’s New Year’s Eve party. A couple of drunk guys got into a snowball fight and one of them slid into my Audi and dented the front fender. Welcome 2013!! The rest of the month was pretty basic, with a couple of exceptions. Emily does always have a birthday and I never get her a pony for said birthday. You can always count on those two things in January. But we did get a quick visit from the Zinn’s as they made their way from Pennsylvania to Bloomington for a basketball game. It’s neat to realize that friends will last a lifetime. The other notable event that month involved The Naptown Roller Girls. A great time with Chris and Danielle. A roller derby crowd is inherently interesting to begin with, but we showed up on Star Wars night and that bumped it up a notch. We had a great time, and plan to do it again, but I think Jane’s dream of being a starting jammer, known as Killamity Jane has been crushed. She remembered that she can’t skate. Just wish she would have figured that out before getting the tattoo!
February
We spent this month getting all cultured up. Jane and I went to see Tommy Emmanuel in concert. If you don’t know Tommy, put this letter down right now and go hunt him up on YouTube! You will be amazed and want to go with us next time he is in town. For Valentine’s Day I bought Jane a Naptown Roller Girls t-shirt. Now I know you may be thinking, “That Wayne is such a romantic fool,” but she liked it enough to take a selfy! I know my woman. Near the end of the month, my brother Bob invited all the siblings to a culture weekend. We went out to eat and then to the symphony at the Cincinnati Music Hall. The building was as cool as the performance. We got just enough culture to knock the edge off of our Kentucky accent, which somehow manifests itself when we are together.
March
Sarabeth had a birthday this month. Number 20 if you’re counting. Just to bring you up to speed, at this point she is in the second semester of her sophmore year at IU. Planning to be a teacher like her sister. And speaking of her sister, Emily decided that she needed a dog too. I tried to convince her that we had enough dog around here to spare but she wouldn’t listen. Besides, she lives in her own apartment six miles away. It shouldn’t affect us in the least. So our family now includes Auggie. He’s a cute,friendly animal. A mix between chocolate lab and belgium airhead I believe. I predict (because I know the future), that Auggie will be spending a lot of time here playing with Bam.
April
What a great month! The weather in Indy is kind of wet and cold. Not really winter, but definitely not spring. So Jane and I left it all behind and went on a cruise. Just the two of us, and that made it special. We started with an evening in Orlando at Downtown Disney . The next day we were on the ship heading to a bunch of islands. Can’t really remember which islands they were. Named after saints, just not sure which ones. Don’t really care. We did all the things you are supposed to do on a cruise. We ate too much, drank a bit too much, gambled just enough. We went snorkling, played on the water slide, and read a Tom Clancy novel as we sat around the pool. Actually, I did all of the water sliding and Clancy reading, but Jane was with me in spirit. And then we did it all again the next day. Jane gained a new found appreciation for roulette and for cute little drinks that come in cute little souvenir glasses. We have a matching set now. And a couple of extra just in case. A few days later we were sleeping on a bus back to Orlando. That night we saw Blue Man Group at Universal and the next day we were sleeping on a plane on the way back to Indy. It was a great vacation and a nice break from the real world.
At the end of the month I went to Louisville for a church reunion. The church I grew up in, the place that shaped a big part of my life was closing it’s doors. My family was there every weekend for as long as I remember. I grew up there. What could have been a sad affair turned into a celebration. I saw friends that I hadn’t seen for years. We talked and laughed and wondered what ever happened to … The only sad part was saying goodbye and wondering when I would see those people again. But I guess that’s why we all write Christmas letters.
May
It took a page and a half but we finally made it to May. I can finally tell all my friends the story of Jane and the trees. Jane had some sort of big hospital wide project she was in charge of. I’m not sure what it was all about but I’m sure it involved some sort of corporate or personal growth theme. We had been at a farmers market early in the month and some organization was giving away trees. Jane thought that these trees would tie in well with her project and started tracking down the source of these trees. A few phone calls and a week later the FedEx guy delivers 200 trees to our front door. I know that sounds like a big delivery but you need to realize that these young River Birch trees are just a 2 foot long stick with brown fuzzy stuff at one end and two or three tiny leaves at the other. I’m still not sure why we ended up with 200 trees. As you can see in the photo, Janes project only used up about 30 of these sticks. So that leaves us with 170 sitting in my garage. No problem. Into a trash bag and out to the end of the driveway and the trees are gone. But I didn’t realize that Jane had taken each one of these trees, lovingly re-packed each with a little dirt and some fertilizer. Even tied a little red ribbon around each one. I would have had better luck tossing a litter of kittens into that trash bag. It was up to us to find a good home for each of Jane’s trees. So for the next 3 weeks, we took these gift wrapped twigs to church, to work, and to school. We gave them to neighbors, the mailman, and 3 Jehovah Witnesses who knocked on the wrong door that Saturday morning. I think the FedEx guy even took some back with him. Kids knocking on my door selling band candy left with a couple of bucks in one hand and a gift wrapped River Birch in the other. Eventually we found good homes for all of Jane’s trees. This will go down as one of my favorite Jane stories. I think it shows a little bit about the kind of person she is and why I love her so much. She is just the perfect amount of crazy for me.
