Colorado Skiing, Anyone?

We have a condo reserved up in the heart of Colorado ski country, and you are invited!

This year we have a condo that sleeps 8 in a little town called Frisco, Colorado. It is very close (less than an hour) to any of five awesome ski resorts: Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin. I have been keeping an eye on plane tickets and now is a good time to buy!

So get out your calendars (and your credit cards) and get in touch with me by e-mail as soon as you know what your interest and availability is!

Oh, yes, the dates ....... we get the condo after 4 PM on Saturday February 27, and need to be out Saturday AM March 6. I would like to suggest that folks come for either the first half or the second half of the week. To save money on car rentals, I think if rent one fairly big car, like a minivan of 4x4 SUV, we can fit up to six and get around pretty well. I would like to limit the number of trips back and forth to Denver Intl Airport, as it is at least 90 minutes each way.

So, if you want to come out Saturday and stay through Wednesday, aim for arriving in Denver on Saturday February 27 around 2-3 pm, and leaving Wednesday March 3 after 5 pm.

If you coming out Wednesday March 3, plan on arriving between 4 and 6 pm and leaving on Saturday March 6 after 5 pm. ( Please note that this is a shorter time with only 2 1/2 days of skiing available, unless you rent your own vehicle and stay the night in Denver and go home on Sunday. )

If we are not "fillin up the joint" then I can be much more flexible with timing; I just don't want to be driving into Denver everyday and missing the skiing :) I am also open to anyone who is interested in the whole week to contact me RIGHT AWAY, so I can make sure that will really work.

Here's what we have so far:

I am planning on being "the host with the most", and staying all week (can you say burnt out quads?)

Jenny would like to come for the first half of the week, and would love to have some fellow "Blue Square" skiers join her.

Dave, I am hoping you are staying the whole week. Better get in shape, man! PS Did you know you can't smoke at 12,000 ft - not enough oxygen! I would love to see Melissa out there, too...can you talk her into it?

Deja Vu All Over Again!

After seeing Valerie's new pictures, I thought they looked a bit familiar, so I went to the family archives and found these pix of Greg at about the same age. Amazing isn't it! The apple doesn't far from the tree!

These pictures are from the Northwoods IV apartment complex on North Campus at Uof M just around Greg's first birthday.

It's a Girl!

Nothing really to add to that. Just wanted to share. :-)

Christmas Plans

Mike and I bought plane tickets yesterday. We will be arriving in Detroit Saturday, December 19th at 9:10am. Our departing flight is Thursday, December 24th at 7:10am. We were hoping that everyone would be willing to celebrate "Michael-Mas" (as Mike likes to call it), a combination of Mike's Birthday and Christmas on December 23rd.

As for presents, we were hoping that everyone would want to do the same thing as last year. In case you don't remember, this would mean that everyone would buy presents for the kids and we would have a Secret Santa for the adults. I would be happy to draw names for everyone and email you your person or couple, since it does not seem like Greg, Michelle, Tim, Jessica, Mike or I will be able to make it to Ann Arbor for Thanksgiving, which is when we drew names last year.

Please vote in the poll. If you have any suggestions or problems please leave them in the comments area.

Panning Family +1

I guess I owe you all an update, huh? I'm not sure how far in the Fleming Family Grapevine this news has traveled, but I wanted to let you know that we are anticipating the arrival of a new little Panning! Baby "Anatole" is due in mid-March. I've got some cute pictures of our newest munchkin, but I don't have a scanner at the moment, so you'll have to use your imagination. Give us a couple more months and we'll be able to tell you (hopefully) if Anatole is a girl or a boy. For now, we're just happy to know that the kiddo is safe and healthy and all seems to be going well.

-Barbara

p.s.- While Henry is clearly a little young to really understand, he does poke my belly and say "baby!" I'm trying to convince him that the u/s pictures show a baby, too, but I'm not sure he believes me. :-)

p.p.s- If you're curious, Anatole is the name of some obscure relative in Matt's family who comes up from time to time. For reasons that escape me at the moment, we thought this would be an appropriate name to call our unborn baby... I'm not sure if this is better or worse than Elmo!

