2017
Can of Coke in one hand and a fist full of thin mints, straight from the freezer, in the other. I’m ready to start this year’s Christmas letter. Hold on, can’t type till these cookies are gone. OK, that took about 3 seconds. Now we can start …. wait, is that curling on TV? These Olympics are killing me! I may never get started on this letter. It might be late this year!
January
Started this month at a Colts game with Sarabeth. It was fun, we had a great time, but this illustrates how hard it is to find something exciting to write about for January. Emily had her 29th birthday this month. Wow, that sounds silly. When I first started these letters the fact that the girls were growing up and having birthdays was a big deal. “Emily’s a teenager now!” That was news! “Emily is 29 and she and Adam are considering refinancing their mortgage”, not so much. I think I need a grandchild.
February
Jane and I had a fun February, which must mean we left the cold and gray of the Indiana winter for someplace a bit more civil. Went to Sarasota for a long weekend to see college friends Jenny, Alan, Barb, Stefano and Randye. Pretty much the same as last year. We did some Florida stuff. Tommy Edison’s house and workshop, the beach and a “1905” salad, but mostly just hung out and did typical friend stuff. Ate, drank and talked for 3 straight days. Kept us warm for the rest of the winter.
March
The highlight this month was a family adventure. The five of us went to a glass studio to make paperweights. Jane & I collect these things and thought it would be fun to make our own. Big globs of molten glass balanced precariously on the end of heavy metal rods. And we spun them and rolled them. From table to kiln a few times and then to this weird bench thing. An intricate ballet of death! Or at least a dazzling square dance of severe burns. And we were successful. Five beautiful paperweights and no trips to the hospital. Sarabeth had a birthday this month. She turned 24. You wouldn’t think I would mention it considering my comments a couple of paragraphs ago. But even though they are adults, they still count the number of times their name was in the Christmas letter. And they count pictures. So here is a nice picture of Emily making her paperweight.
April
This was a tricky month for our family. Our church of the last 25 years or so was closing its doors. 7th & 8th United Christian Church had a good 134-year run. But the congregation dwindled, and the bills didn’t. We sold the building to the university down the street and went about the task of shutting down. But let me tell you that we made the best of it! We celebrated our long history, reveled in more recent memories and used the proceeds from the sale to establish a legacy. We played Santa and gave gifts to all our favorite charities and many local congregations. We had a chance to help a lot of people, and it really felt like we made the right decision. Here’s a couple of photos. One of your more interesting selfies. Thanks, Rob. Where were all those people when we needed them? And a photo from our last church board meeting. Complete with cheap champagne. I love those people, but I promise I don’t miss those monthly board meetings! Wish we would have thought of the champagne a few years earlier.
May
What a month! Sarabeth graduated from college. We knew it would happen eventually, but it’s one of those things you just aren’t sure of until you witness it. She did great and graduated with all sorts of honors. Jane and I are very proud of her. Not long after, she accepted a job as a 5th grade Math & Science teacher for Avon, IN, just west of Indy. I’ll let you know how the first year is going for her in a couple of pages. Feeling good that Emily, Adam and Sarabeth are responsible for making central Indiana just a little bit smarter. And feeling even better that for the first time in about 29 years I am not writing checks for diapers, daycare, amoxicillin, book fairs, Brownie Scouts, field trips, soccer teams, braces, tennis lessons, more soccer stuff, instrument rental, summer camps, those really expensive pieces of tri-fold cardboard you need for science fairs, braces again, prom dresses, cars, car insurance, spring break trips, car repair, tuition and room & board!
June
I spoke too soon. Had to write a check to Indiana University for a couple of delinquent parking tickets before they would send Sarabeth her the diploma.
So now it is summer. We spent just about every weekend at the lake and did our best to have friends down as often as possible. Get ready to see a lot of pictures of people floating in the lake with a drink in their hand. Chris, Danielle and Brendan got the season off to a great start. For those of you that know Chris, you can guess what happened about 5 seconds after this photo was taken. Even those that don’t know Chris can tell by that grin that his wife and small innocent child were about to be, shall we understatedly say, “splashed”. The rest of the day was calmer, with scattered cannonballs. We floated, we drank a bit, we grilled some food and talked a bunch. That will pretty much be the theme for about every weekend heading into October. A couple of other things happened in June. For Father’s Day the family took me out to dinner at the Mayberry Café. Great food, and let me tell you, it is serious Mayberry. Check out Andy’s squad car out front. Can’t really describe it, but I have a new place to take out of town visitors. And it is a lot cheaper than St. Elmo! Sarabeth the grown-up bought a car and said goodbye to her PT Cruiser. It got her through high school and all those many years of work and college. It was time. Those parking tickets I had to pay were more than the car was worth.