June
It’s officially summer now. Playing a lot of golf and decided to take some lessons for the first time. I am not playing old man golf anymore! These lessons have added tons of yardage to my game. It is amazing how far into the woods I can hit a golf ball now! I read on the calendar that we had dinner with the Levitts this month. Not earth shaking news but the kind of event that makes me smile when I think about it. Great friends from college that are going to be great friends till we all turn to dust. I need to give them a call so we can write something on this year’s calendar. Father’s Day was this month and we spent the day at the art museum. And that gives me an excuse to share this photo of my beautiful girls. And one other thing that happened this month, that only means something to one other person that reads this letter. Rick, I had to buy a new lawn mower! Since it’s my letter, I can do stuff like that. Little cryptic messages, like “Thank you Normal Susan for always sending me a Christmas card”. See, did it again!
July
I had my 40th high school reunion this month. It felt weird writing that sentence. The usual cast of characters were there, which was fine with me. It was neat that, obviously we have all changed over 40 years, but when I was there talking to these people and looking them in the eyes, I saw my 17 year old high school friends. Of course, I’ve sobered up by now. Does that look like a high school kid to you?
We also had a family outing in Columbus, OH this month. And this was big time family. All my brothers and sisters and their kids and some of their kids. We had pretty much everyone that was within a 1000 mile radius show up. We planned on spending the day at the big water park at the zoo. It started off a little shakey as we all sat in our little cabanna shivering as we waited out a small typhoon. But the sun came out and all us old people went sliding down wet fiberglass on little mats for the rest of the day. The guard even had to yell, “No Running” at us a couple of times. I didn’t really care though, cause I’m a grown-up now and he was just a 17 year old kid making 8 bucks an hour. I mean really, what was he going to do to me? I don’t have any pictures to print of the big event. No place to carry a camera in my swim suit. And anyway, I don’t think I would want those photos ending up in the public domain. After that we gathered at my nephew’s house and ate and then enjoyed the night around a bonfire telling stories, with a scotch in one hand and a cigar in the other. Jane looked so cute! It was a perfect ending to a great day.
August
Got things started this month with an outdoor concert. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy with Scott and Liz and Derek and Carrie. Some of you know these people. For those that don’t, I’ll just say that they started out as tennis friends and then it morphed into just friends. 95% of the time my name pops up on Facebook is because Scott tagged me in a photo or checked me in somewhere or some other FB trick. Here’s another picture of us from a Steve Martin concert the month before. We do a lot of stuff together. Scott’s a good guy, even though he only has half a face. I always have to crop the photos just right!
And August always means a family trip to the State Fair. Jane started going to the fair as a young 4H superstar. Used to haul home tons of ribbons and trophies from showing sheep. So Jane knows how to do the fair. The girls and I just follow her around as we start in the sheep barn and then head over to stare at the worlds largest hog. Always have to see that big nasty pig. Then we wander through a big building that is full of tables. And each table is covered with paper plates and each plate has 3 potatos or 12 beans or a gourd of some sort on it. And every so often one of them has a ribbon that proves it is the best plate of whatever. They even had a bunch of bales of hay sitting along the wall. I thought is was a place to sit down until I saw that half of them had ribbons too! And monster pumpkins that weighed hundreds of pounds and looked like those big tumors that you see being removed from some poor lady on a late night cable show that tries to sound scientific so you won’t feel ashamed that you sat up and watched it. And how do they know that those people didn’t just run to Kroger’s and bought those beans? After visiting that building I am not quite as impressed with all the ribbons Jane won as a kid. And then we stop to eat and all is good with the world and I am happy and I wonder where that lady got the yard stick?
