Christmas in Michigan... if you can get there!

Hello from White Michigan... I mean West Michigan!

We would have greeted you earlier.. but we've been holding up in Casnovia - which hasn't quite yet found the highway to the internet. Perhaps some day!

Michigan put all it's natural beauty and wonder on display as we arrived. We literally blew into Grand Rapids airport after a few hours delay in Chicago and a windy (55 mph), bumpy ride in a blizzard across Lake Michigan. To put it into perspective... when I called my brother in law as we taxied into the tarmac.. he questioned me incredulously.. "they let you land in this weather? don't they know there's a BLIZZARD?" He was certain we were being delayed!

As a matter of fact - we landed in such intense weather.. that it took out most of the electricity - including the radar and radio communications with the tower... a fact the pilots let us know AFTER we landed. That was right before he also mentioned that power was out at the terminal and that we could not use the jet-way to enter the building. Instead, they parked in the middle of the tarmac, rolled some stairs up to our plane.. and Welcome to Michigan! 15 degrees.... 50 mph winds... just your run of the mill blizzard! Oh... so how do you get your bags when the baggage claim carousels are all out of power? They had to hand walk in each bag from the plane.

We were really excited to be treated to such different weather! What a welcome. It couldn't have been any better. We laughed all the way to the terminal (with Hannah in her flip-flops) ... and all the way driving back to grandma and grandpa's house with visibility measured by feet.

The week has been a ball. We've enjoyed lots of family time - tons of card playing - two PHASE 10 extravaganzas, lots and lots of wonderful food and some great after Christmas shopping.

And.. we spent time yesterday getting a long-awaited family picture. It was a kick as 15 of us went in for various individual, family, and group pictures. You will be so proud of us. We SET THE RECORD for most pictures ordered at this studio! The previous record was a very sissy 62 sheets. We went for 79 sheets between all the families! SCORE!

So.. now we are in Plainwell, Michigan; at my sister's place. And ahhhhhhhh - connected to a high speed wireless network. For now I have officially quit picking on my sister in honor of her internet connection.

Hello to all our friends in California. We miss you and hope you are well and enjoying a great break! We look forward to returning to sunny California (heard it was getting all the rain out of it's system while we are gone) in the near future to enjoy New Years.

We love you all.

Cold Team Henderson

Princess Jasmine 1992-2007

Very sad day yesterday as we had to put Jasmine down. She so enjoyed plain Happy Meals, going to Fort Funston dog park and running wild with Gina. This last month has been very hard on her. She developed Hepatosubcutaneous Syndrome. She baciscally had liver disease, foot ulcers and diabetes.

I remember being the midwife at her birth 15 1/2 years ago with Jim and Gayle Moyer. I got to pick her from the litter and was so excited to be getting a yellow lab. She was a great puppy. The kids used to love to sleep in the dog crate with her. I quickly made her the watch dog while Tod was traveling on business and felt safer. One of our best cross country trips was when I decided to drive both kids and both dogs to Michigan. Going thru a drive-thru was a riot because we would order food for the dogs and after a while they knew what "can I take your order" meant. Swimming at the lake in Michigan was a highlight of her vacation.

The best gift she gave us was having 6 puppies on November 15, 1998. She was the greatest mom and we have Gina to show for it. Together all the time, Jamine and Gina became quite a team. Taking them to Fort Funston with the kids was great adventure every time. Fort Funston is a state park in CA that is open to dogs off leash and you can go all the way to the ocean. They loved to run on the beach and fetch anything Joel would throw. A few month ago just Gina and I went and it was just not the same. Jasmine's ashes will be sprinkled there.

I miss her so much. If dogs get to go to heaven Jasmine is doing her part sleeping by the gate now.

Peace, Love and Harmony

For some reason this Christmas the Michigan dude's head was falling apart. Thanks to my craft skills and lots of glue we are back on the tree. Wow that was close. I hope the other U of M ornaments stay healthy.

Good Luck Andrea! *** Updated

If you'd like to know a truly crazy person - please allow me to introduce you to Andrea Rogers!

Andrea is a colleague of Julie's, a family friend, and more importantly - an 8 time marathon runner! You don't necessarily have to be crazy to work with Julie or to be our friend (ok... maybe..) - but you do have to be crazy to run 8 marathons.

Or.. make that 9! Because Andrea is off to Honolulu to run her 9th marathon this weekend.

***** We heard from Andrea Sunday and she finished in about 5:50!! Congratulations Andrea! *****

Andrea was also a part of Team Tod 2007 and I really wish we could return the favor. How fun would it be to be darting around Oahu encouraging her. I think Joel and Hannah would be down with a trip to Hawaii!

Alas, since we can't be there.. we will just wish her great success here! Have a great run Andrea and know that we will all be thinking about you on your big day. Oh yeah, and don't die.

PS.. did you know? the Honolulu Marathon is one of the largest in the world? in 2006 there were over 28,000 entrants! also.. do you know which country has the most entrants? No way - USA. Nooo Canada! China - my heina! Japan? hai. (that means yes). Over 62% of entrants in 2006 were from Japan!