July
We started this month with a weekend trip to Louisville. Niece Lauren and her boys Harry & Ben were in from California. A rare occasion and an excellent excuse to gather the clan. The party started Friday night at a baseball game and drifted back and forth between Marky and Teresa’s house for a couple of days. We had fun doing the stuff we do and catching up with Harry and Ben. Their west coast perspective made for refreshing and robust conversations concerning religion, politics and current events. And Ben is especially fluent in elephant jokes! Always a crowd pleaser. Jane followed that adventure with a trip to a big nursing conference in New Orleans. She was one of the featured presenters, and her expenses were all paid for by one of the sponsors. They took care of everything. Emily picked up on this information and realizing that Jane’s free hotel room had 2 beds, quickly assessed the situation and bought a plane ticket. She still had a couple of weeks before school started and was going to take advantage of this opportunity. That’s my girl! Jane did her conference stuff and then she and Emily had a chance to enjoy the city. Beignets, Washington Square, Bourbon Street. They spent the evenings eating well, including a chance to have dinner with niece/cousin Dawn, who lives near there. Jane said the dinner was fun, and she was very impressed with Dawn’s elephant jokes. They get back to Indy and everyone has work issues to sort out. Emily and Adam had to go back to school after a summer off. Sarabeth was about to start her first real world grown-up job as a teacher. And Jane decided she was going to start to ease into retirement. She quit her full-time position at the hospital. She works “supplemental” now, which is a max of 24 hours a week. She still makes a decent bit of money, which I like, and she is happy and smiling much more often. I like that even more! We ended the month with a bunch of my tennis friends at the lake. Had a great time and did all that stuff that we do there. Float, drink, eat, talk. Pretty basic recipe for a good time. But when you throw in Annie Mac’s pickles, a birthday cake for little Liz Cooper and dash of Phil Borders, a good time quickly escalates into a full-blown extravaganza! Look at that photo. Can’t you just see the excitement on everyone’s faces? I know, it’s a small photo. Use your imagination.
August
We started August at the Indiana State Fair. It was Jane and me and the two girls. How come Adam seems to miss these adventures? We started very early because Jane wanted to see the 4H llama & alpaca shows. We now have about 1000 photos of the hairy, funny looking beasts. But I guess it was worth getting up at 7 in the morning, because I now know the difference between the two. That picture to the right is one of them. Later, we met up with Dave & Katie Samsel. They were there helping with the cattle shows. We had a chance to get up close and personal with the cows and the heifers and thanks to their tutelage, I now know the difference between the two. Who would have thought that the fair would be so educational? Still later that day, somewhere around lunchtime, we met up with Gerry & Monica Urick. They run a big chunk of the concessions at the fairgrounds, and it seems that the only reason they do it is to feed their friends. They graciously took a break from work and hooked us up with a great state fair lunch. We sat and talked for a while and finished the meal with a funnel cake and an elephant ear. And because of Gerry, I now know the difference between the two. Later that month Jane & I went on an adventure. First stop was Cincinnati for a surprise 70th birthday party for my much older brother Bob. There were all sorts of people there and I really think he was surprised. Just look at that expression on his face! Jean and the girls threw a great party and it was fun meeting all of Bob’s friends. Though it was a bit disconcerting to constantly see their silly grins when Bob would introduce me. Kind of makes me wonder what kinds of stories he shares with these people. The adventure part of the weekend was that we were going somewhere, but we didn’t know where. We just knew we weren’t going back to Indy. We had Monday off, and it happened to be Eclipse Monday. Thought we might drive somewhere to get a little better view than what was expected at home. But the voice on NPR said unless you get to see totality, don’t bother. He said 95% coverage is like driving 95% of the way to Disney World and then turning around and going home. Not worth the effort. So, we ended up in the lodge at Clifty Falls State Park, overlooking the Ohio River. Had dinner with that beautiful view that night and the next morning left early for some hiking. The hiking was fun, visiting all the waterfalls in the park. It’s amazing how a Fitbit will make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. The highlight was the 1/8-mile hike through the 1852 unfinished railroad tunnel. Armed with my iphone flashlight, Jane and I slogged through the dark muddy hole. It was just long enough that at the center it was pitch black. I must admit, we stopped and messed around a little at that point. Look at that smile on Jane’s face once we made it out alive! We headed back to Indy that night and watched the eclipse in Jenny and Alan’s backyard the next day. I can’t believe I don’t have a picture of us all wearing those cool glasses.