September
It took a long time, but my sister Marky and her high school sweetheart Donn got married this month. So we all jumped on a plane and flew to Dallas for a long weekend. Once again the family was together and we had an excuse to party. I sure am glad I like those people! There was a bunch of girl wedding stuff that girls all do together whenever there is a wedding. And that was fine because there was a really cool driving range and a Cabela’s just down the road that kept me and the nephews occupied. What a great place to get married. After the ceremony, my siblings and I had a chance to re-create a photo from our childhood as we all straddled, which is a very funny word, this huge piano bench. Straddling was easier when I was eight. Marky is the one in the wedding dress. We took a bunch of photos on that piano bench. Most of them look like this one. Someone on that bench wasn’t taking the moment seriously! I think it was Bob. Partied that night and back to Indy very very early the next morning. Welcome to the family Donn!
Jane had a birthday this month so to celebrate we went down to Bloomington with Jason and Alex and the girls to see Blue Man Group. They happened to be in town and we enjoyed it so much back on page 2 that we thought we would do it again. And you know how with shows like that they sometimes bring people from the audience up on stage to be part on the show? Well they did that at this show and guess what? It was really funny and when it was happening I thought it sure would make for some interesting reading in the Christmas letter. Wish they would have choosen one of us, but they didn’t.
October
My favorite month. Football season is in full swing, we have our annual trip to Brown County and I get a quick little 2 or 3 day business trip to some exotic locale. And toss a birthday in there too. Brown County was the same as it was last year and all the other years. And that is good. Fast and exciting is fun but there is something to said for slow and predictable. We got just what we expected and loved every second of it. Here’s a picture from our cabin this year. Or maybe the year before, I’m not sure.
My exotic locale for the business trip this year was Orlando. Visited the airport, the convention center, a hotel and a resturant or two. Then the airport again.
Not sure what to say about the birthday. I’m glad I had one this year but am a little disappointed because it sure didn’t seem like a full year had passed since the last one. Time is flying by way too fast. One of these days I might wake up old.
November
This was the month that Jane decided she would teach Bam to balance stuff on his head. Not really sure what brought this on but it makes her happy and the dog doesn’t seem to mind. I actually think that society’s biase against the Pit Bull might ease up a bit if they all wore bananas on their heads.
We went to Louisville to watch my sister Teresa perform her play at the Slant Culture Theatre Festival. As was expected, she was brilliant. We also had a chance to watch another play that same evening. The festival was a 10 day affair with probably 40 performances of 15 different productions. And there was all sorts of music and food too. And Teresa was the Festival Director. As they say in the theatre, the big cheese. (I just made that up. I have no idea what they say in the theatre.) I’m very proud of my little sister. We also celebrated Thanksgiving this month. Ate a bunch of turkey and napped on the couch all day. Jane’s brother Jon did manage to drop by while between his on-call doctor duties. He ate some turkey but wasn’t able to stay and nap. We need more holidays like Thanksgiving.
December
Christmas. That is what this month is all about. The Willis family Christmas this year was back in Louisville. We filled Teresa’s house. Just about everyone made it. Some had to work extra hard to attend. My neice Megan actually started a small civil conflict in South Sudan so she could make the 7,321 mile trip to Louisville for the celebration. Looking back on it, I’m not sure that $30 Target gift card you got was really worth all the trouble. Just saying. But we were all happy to see you. However, the big star of the show was Rylon, the newest edition to our family. He would be the small one in the photo to the right. Only a few months old but had the attention of every woman in the room. There is obviously some Willis blood pumping through those veins! We spent the day eating great food, and a bit of drink. We exchanged gifts and all admitted that we had called the recipients mother, husband, brother or wife for suggestions. Because even though we have known these people our entire life, we never can figure out what to get them for Christmas. Especially Mike and Bob! And then we just hung around until the smart people went to bed. At that point Emily, Sarabeth, Teresa and I decided to start a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. And in the spirit of adventure it was decided we would finish it that evening. Actually, morning. Thanks to Emily’s, up until that point, undiscovered hidden jigsaw skills, we were done by about 2:30. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle with Rain Man. It was a fun Christmas, as usual. The next week was our family Christmas at home. Santa was kind to us. A week later it was a New Years Eve gathering at Chris and Danielles. We stayed up until midnight. I think that is two years in a row! Maybe we’re getting younger in our old age!
So that’s it. It was a good year. Jane and I are both happy. Emily is an excellent school teacher and Sarabeth keeps getting straight A’s in college. And that’s not just Christmas letter talk either. It’s all true! I’m feeling pretty blessed right about now. Thank you to everyone that was a part of it with us. It’s all about friends.
Merry Christmas!
Wayne, Jane, Emily and Sarabeth
