Holiday Greetings, Wishes, and Thanks:

This holiday season we have so much to be thankful for. The continued support and encouragement of our family and friends. Our health, and the health of our amazing dogs. To be living in such a beautiful winter wonderland. And the opportunity to live our dreams, thank you to everyone who has helped to make this possible. Wishing you all a Wonderful Holiday Season!!!

This year we are lucky to have Joy Davis and her students in Connersville, IN working to help the kennel. They have made Dan and I neck and wrist gaiters to wear while racing. Lots of them, so we can send them out in our checkpoint bags and have fresh dry ones to change into after long cold runs. Joy was kind enough to send us these photos of the kids working on the project. Thanks so much to Ms. Davis and her students for the wonderful warn gaiters.

The students model thier handiwork (above) Ms. Davis helping a student to sew the wrist gaiters (right) Students did all the cutting and sewing for this project (below)

(you can also see Dan and I modeling them at our Winter 2010 Facebook photo album)

One thing we have always really enjoyed at Dew Claw is the opportunity to work with classes using the Iditarod and Yukon Quest as part of their curriculum.  As an educator myself I am excited that students are interested in the sport I love and that it can inspire them to get involved, read more, do research, and see the value of a good education in mathematics.  Weather it is answering questions for teachers using the Iditarod in the classroom; like Susan A.Smith in Lawton, Oklahoma and our new friend Brenda Masek Hallettsville Elementary School. We have also been fortunate to have students do projects to help our kennel. Dans family, Kayla Koble and Kim Thompson have had thier classes make excellent foot ointment for our races, and the students also send us wonderful artwork.

So along with the many cards and the box of neck and wrist gaiters we had another wonderful package. Well packages really. Paw Partners is a organization that sews booties to help support Iditarod mushers, and my booties came this week. Just in time for Christmas. Much thanks to Connie and Lindi for the wonderful booties. They came all organized in sets of 4 ready to be packed for the race. But the very best surprise was the inspirational messages that they each took the time to write on the booties for me, very cool. I am looking forward to reading more of them as I bootie dogs for the Iditarod. Mush thanks to my Paw Partners Lindi and Connie.

Booties from Paw Partners

Dan and Orren in Galena on the 2010 Iditarod

There was another wonderful Christmas gift we received at the kennel. Our friend Orren, whom we met at the Iditarod start banquet and saw throughout the race, including the finish in Nome, contacted us. He and his wife Judy have used their frequent flier miles to purchase a return ticket from Nome for me after the Iditarod. This was a huge help to us as we planned the logistics for the race.

There is one other special gift we received this holiday season. I want to give a huge heartfelt thanks to my co-workers at Interior-Aleutians Campus. They planned a wonderful surprise going away brunch, as I will be taking next semester off to focus on racing. It was such a  surprise that I managed to show up 2 hours late, missing the brunch and friends who had made a special trip to the campus just to wish me well.  I am very sorry for that.  They had also done a collection to give me a Cold Spot Feeds gift card, a very generous one, which will be put to good use. I can not tell you how touched I was by their gift, and the wonderful wishes they gave me. There was also a hand quilted table runner with a lovely mushing print, Thank you Jennie Carroll. I fear it is too special to go on any table in my house, and it will hang proudly over my desk.

We want to take this opportunity to once again say Thank You to everyone for the support and kindness. We want to wish you all a joyful holiday season. May the New Year by full of love, excitement, adventure, and laughter.

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