December 2022

The holiday season was full of family time along with several fun activities and holiday gatherings. We went to Ohio, Michigan and West Lafayette during the month and enjoyed many of our usual traditions.
We started the month by going to Yuletide at the Indianapolis Symphony on a Thursday evening. This is our second time going and we were able to get invited to the final dress rehearsal, which allowed for us to have a nice dinner along with having fantastic seats for the show.

  The next evening, we went to see Santa at Conner Prairie with the Sniadecki family. We enjoyed being outside and the kids had fun going down a big slide, going on a carousel and walking around Conner Prairie. That weekend was capped off by a visit by Rago, Depp and Schafer for the Big 10 Championship game between Purdue and Michigan. Purdue didn’t pull off the upset and the visit was short, but it is great to fall right back into conversation and laughter with friends who you have known for 20+ years. The evening of the football game, Deb went to a 50^th birthday party to go fowling (where you throw a football at bowling pins).
At the start of Christmas break, we left town and headed to Columbus, OH to meet up with Grandma, the Vanderveer’s and the Dodson’s to celebrate Christmas. The kids enjoyed swimming in the pool and seeing each other and the adults had fun in the lobby talking and catching up.  The next morning, we opened presents andplayed some games that Laura had brought. We decided to head home that afternoon and the drive took us almost double what it normally would due to wind, cold and snow, but we made it home safely.

  We were at home for most of weekend for Christmas. Sarah had a idea of us putting things into a hat and whatever we pulled out, we had to all do as a family for that 3 day weekend. We enjoyed playing Uno, War, watching home videos, baking cookies, board games and an indoor snowball fight.

We went to 5PM mass with the Dodson’s on Christmas eve. We were up at 7 to open presents and were done by 8AM. Santa brought a Zoom watch, wedge mat, and Alexa dot for Sarah while Allison got some shoes, backpack and Alexa dot. We enjoyed a day around the house and then went over to the Dodson for dinner and to see Mark and Chris.  On Monday, Deb and I went to Orangetheory, we enjoyed some more time around the house and then went to the Colts game on Monday Night Football.
The last weekend of the month, we went to Michigan to visit the Shafers along with Nana & Grandaddy. It was the first time that the girls and I got to see their new house and it was impressive. Kyle and Julie always do a great job hosting so we didn’t struggle to have enough food to eat or beverages to drink. Julie, Deb and I went to Orangetheory for a good Saturday morning workout and then came back to open presents. Allison got some items form Lululemon and Sarah got plenty of things to help her baking in the kitchen. We went to mass in the afternoon and then watched the college football playoffs, where Kyle was disappointed that Ohio State lost but the games were competitive and fun to watch. They went past midnight, so we didn’t even watch the ball drop in New York. We had hoped to go skiing on Sunday before we left, but it was raining and 35 degrees, so it we headed home in the afternoon. 

 

Sarah’s Things of the Month  

                Sarah’s volleyball team has starting practicing and she is excited to get started learning about the sport.  She has also continued her Jr. Trojans practices and they are learning a lot about a motion offense and team defense.  Sarah enjoyed a play at the IRT and Deb was a chaperone.  Her girl scout troop cooked a dinner for all of their families which was served in the gym at school.  The KG thru 4^th grade put on a Christmas play and the 4^th grade class usually has all the speaking parts. Sarah was the “director” and did a great job.  Finally, Sarah had fun at a Christmas gift exchange at the Moran’s house in late December with her basketball team.   

 

Allison’s Thing of the Month  

Allison’s volleyball team has starting practices and she is being told she may be a setter on this team.  She has also continued her Jr. Trojans practices and they have a similar team to last year along with the same coach, so they are looking to build on what they learned last year.  Allison had an overnight Christmas gift exchange with some of her friends at the Stone’s house, where I think each of them got the same gifts for each other from Bed Bath and Beyond, Target and 5 Below.

 

A few more items from this month: 

• We went to see impressive Christmas lights at the Fairgrounds which are synchronized to holiday music.  
• We went to the annual Bassett Christmas party in mid-December.  We went out to dinner with the Campbells beforehand at Binkleys. 
• Deb had the girls build gingerbread houses with the Sniadecki kids after school, which has been a tradition for a number of years.   
• Aunt Linda was able to get us some tickets for a Purdue basketball game over Christmas break. The girls hadn’t been to a game since fall of 2019, so they enjoyed it and were able to meet one of the cheerleaders.