September
I knew we had company coming, so I finally got around to refurbishing the deck at the lake house. For those that have been there, you have an idea what size of a project that was. It’s nice to have a son-in-law to help with the heavy stuff. Thanks Adam! The first visitors were Dave & Kim Emery. I knew we would get them up eventually. And Dave & I did something other than the usual floating and drinking. Don’t get me wrong, we did the drinking, but we also went fishing. Hey, there are fish in that lake! But not as many as there used to be. I like to fish and if I happen to catch something that’s just a bonus. But Dave is a fisherman. That morning we jumped on the boat and headed around the shore. We caught about a million bluegill. My arm was tired from reeling them in. And Dave was so good, he just talked them into giving themselves up. And the best thing about fishing with Dave is that he knows what to do with those fish. We ate very well that night. That fish was Mike Lambert good! The next day we did something that Kim and Jane were good at. We went down to Oliver Winery for a tasting. Sounds delicate doesn’t it? It isn’t, its just an accepted way for ladies to snag an afternoon buzz. After that we went to IU for a little tour and dinner at Nick’s. We had a great weekend but just ran out of time. We needed to work some golf into the mix. Maybe next year. Our next guests came in from all directions. Alan & Jenny from the north side of Indy, Randye & Jim from St. Louis. Barb heard there was a party going on, so she and Stefano flew up from Sarasota. Of course, we made sure they were greeted appropriately at the airport. We started at the lake and eventually ended up at the Arthur’s palatial estate in Westfield. Kind of a traveling slumber party. It was a great time, and we did all sorts of those things we always do when we’re together. Probably just easier to show you a bunch of pictures. Jane managed to have another birthday this month. From this point until the middle of the next page she is 2 years older than me. Not that that is important or anything. Just saying.
October
Good month. The first weekend we let Jason and Alex be our Morgan County tour guides. We started at the local apple orchard, where we picked our apples and admired the views. The orchard is one of the highest points around, so Jane took a nice panoramic photo to capture it. The best part of that photo is that if you look close enough you will see that Jason was so excited he lost his head. We do all sorts of Christmas letter worthy things with these people, but we don’t take any photos. And the one photo I have, Jason is headless. We finished the day at a great Cajun restaurant in Mooresville. Really good food, but not quite authentic enough. So, a few days later Jason and I flew to New Orleans. And this boy ate himself some oysters! I wish we were cool enough to just fly down for dinner, but there was a work aspect to the trip. While we were down south, Jane and the girls were cranking out stuff for the local craft shows. And it was getting nippy, so she made scarves for Jason’s hairless animals. She is such a sweetheart! I had a birthday in there somewhere and now Jane is only a year older than me. Not that it matters. And thank you Dr. Engelberg for the offer of the football tickets. As you can tell, it was a busy month. Near the end of the month Teresa & Laura came up to the lake for a getaway weekend and anniversary celebration. We did the basic fall time lake stuff but also managed a great dinner at St. Elmo. For those of you not familiar with Indy, St. Elmo is THE place for steak. The food is great, but mostly because it just oozes cool. I’m kind of an emotional guy and I’m starting to tear up just thinking of that shrimp cocktail. October turned out to be a good food month. Here are a couple of photos of the evening. The one of the girls from that night is just because they are both so darn good looking it would be a shame not to include it. Finished the month off with a Halloween party at my neighbor Ryerson’s house. I love parties where I can literally crawl home. And what could be more fun than playing beer pong with your daughter?
