2009 Annual Holiday Letter

As you can tell from the date of our last posting, we haven’t figured out how to get into a blogging routine. However, it does seem to be an efficient and environmentally friendly way to communicate our annual holiday newsletter. For those of you on Facebook, we do try to be a little more active with our Facebook postings.

So here we go with a Hensel Family year in review

First Quarter

After an eventful end of 2008, we finally made the decision to add a master bathroom as we rebuilt the upstairs. It was incredibly nerve racking the first day of construction as they cut a hole in our roof to begin construction, but we love the finished product. We did spend countless weekends picking out tile, plumbing fixtures, paint & carpet, so it kept us pretty busy. The construction was a nice distraction from another Minnesota winter. We were also fortunate that Drew ended up with an in-town client during the first part of the year and we enjoyed lots of time together.


Libby's annual Easter Egg Hunt


Second Quarter

After moving back upstairs, we entered a season of celebrations. Krista’s hard work as co-chair of The Allina Hospice Foundation Benefit paid off as the event was a huge success and Krista was relieved to be able to finally take a break. Soon after the event we went to California to attend Krista’s cousin Thomas’ wedding. The wedding was just south of San Francisco. We had a great time seeing family and seeing the sights. We made a vacation out of it, heading out earlier in the week for a tour of California Wine country. We spent the mornings hiking and the afternoons touring the vineyards and of course tasting.

Hiking amongst the Redwoods

Getting ready to taste at the vineyard
Third Quarter

We love summer in Minnesota and took advantage of our most beautiful season by taking a couple of camping trips. Drew completed a 150 mile bike ride benefiting the Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS 150)- riding from Duluth south to the Twin Cities over the course of a weekend. That Saturday night Krista and Libby drove up to Hinckley, MN, to join in the overnight camping. It was amazing to watch a tent city of cyclists pop up in a couple of hours. After surviving that first camping adventure, we decided to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary by camping at St. Croix State Park in Northeast Minnesota. We enjoyed making S’mores, hiking, and climbing a fire tower that provided an eagle’s view of the state park.

We also spent 4th of July in Friendswood with family, where Jacob enjoyed the parade that the whole town turned out for. It definitely reminded us how much we missed being close to family, and at the same time how hot Texas gets in the summer…its all relative though given how cold Minnesota gets in the winter!

We wrapped up the summer with a weekend in Las Vegas with Krista’s parents. We hadn’t been in years and it was fun to see the new sights. We had some amazing dinners, and visited most of the major casinos and resorts. The highlight of the trip was seeing the new Cirque Du Soleil show- Love featuring music from The Beatles. It was awesome! If you ever have the opportunity to see it, we highly recommend it.

Getting ready to set out on day 2 of biking

Taking a nap after a hard day of biking Jacob & Uncle Drew enjoying a cold popsicle on a hot Texas day.

Drew Playing Elvis in Vegas

Gondola ride in Vegas
Fourth Quarter

In early November we spent a weekend in Denver. Drew got to see the Aggies play CU in football and we enjoyed getting to spend time with the Lynch family and meeting their baby boy. We also began bracing ourselves for another Minnesota winter. People have told us for years that taking up an outdoor winter hobby is essential. After attempts at ice fishing, snow shoeing, winter hiking, etc., we’ve determined that outdoor hobbies might not be the answer, at least for Krista. So this year Krista’s taken up sewing. After buying a sewing machine and taking a sewing 101 class new drapes, pillows and blankets have appeared around the house. Drew’s stayed really busy with an out of town client which has required a lot of travel. In early November we got some fantastic news. Krista’s dad’s oncologist declared that his brain cancer is officially in remission. We had a ton to be thankful for at Thanksgiving. Drew’s parents drove up from Dallas to visit for Thanksgiving, and we all enjoyed the very mild temperatures without any rain or snow. We loved having them here and hope that we have more of our family come visit. We visited some local museums and enjoyed spending time together. This Christmas we’re looking forward to spending time with Krista’s family in Friendswood.

I wonder why the dogs are so close to Drew?

Waiting for the feast to begin

The table is set for a feast!

We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

It's starting to look more like a home!

Bathroom with cutouts for recessed medicine cabinets. They got the first coat of paint on this week!

It's hard to believe this is where lightening struck last August! Since it is our reading nook we've added in built-in bookshelves off to the right.

Picking carpet should be more fun that it turned out to be. I sure hope that a whole floor looks alright since we made the selection off of this smal 4 inch x 4 inch carpet sample.

The Progress Continues!

