2014

Hey. Merry Christmas! This was a fun year. A lot of stuff to write about, so we better get started. Please try to keep up.

January

We left Chris and Danielle’s New Year’s Eve party. And 2014 was officially off and running. Not much else happened in January. It was way too cold. We had all sorts of snow and minus 40 degree wind chills. Emily decided that she was still going to have a birthday, despite the weather. So we celebrated her 26th. And by now, you should all know what we didn’t get her for her birthday. But please, in future letters don’t just skip over January. I might surprise everyone by really getting her a you-know-what one of these birthdays.

February

Sorry. I got nothing. There were no Christmas letter worthy events this month. But it was really pretty. If you were inside and were looking through a double-pane insulated window with 3 layers of clothes and a cup of steaming tea in your hand, it was really pretty. Almost serene.  Peaceful even. But trust me, it really sucked when you had to go outside.

March

My little girl had her 21st birthday this month. As you can see, Jane baked a cake and I am sure we showered her with gifts. Sometime later that evening Sarabeth went out with her friends. This “before” photo is more suitable for the Christmas letter than the “after” photo. And something else happened this month.  The Beck girls and their families came to Indy to watch some sort of basketball game. We had a chance to meet up for breakfast. We had a great time catching up and talking about old times and new times. We talked about everything except basketball.  I feel really special that they included me in their plans. As you can see from the photo, they are as cute as ever. And you too, Dennis. But I must say their wardrobe was a bit too blue for my taste.

April

April was culture month for Jane and me. We headed north to Ball State with Connie and Kathy G. to see our friend Julian perform in an opera that was directed by our friend Joe. You remember Joe from last year’s letter right? Julian is the one in the photo that is ridiculously over-dressed for the occasion. But just to prove to you that the Willis’ aren’t just a couple of culture snobs, I thought I would include this picture of Jane wearing a lamp shade on her head, though I must point out that it is a very expensive designer lamp shade. Just saying.

May

More culture this month. I could be wrong. We might actually be culture snobs! We’ll see how the rest of the letter goes.  We went down to Louisville to see my sister Teresa perform in a play. Met my brother Bob and his wife Jean for a nice dinner downtown before the show. The play was great. Teresa was the star of course. When the show was over I stood in the lobby and told everyone that I was Teresa’s big brother. I was very proud of her. Indy was busy. Bunch of racing going on this month.

June

We started the month with a Tommy Emmanuel concert here in Indy. We were joined by Scott & Liz and Phil & Tammie Borders. You all know Scott & Liz. Phil is a tennis buddy, and his wife Tammie has now been dragged into our social circle, kicking and screaming the entire time. Emily & Sarabeth were part of the crowd too. Great show. Remember last years letter? You need to see this Tommy E. perform. Very cultural! On a less cultural note, I went to Valley Station to play golf with my old high school buddies. The golf was at Sun Valley, which holds a ton of memories for me. Spent that evening sitting around a table outside at the Emery’s house, with Dave’s family. Drank a bit of beer that night. And if you are reading this letter and have some sort of Louisville connection, we talked about you. I said you were doing fine. And Richard concurred. Father’s Day was this month. Here’s our official FD photo.

July

All of my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews  took a few days off and we met up at a big cabin in Hocking Hills, Ohio’s answer to Brown County. I think we ended up with about 20 of us. The cabin had enough room for everyone, though a couple of people had to sleep in the home theatre. And the hot tub only held eight. But roughing it is part of the fun. We did all sorts of woodsy things like hiking and…well that’s about it. This is 2014. It’s not like we killed a bear or anything. But we hiked to some neat areas and took pictures of each other. Like that one. And this one.  Fairly early one morning Jane and I grabbed the girls and we took off for a canoe adventure. We had to meet the rest of the family for a picnic in the early afternoon so we signed up for the shorter of the two trips. So Jane and Emily were in one canoe and Sarabeth and I in the other. It was great fun. The river was beautiful. We counted turtles. Saw all sorts of cranes and other birds. Sarabeth and I bonded as I taught her the intricacies of steering a canoe. Emily sang every song from Disney’s Pocahontas movie. At the top of her lungs. But I’m sure every other person paddling within 2 miles of us enjoyed her concert. Jane and Emily had a tough time with their vessel. As the trip wore on, their canoe was getting heavier and heavier. Taking on a bit of water? Me thinks not. Seems Jane was reaching into the water and picking up all the “pretty” rocks she found. It’s kind of a habit of hers. Overall it was great fun. But let me tell you what I figured out. About the time you decide you have canoed just about enough for the day, you will realize that you haven’t reached the halfway point yet. When I get real old, and the doctor walks into my hospital room and tells me that I have only 2 weeks to live, I am going to ask my family to go out and buy me a canoe. Take me out of that hospital room and let’s head to the river. Set me in that canoe and gently push me out where the current will take me down stream. Because I know that every minute spent in that canoe will seem like an hour. They might be my last two weeks, but they will seem like the longest two weeks of my life! We eventually made it back to the the canoe livery and met the rest of the family for our picnic. So we had our picnic, and then it was time to take a group photo of Ralph and Irene’s kids. As you can see, Bob started acting up again. I think it has something to do with being the oldest. Phychiatrist’s have a name for it. I don’t know what that name is. I’m the middle child.

