Multimedia

By Katie Barnes  ¦   The Golden Windmill Mobile Home Park in Ashland was hit with three inches of ice this week. The inclement weather across mid-Missouri caused Columbia Public Schools to cancel classes Monday and Tuesday.

By KYLE WAYNE STEWART  ¦   Aziza Rashid, left, and Syed Rashid, right, pack on Sunday in preparation for the hajj, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Rashids, who fly out of St. Louis on Tuesday, will not return until Dec. 27.

By KELLI HOVEY/MISSOURIAN  ¦   Missouri wrestling coach Brian Smith watches his team during a recent practice at the Hearnes Center on the University of Missouri campus.

By John Hook  ¦   Dru Vaughn, owner of Hemingway’s Ltd. wine and cigar store, begins to close the shop Tuesday evening. Vaughn, like other retailers contacted by the Missourian, said bad weather has slowed sales over the past few days, but he is confident last-minute shoppers will make up for lost business. “People will get out eventually,” he said.

By ASHLEY SMITH  ¦   Columbia public schools were closed Monday, find out what some of the kids did on their day off.

By Leslie Beddingfield  ¦   Hanukkah, the Celebration of Lights in Judaism, begins today at sundown and continues for eight days and nights. The dreidel is a game typically played after lighting the menorah, a candelabrum used in the holiday ceremony.

Postmaster Jackie Cook looks on as letter carrier Julie Ausberge loads her truck with sandbags Monday, Dec. 10, 2007, at the Columbia Post Office. After weekend storms blanketed Columbia's streets with ice, sandbags were used to add weight and traction to the city's mail trucks.

Postmaster Jackie Cook looks on as Letter Carrier Julie Ausberge loads her truck with sandbags Monday, Dec. 10, 2007, at the Columbia Post Office. After weekend storms blanketed Columbia's streets with ice, sandbags were used to add weight and traction to the city's mail trucks.

Letter carrier Julie Alsberge clears ice off of her mail truck's window following weekend ice storms Monday, Dec. 10, 2007, at the Columbia Post Office. "These trucks already have a lot blind spots," she said. "You certainly don't need any more."

Heidi Strodtman was described by her sister Katie Hammond as "the balance — the glue that held everything together" in their family.

By KATIE BARNES/Missourian  ¦   A ice-covered tree envelopes Jim Cook's truck in Ashland on Monday. Cook said that the damage happened Sunday night. "It looks awful," he said. "Doesn't it?" Several dirt bikes were also buried so deep in the fallen debris that only a set of handle bars or the edge of a wheel were visible.

19-year-old Heidi J. Strodtman

By TYSON ANDERSON/Missourian  ¦   Freezing rain fell intermittently on Columbia on Saturday.

By JOHN HOOK/Missourian  ¦   Pat Jernigan clears ice and snow off of the sidewalk in front of Shakespeare's Pizza on Sunday morning. A winter storm dumped 2 to 3 inches of wintry mix on Columbia the night before, with more bad weather expected later.

By JOHN HOOK/Missourian  ¦   A bush is covered in a blanket of ice on Sunday morning. The weight of the ice snapped many tree limbs and power lines.

By JOHN HOOK/Missourian  ¦   A snow plow works to clear ice off of University Avenue on Sunday morning. Public Works crews were out in force working to clear the 2 to 3 inches of snow and ice that fell the night before.

By AMBER BRINKER/Missourian  ¦   Lucy Reddick bought Lucy’s Corner Café when the former site for Ron’s Country Boy went up for sale while she was a waitress there.

By AMBER BRINKER/Missourian  ¦   Customers enjoy their home-cooked meals and freshly made coffee at Lucy’s Corner Café in downtown Columbia, 522 E. Broadway.