Sorry for the brief hiatus. We got caught by the flu bug of 2009- not a fun January/February surprise. But the progress does continue on the big house project! And we're all healthy again too! We did get a few days of warm weather (for MN in Jan/Feb) & the crew was able to get the siding up!

Looking up the stairs to the new owner's suite space.

Looking down the new hallway- the new bathroom is on the right.

We have a roof!

It's not even a week into our big project and we have a roof! After months of things not changing, it is refreshing to move from architectural plans to real life changes. We've got about 3 more months of lot's of activity and then hopefully we'll be able to move into our new master suite and return to a more "normal" schedule.

Even at the shortest ceiling height hubby is able to stand up fully straight!

Just pretend I'm standing in front of a vanity and washing my hands- this is where our new bathroom will be!

Day 1 & We Survived!

Today was a very strange day- we woke up as if we were going to work, but instead we were just preparing for the arrival of the construction crew. We intermittently worked on our computers, answered questions from the crew and did some crazy shopping for the new addition.

The funniest part of the day was when our contractor was using his snowblower to make room for the lumber to be delivered. With it being so cold here last week, Libby (our dog) didn't get as many walks as she normally does. Instead she would just run out in the backyard and then come back inside as soon as possible. So as the snowblower went, all of the sudden out flew frozen dog poo that had been covered by the snow. We think it all got caught by the fence, and we're hoping it didn't launch into our neighbor's yard. If we do discover that it was launched into her yard, what is the appropriate way to apologize to her? Do we just get her a nice plant in the spring since she'll have a well fertilized yard? This is likely just the first of many adventures of the project- and we're happy we were able to get a good laugh to start things off.

In any case, here are some photos of the project- one from when we moved in & the second from this evening.

Let the Rebuilding Begin!

We survived last week's streak of sub-zero temperatures and we're enjoying our "balmy" 20-degree weekend.
Tomorrow morning the contractors are supposed to arrive to begin the big construction on our master bedroom upstairs. We're excited, anxious, and nervous. We're definitely looking forward to the project being done- hopefully by mid-May.

Happy Holidays 2008

So this year we decided to set up our holiday newsletter online to be good stewards of our natural resources and not increase our carbon footprint. So here we go, our year in review:

First Quarter 2008
Krista spent a lot of time with her parents in Houston while Dad went through chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Drew kept the house going and began his last semester of grad school courses. We spent Spring Break in Houston celebrating the great news that Dad's first set of scans after radiation showed no visible signs of the brain tumor! We also managed to squeeze in a quick trip "Up North" for some late winter hiking around Lake Superior.

Second Quarter 2008
Drew graduated from the Carlson MBA program at the University of Minnesota. We had a great long weekend and both sets of parents were able to make the trip for graduation. Drew began his "internship" at the Hensel home headquarters completing a lengthy honey-do list including rehabbing both the fence and deck, while managing to have the chimney rebuilt and house painted.

Third Quarter 2008

It was a beautiful summer here in Minnesota, but even more spectacuar in Hawaii. We spent 10 days on Oahu and Maui. While visiting Honolulu we spent time relaxing on Waikiki Beach and visiting the USS Arizona Memorial. On Maui had fun scuba diving, snorkeling, biking down Mt. Haleakala (a dormant volcano), sailing, surfing, and survived the Road to Hana. We celebrated our fourth anniversary from sunrise on top of the volcano to sunset on a sailing cruise. We also managed to find time to just relax on the beach and poolside. It was a fantastic vacation and perfect for celebrating our anniversary!



After we got back from Hawaii, we had an unusual event occur, so unusual that there's just a one in 700,000 chance of it even happening. Just before Labor Day our home was struck by lightning. While the lightning did catch the house on fire we were fortunate to catch it early and as our home is close to the fire station the fire was contained quickly. We did have significant smoke and water damage, and this winter we are still in the process of getting things back to normal. We are extremely grateful that no one was hurt. We sort of wonder, in a year when you get struck by lightning, should we be buying lottery tickets? A little research and no, our odds of winning the Minnesota state lottery are one in 1.5 million, and odds of being struck by lightning and winning the lottery in the same year are even more remarkable.

Fourth Quarter 2008

Drew started his first project with the Strategy and Operations practice at Deloitte Consulting. We've also stayed really busy working on the house. The crazy thing is this fall seems like it has been really busy, but it's hard to say what we've been doing- doesn't it seem that's how life goes? Amidst all of the work and chores we have had opportunities to enjoy some fun events, including the United Hospital Foundation Gala and some Deloitte events.

Looking forward to 2009

We won't make any predictions for 2009, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that lightning doesn't strike twice. We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and wish you the best for 2009. Love, Drew & Krista