August

This was a big month for us. Emily and Sarabeth rented a house together in Broad Ripple. For those of you from far away, Broad Ripple is where all the cool kids live. It’s actually a law that you have to have a tattoo and a designer dog to live there. And you have to make a visit to the Farmers Market every Saturday morning. With your dog in one hand and coffee you can’t afford in the other. My girls fit right in! Both girls went back to school this month. Emily as a teacher and Sarabeth as a college student. Another  big deal was my tennis team. After all the winter leagues and summer leagues and flight championships we won our district. One more match and we were the State champs and moving on to the Midwest Regionals. And now I am proud to say we are officially the second best team in the state of Indiana! Jane and I celebrated our anniversary this month.  I only mention it because 38 is one of my favorite numbers and it also gives me a reason to post this really nice picture of us. I can’t believe we are so darn good looking after all those years! Truthfully, we started off so pretty that’s is not all that hard to imagine.

September

Now this is a big deal! And I know that all you manly men out there will realize what a big deal this is and that you will be thinking, “I wish I was Wayne!” Remember when I mentioned that Emily and Sarabeth moved into a house? You really should, since it was just about 4 inches ago. Anyway, I made them take a bunch of their stuff.  And now I can get my car into the garage! What a fantastic feeling. It’s a two car garage and we can just get one car in it, but I still feel great every day that I get home from work before Jane. Now I know that this is starting to seem a little groupy-ish, but I went to see Tommy Emmanuel again. The opportunity arose and I snatched it. Teresa’s partner Laura had a couple of tickets that ended up in an envelope with my name on it. I guess I was the 17th caller. Jane couldn’t make it so I drove to Louisville and invited my sister Nancy to  join me. We all met for dinner before the show. And of course the show was great. You can ask Nancy. So you know all that culture stuff I have been  talking about? Well it’s all about to be negated in the next sentence. I went an done me some NASCAR racin! For Christmas awhile back Sarabeth bought me a spot in the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience at Lucas Oil Raceway, which is a .68 mile oval. After a very brief classroom session, where they basically just told us not to turn right, we headed to the track. I put on a driving suit and found a helmet and they sized me up and put me in a car where they thought I could reach the pedals. And here is a picture of me right before I wedged my non-typical NASCAR frame into the drivers seat. I thought I looked pretty darn cool. Jane asked if I was sponsored by AARP.  So I get in and the little voice in my helmet tells me start it up and to head out onto the track. And the little voice in my head keeps saying, “Please don’t kill it. Please don’t kill it.” That would have been so un-cool. (I didn’t ) I guess there were only about 5 cars on the track. A couple of people like me and a couple of pros that were doing ride-alongs. And the voice in my helmet would tell me to when to get out of the pro’s way. After a couple of laps the voice mentioned that the gas pedal went all the way to the floor and suggested I give it a try. What a concept. And what a rush! I came out of the turn, put it to the floor and it slammed me back in the seat big time! It is a short track and you had to lift pretty quick as you entered the turn but the next 8 or so laps were the most fun I have had in a long time. Three cars behind me spun out from hitting the trail of testosterone that was dripping from my car. Being kind of cheap, I didn’t bother to buy the video package, where they record you as you drive, split screen with a view down the track, all the while showing your speed. I have no idea how fast I was going. Doubt it was a new track record but it was a lot of fun. And anyway, Sarabeth was taking photos. And she even took a nice long video of me coming out of the turn and heading down the straight. Notice I said long. Because she took the video using the new slow-motion feature on her iphone. I have a video of me driving a race car. In slow-motion.

