Two Winter Adventures - Brady

It's been a good couple of weekends in the Jones-Rasp household - this may end up being my favorite December ever! There are two particular little winter adventures we've had recently I wanted to post about.

First, last weekend, Kevin and I drove down to DePauw's campus - where we met and attended college - to go to a big holiday concert, see the luminaries students put up this time of year, and reconnect with our favorite professor over pancakes at her apartment.

DePauw's new nature preserve - we went for a hike and a run out there during our 36 hours in Greencastle.

Nature preserve.

Nature preserve.

Nature preserve.

Old DePauw.

East College - where I had a bunch of Spanish classes.

Luminaries outside of the Holiday Gala.

Then just yesterday we helped Kelly celebrate her 28th birthday! (Happy birthday Kelly! Twenty-eight is a great year.)

My mom came up Friday night, and my sisters, Roger, Kevin, and I met her at Kirkwood, an Indiana bar in our neighborhood, for some good beer, good food, and an IU soccer game. After that Kelly, Amy, Mom, and I slept over at Kelly's place.

On Saturday Kevin and I picked up my grandma and Aunt Judi (as well as a gorgeous box of donuts) downtown and then headed out for a day of shopping in Andersonville, an old Swedish neighborhood in the city. I hope we didn't scare our family members off...we happened to be on a bus that drove right through an event called "The Twelve Bars of Christmas." Right around Wrigley Field the streets were overrun with people (some of them may have been a little bit tipsy) dressed like elves and angels, reindeer and Ralphy. Our bus driver honked, they cheered and banged on the windows. It was really quite an adventure.

Anyway, we finally made it, and I think we all found some good gifts. Grandma was disappointed, though, that she couldn't find a decent loaf of limpa anywhere.  I ask you - what good is a Swedish neighborhood if you can't buy limpa there? Huh?

The donuts.

The damage.

Finally, last night after our family headed home Kelly organized a dance party at Baby Atlas, a really fun bar near our apartments. I stayed up way too late and ate way too many veggie dogs and french fries on the way home, but it was 100% worth it. A great, great Saturday night. One of the best I've had in awhile.

Like I said - it's been a good holiday season so far. After all that excitement, Kevin and I are spending a quiet Sunday night getting cleaned up, caught up, and our Christmas presents wrapped. Happy December to you! Make the most of it - it's going fast.