November
Started the month with a concert. We met the Coopers, Beckers and Uricks for dinner and then went to see Billy Joel. Probably the best concert I have ever seen. It seemed like every song brought back a memory. I spent the summer before I was married listening to his music from the under-dash cassette player in my 71 Pinto as I drove from Bloomington to Greensburg to see Jane on the weekends. We took some photos, but you know what Billy Joel looks like and though our seats were pretty good, thanks Scott, they weren’t good enough to impress you. And like I said, you know what Billy Joel looks like.
Our next big adventure was a mini reunion of my Custodian 2 crew from college. I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior years at IU in Bloomington so that I could be with Jane. Our buddy Dick Blackketter got me a job working as a janitor at Foster Quad. I got lucky and ended up working with this group of kids that had known each other since elementary school. I think it was a good fit. That would have been 1975 and these people have been friends ever since. We got together at Sue & Bob’s place in Bloomington. We are scattered from Florida to Michigan and distance & bad luck limited the attendance, but we had a wonderful time together. And we ate persimmon pudding in honor of those that couldn’t be there. Here is a nice photo of us with Bob, Sue, Mercedes and Michael. There will be a few more in next year’s photo. Thanks Michael, that picture got here just in time!
Holy cow, Randye and Jim are back in Indianapolis for a few days! Came to see someone else but we don’t care. Grab them and let’s do dinner! Met at Alan and Jenny’s and went to dinner at this nice Italian place down the street. Just your basic dinner with friends. We just sat and talked and laughed. Typically, not Christmas letter material. But you don’t know these people!
December
We were supposed to repeat our vacation of a couple of years ago. We were going to St. John with the Coopers and the Beckers. Unfortunately, St. John tangled with Hurricane Irma and she won. So, we shifted our plans and headed to Aruba. We rented a house that was about 200 yards from the beach. The beach was small and relatively private. And it was on one of the prime snorkeling spots. What a great vacation with a bunch of great people. Most days started rather late. No one was in a big hurry. We would have a nice, let’s call it brunch. Then we would head over to the water. We would play in the water for a while, sit under the palapa for a while and then throw on the snorkel gear. Then come back to the palapa and start over. (I’m sure my travel mates are impressed with my use of the word palapa.) Eventual we would head back to the house, hit the pool, load up on some of the $300 worth of snacks we bought and then take a nap before getting ready for dinner. Dinner each night was always an event. Always a nice place. Even the time that we opted for easy Mexican, it was about the best Mexican food I had ever had. And apart from that Mexican night, every place we ate was outside. And why not? It was always about 72 degrees with a nice breeze at that time of evening. And somehow, no matter where we had dinner it seems like we always ended up at the same Baskin-Robbins. We did alter the routine a few times. We spent one day at Eagle Beach, which I guess is Aruba’s pride and joy. Their web site said it was voted the 3rd best beach in the world. Nice place, but I’m not sure who voted. Another day we jumped into our bug free van and headed to the other side of the island. It was mostly desert and rocks. A great place for an ostrich farm, a few ruins, wandering wild goats and stunning, crashing waves hitting the rocks. Great place to take pictures, not so great for swimming. Other adventures included a trip to the supermarket the first night there. That tells you something about this group, when a trip to the grocery store becomes an adventure. That’s where we learned that “not everything is about sex”. That kind of became our motto for the week. Karen can explain. We had a fantastic time. The place was beautiful and the people we enjoyed it with are the best in the world. I really wish all my friends could meet all my friends. Here are a bunch of photos that should give you an idea of the experience we enjoyed in Aruba.
We got back home a couple of weeks before Christmas. It was a busy time, but we managed to get things to a point where we were truly in the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, we were hit with a tragedy. Jane’s younger brother, Dr. Jon Finley died unexpectedly the day before Christmas. The rest of the year is just a blur. It’s been extremely hard. Jon was a great father, a great brother and a great friend. We are sad that he is no longer with us. We miss him, but our faith reassures us that he is ok, and we will have a chance to see him again someday.
I really hate having to end the Christmas letter this way. It’s supposed to be all fun. But I guess maybe it will serve as a reminder that our time here is limited, and we need to treasure all our blessings. And I want to thank each of you for being a friend. Your friendship is a blessing that we cherish. We hope your 2017 was fantastic and that 2018 will be even better.
Peace,
Wayne & Jane
