Mid-week, I got a text from my sister inviting us out for a dinner on Valentine’s Day. They were trekking in town with Jasmine and Jahnu, as well as my folks. And they were all meeting up with Nathaniel’s brother and dad.
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!
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.
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.
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).
The Hutte family was in town for a big event: sending Jasmine off to college.
It’s incredible to me, mind boggling really… that Jasmine is now going to be off on her own. To me, it wasn’t that long ago that we were hanging out for the first time. It feels like she had just met Harmony the cat a bit ago. And that she just recently figured out how to eat a birthday cake.
Jahnu, showing off the custom socks he got (featuring a photo of Kaya on the socks).
Note to self: next year, take this photo and print them on a new pair of socks. Repeat for the next 30 years.
I have vague memories of playing as a kid. And the sound of Mahjong tiles clacking together is something I hear, when imagining my grandmother’s house on the South Side of Indy. But while I think I know the rules, I never learned them officially.
One prompt in particular stands out. It was: “Politely tell your kidnapper that you need to go to the bathroom.” I forget who gave this answer, but the phrase “juice break” came up. And for the rest of the night (and the rest of our visit), that became a kind of in-joke that we kept going.