Post breakfast, everyone gathered in the new addition (a part of the house that I still refer to as “new,” despite it being over 30 years old). L to R, it’s Stacey, Shane, Liz, me, Nathaniel, Jasmine, Jahnu, and my mom (photo courtesy of dad).
The goal is to steal a jewel from the museum. To do so, you need to move the locks off the top of a jewel, relocating them onto other locks… and to move the jewel onto a pedestal in the middle of the board.
The catch: each player gets to use just one tiny hand. The crew gets 90 seconds to complete the task, without bumping any of the lasers.
A pretty slow day, today. I was working, but everyone else mostly lazed around the house. Towards the evening, we all gathered at my sister’s house.
Stacey and Shane treated the whole family to a nice dinner at Seasons 52, over at Keystone.
But Stacey proposed something new – going out to Topgolf. We did the math, and this excursion ended up being cheaper than an escape room (and for 2 hours, instead of just 1).
I’ll be honest – I wasn’t exactly sold on this, as I don’t really play golf. And I wasn’t sure how much fun it would be. But I was wrong! We had a blast!
A travel day, heading from Chicago to Indy. We were reminded that there’s an incredibly nice rest stop on the way at the Kankakee Welcome Center.
We had done some picking up the night before, clearing off a lot of kitchen counter space. Stacey had some Costco Egg Bites that I was eating for breakfast, but this morning I realized that both the microwave and coffee maker had been relocated to the guest room last night. So a quick run to Starbucks later, I’m back a the house looking for something to do to help.
It was a little touch and go, but we got the thing in my car! It had just started to rain when we got here, and I honestly gave us a 50/50 chance of it fitting or us needing to run back to the entrance.
As I as nearing her house, I was on I-465 headed East towards Meridian, when I spotted this. It was a bit dangerous, but I managed to snap a photo with my phone without careening off the road.
Group photo! Another masterclass in how to balance a phone precariously, for 10 seconds.
Closer to midnight. We opted to stay in, instead of going out to midnight service at St. John’s. I miss the ritual and tradition of it (and the singing), but welcomed time with my family… just hanging out.
My parents had brought over some champagne a day or two ago, which may have been for mimosas. But we ended up opening the bottle tonight. My dad wanted a toast, and wanted a family photo… so with a slight bit of balancing on the fireplace mantle, he got his Christmas wish.
Another lazy day today, not much to show. Putzed around the house and mostly relaxed. I’m sure there was a lot of TV watching. Perhaps a nap or two.
We did have one big family activity, but it took place much later in the day. We had a late evening (7PM) escape room booked, at Escape Room USA.
It was cold out, but we all braved the temps to seek out mulled wine and raclettes.
Liz, looking out for hardware pieces that match what we have in our house. She’s been on the hunt for literally years now.
Fast forward to Indy, several hours later. It’s late at night, we’ve unloaded the car, and are hanging out in the kitchen with Stacey and Shane. As a late nightcap, Shane offers me up a little moonshine.
Shane got a hold of all the various 8MM films that my parents had stored/kept, and brought them up (at my request). I probably shouldn’t have started to look into this, given how late it was (after midnight).