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.
My brain has great difficulty understanding that my niece, Jasmine, is looking at colleges. But more than that… that she’s considering which college to attend, and that Loyola is on the list.
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.
We were thinking about using an upcoming weekend day to just relax and make cookies. But looking at our remaining time and our progress in the hallway, we realized we had more work and less free time than we anticipated.
So tonight, we made cookies. Or rather – everyone else made cookies, and I watched them. Liz brought a few recipes and was working on Oatmeal cookies and Sugar cookies.
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.
I wasn’t quite expecting the maze-like interior, but we got taken downstairs and to some far back room. Because there were eight of us, we got seated in a room off the main area… and though some other folks sat at the nearby tables, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
My sister didn’t remember it at first, but she recognized this photo. She kept saying “Who is that?” but couldn’t quite place where she recognized him from.
As I played the video, she started to remember bits and pieces. And it was hilarious, watching her remember all the various characters from this film.
The game works like this: everyone is giving a prompt to draw. It’s usually something really weird and unusualy like: drone dropping drum sticks or caveman sauna. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the drawing, no matter how skilled the person may be, is going to be just terrible.
Bob got involved in the Facetime chat, asking Audrey some questions as she tried out the “lie detector machine” we got her as a gift. Apparently, it dings when you tell the truth but shocks you if you lie.
We couldn’t really come up with a good gift idea for my parents this year. With my dad getting some surgery on his eyes recently, his vision has drastically improved. So the idea of doing a VR thing came up – and we decided to turn it into a big, group outing.
I love the symmetry of this gift. A long while ago, the husband created this slide for his wife. And many years later, my wife created a print of that slide for me. I’d like to think that we are furthering a tradition here, and will continue to fill that little house with love.
Going out for a big meal like this is not something we normally do. But then again, an 80th birthday isn’t something that happens all that often, either.
We didn’t have much planned, in terms of group activities… and were really playing things by ear. Stacey found out about South Haven Light, and it was quite close by… so we headed out there together.
With all the house work we’ve got planned between now and the end of the year… I wasn’t sure we could fit in any vacations. But I’m glad Liz and my sister pushed through on working something out, and we ended up getting a family weekend away this weekend.