Lords of Slane, Keepers of the Paschal Fire

Last month I spent a week wandering around Ireland. It was a bit of a fluke, really, I wanted to take a week off after finishing at one company and before starting at my current one. A few minutes' search on Orbitz.com, and I found surprisingly cheap tickets to Dublin. Ireland is a beautiful country, and full of vivid and amazing stories. "History should not be bogged down with facts," one gentleman told me, "It's the stories that matter."

Along the way, I visited Slane, a small village north of Dublin in the Boyne Valley. I did not know before-hand the significance of the place, as it was one stop of a historical tour focusing on the Celtic culture. But when we arrived at the Hill of Slane, the tallest hill for ten miles in any direction, my guide patted me on the shoulder and said, "Mr. Fleming, welcome back."

Any Flemings in the US that trace their heritage to Ireland today are descended from two branches of the Fleming Family that came from Flanders via Scotland (where the name persisted as Flemming).

In 1370, following the invasion of Henry II of England, the Barony of Slane was created and given as a reward to Richard and Thomas Fleming for their part in the war. They, and their descendants the Fleming Family, were Lords of Slane for three hundred years. (The other branch of Flemings became viscounts of Longford.) Loyal to king James II, they lost the Barony of Slane when James fell to William of Orange in 1691. Slane castle stood on the Hill of Slane until the Flemings built a newer castle in the valley below.

But there's another story about the Hill of Slane that, although largely apocryphal, is dear to the hearts of many Irish Catholics. My guide told me the following story that day.

Saint Patrick, perhaps the most famous Irishman of all, was not Irish. He was a Roman, born in the British territory to a wealthy famliy living on the west coast of Ireland. The Romans never conquered Ireland, leaving it to the Celts. When he was a teenager, he was captured by Celtic raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. He spent six years there before escaping back to Britain and joining the Church. As an adult, he saw that Christianity wasn't doing so well in Ireland, the missionaries didn't have the cultural experience he had to really communicate with the Celts about Jesus.

Patrick knew the Celts, he knew their beliefs, and he knew what was important to them. So he returned to Ireland on a mission of his own, and in the springtime went to the Hill of Slane.

Ten miles away rose the Hill of Tara, the seat of the High Kind of Celtic Ireland. Every spring, around the vernal equinox, a great celebration was held on Tara. The High King himself would light a ceremonial fire that would burn for days, and all other fires throughout Ireland were to be put out during this festival. Storytellers from all clans traveled to Tara so they could bring news of the festival back to every corner of Ireland.

Patrick knew this, and so began the biggest publicity stunt Ireland had every known. As the festival began, and the Tara fire was blazing as the only fire in sight, the revelers saw another light struck on Slane. Patrick had lit a fire well within view of the King's fire, and even bigger. The King was furious at this defiance, and immediately dispatched his army to Slane to destroy any rivals they might find there.

The army marched across Boyne Valley, the best and strongest warriors who served the King, some 200 to 20,000 (depending on who tells the story). When they arrived ready to fight an invading army, they found only Patrick, unarmed but running right at them down the hill. They were so taken aback by this show of bravery that they completely failed to kill him. Instead, he convinced them to take him back to the King to explain himself. Patrick told the King about Jesus, about a God so powerful that Patrick knew he need not fear the King's army. The King was impressed, and not only allowed Patrick to live, but allowed him to continue his mission throughout Ireland. (Of course, he was greatly helped by all the storytellers present at Tara who also told the story far and wide.)

Eventually a monastery was built on the Hill of Slane, the ruins of which you can see in the pictures above. Every year at Easter, a paschal fire is lit on the spot where Patrick lit his fire. For three hundred years, the eldest Baron Fleming lit the fire, proclaiming the light of Christianity to the Boyne Valley.

New Kid on the Block!

Congratulations to Shannon and Elias on the birth of their son, "ELIAS CHRISTOPHER", on Monday. We are so happy for you! Please send pictures!