October

You know I like October and this year was no different. Thanks to my favorite optometrist, Sarabeth and I started the month at an IU football game together. We had great seats, we won the game and Sarabeth and I got spend time together in one of my favorite places, Nick’s. The place is bigger than it used to be and actually fancier than it ought to be, but at least they are still using those classy beer mugs! Nothing is better than those times when you get a chance to introduce your kid to the finer things in life. Jane and I both had fun little business trips. She went to Dallas and I went to Vegas. It is always nice to get out of town and visit exotic convention centers and hotels. We both had a chance to catch up with a number of good friends that we haven’t seen for a while. Thanks for dinner John. We had our usual Brown County vacation. We had a great time and did all the stuff we did the year before. But I do remember one really fine evening that I spent on the porch of the cabin. Leaning back in my chair with the headphones over my ears, a cigar in one hand and bourbon in the other. Most relaxed and content I had been for a long time. But I can’t find that photo so here is one of the girls on that same porch. We ended the month with a Halloween party at Jenny and Alan’s house. You remember, more college friends. Jane was really looking forward to going to this party.  So much so that she even planned costumes and make-up for the two of us. I blame Pinterest! So we went to the party, had a great time and stayed way too late. We started talking and since we don’t see each other very often it took a while to get everything said.  We made it home about 3am. If I recall correctly, I don’t think we made it to church that morning.

November and December because I really have run out of space

You regular readers will know what I think about this month. Nothing ever happens in November except Thanksgiving. But this year November was my favorite month! It started with a flight lesson. As in airplane. That one. Emily bought me a flight lesson for Christmas. My daughters and Groupon were very good to me in 2014, although I do wonder if they have some sort of ulterior motive.  It was fun. The instructor got us to the start of the runway and informed me that I was going to take off. He told me what to do and I did it. And for the next 40 minutes I flew the plane. Now I realize that what I did was similar to letting your kid put their hands on the steering wheel as you cruise down the highway. But I also realize now how much fun that was for the kid! After a brief discussion, it was decided that we would let the instructor go ahead and land the plane.  I’ve got a couple of pilot friends reading this letter. Now I understand guys! Thanksgiving was great. Met up with Jane’s family at her brother Jon’s house. Had a good time and finally had a chance to use the ping-pong paddle I had been carrying in my trunk for a year. And I must give a Christmas Letter Seal of Approval to the special drink that niece Carrie continually served me throughout the day, although I think she may have been in cahoots with her boy cousins. Some sort of plot to dull my considerable ping-pong skills. It worked. Two days later Jane and I jumped on a plane and headed to St. John, one of our very own US Virgin Islands. We were vacationing with two other couples, Scott & Liz and Mark & Karen Becker. Please join me in welcoming Mark & Karen to our Christmas letter family. Here is a photo from one of our fantastic dinners. That’s Mark & Karen on the left. We stayed at the Westin Resort. Had everything there you would ever want or need. Our own beach, and pool and tennis courts and bar and restaurant. I mean really, what more could you ask for in paradise? Perhaps sunny 83 degree days? Every day? Got it. This place was beautiful. I think I’ll just toss out a few random photos here so you get the idea. Someone said these are the best beaches in the world. Me.

During our visit, Sports Illustrated was there at one of the beaches doing a photo shoot for their swimsuit edition. We guys thought that was pretty cool but it did get old with all the tourists following us around and asking our wives for their autographs. We understand the confusion. Just look at these ladies. It was a great vacation. We snorkeled with sea turtles in calm crystal clear water. The water was calm because Scott and I presented the sea gods a small sacrifice the day before. We drove around the island in a rental car on the wrong side of the road. (Because that’s the way they do it there.) We took the same rental car places a rental car should never go. And for a minute or two thought the rental car might have to stay there. We shared the roads with wild donkeys, goats, and chickens. We ate really well. Something special every night. But it was ok because Mark was kind enough to get up early in the morning and exercise for the entire group. He made that sacrifice for the common good. Jane and I took it upon ourselves to nap for the entire group. How great of a vacation was it? Just look at that smile on Jane’s face. It was like that all week. We had fun with a couple of old friends and really got to know and enjoy a couple of new friends. We might have to do it again. The only down side was coming back to cold Indianapolis weather. But at least we were coming home to Christmas! It’s amazing how cold snowy weather in the middle of December is brisk and beautiful, but the exact same day in the middle of January is just plain nasty. We had our traditional family Christmas. Candlelight service at church, then we come home and watch the animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. We all speak every line and sing every song. Then to bed. And Christmas morning is beautiful. God’s gift is pretty cool. And we wrap it all up a couple of days later with one last Willis celebration. Everyone came to Indy this year. It was great. Love my family. I told you it was a busy year. I’m out of room.  Bye.

Wayne, Jane, Emily & Sarabeth

Back to Top