Although these were shot on Christmas Day, I am a bit slow getting them to the blog. We had a wonderful time in Wenatchee watching little one open presents. She seemed to be much more excited in the tearing of the paper wrappings than for what was wrapped up within. We had a great dinner and as you can see by the above picture just tried to stay warm. We had a blazing fire Christmas evening and the house was almost to warm to go to bed. There's something about a wood fire. I really miss our old wood burner, but Annette says no more mess. We are leaving again tomorrow to go back to Wenatchee to babysit for a New Year's Eve party. I guess we will have to have our own. We went to Yakima today and I think that we have finally broken the cold spell. We have been over freezing three straight days. Maybe there is hope for golf in the near future.

And It Is A White Christmas

What a beautiful morning. This picture was taken about 8:30 AM and as you can see the Sun is shinning. What else do you need to start the day? We had a Prime Rib dinner last night here at the house. Dave and Maggie, Vic and Mary Jane, and Cindy shared a wonderful meal with some very good wine with us. We will head for Wenatchee around noon. We will have dinner with Kathleen, Jim and Simone' and spend the night. Hopefully our major snowfall is over and we can start watching it recede into the ground. I'll bet the grass will still be green when it shows again. May all of you and yours have a very Merry Christmas

It will be a White Christmas

What a wonderful day to be inside. I've already shoveled snow and fed and watered the birds. That means the rest of the day is for watching the Jets and Seahawks play in the snow. That should be fun although it means nothing to the Seahawks. They are pretty bad this year. We've had snow on the ground since last Sunday, but last night we received about 5 to 6 inches more. Annette is in front of her sewing machine, and expect that is the way she will spend the day. We have had a rash of break-ins in Desert Aire. Most have targeted snow birds. Very few peaple that live here year around have been hit. With the new snow, I'll probably go out later and drive into driveways to make it look like someone is around. This is a real neat community in that regard. We met with the sheriff yesterday and they really have few leads to go on. Someone asked about guns and he said even if you don't hit them, it would scare the hell out of them. Cindy will try to come over either tomorrow or Tuesday. The weather report doesn't really look good either day. The good news is we are slowly headed towards 32 degrees. We should see it the day after Christmas. All I want for Christmas is bare ground. I haven't swung a club since a long time ago.

Our Chrismas Letter

Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year to All

We have had another wonderful year in the Mullen household. Our illnesses and injuries have been minor and we are looking forward to a great holiday season. We look forward to seeing family and friends over the holidays and spending some time with granddaughter.

Cindy has had a rough year in the job market. She was laid off by Starbucks and then found a contract job with Washington Mutual. As you probably have heard they are no more. She has interviewed for a recruiter position with Providence and she feels everything went well. She should hear from them early next week. We are hoping that will lead to a secure job going into next year. Cindy has moved and is in an apartment complex where she used to live. She will be here over the holidays and we hope we can celebrate a new job.

Kathleen and Jim just purchased a new car, a Honda Element. I guess that as the family grows you find needs you didn’t have a short while ago. It is much easier to get the little one in and out of. We will be spending Christmas day in Wenatchee. Hopefully there will not be all the snow that there was last year. We are supposed to get our first of the season in the next few days.

Kathleen, Jim and Simone’ had another great summer on the Cape. Jim had relatives from Germany this summer. They have found a day care within walking distance of the house and Zmo is taking it all in stride.

Annette had Gall Bladder Surgery in late November. It is certainly a much simpler operation than it used to be. She is back in full force and the quilt room is buzzing again. She went to Salem, OR to participate in a craft show with her brother Stan. They didn’t sell as much as hoped, but had a great time together at the show. It was the show’s 40th anniversary. I’m sure we’ll go back next year. It’s on the Oregon State Fairgrounds and there is plenty of room for a lot of vendors. I think there were about 150 this year. Many had been there before and said it was tough this year. Not near as many sales.

We haven’t planned a winter excursion this year. We felt that with the economy and all that we just would stay home and enjoy what we have. I played golf yesterday and the weather was beautiful. It got to 50 degrees. That’s as good as it gets. We are hoping to have a lot of that kind of weather this year. The last two winters have been hard. We are due for a good one. At least that’s what we are telling people.

We have developed a blog to take over from the web site. It is much easier to control and Dave doesn’t have to do it. If you have the internet, go to http://www.abmullen.blogspot.com/ and we’ll try to keep you up to date with the comings and goings of the Mullen Family.

As it gets ever closer to the big day, I guess I’d better get this finished and on the way. I will post it to the blog site and sent to those who don’t have the internet. We have had our first snow and it will be here a while as it will be below freezing for a couple of weeks. This will be the longest cold spell like this since we have been in Desert Aire. I don’t know why they continually talk about global warming. If that’s the case why are we so cold? If they get enough of those wind machines and point them north, maybe it will blow it all back to the poles.

Well, it sounds like Dixie is headed back to the lower 48. I know she will be warmer and happier in Nebraska than Craig, Alaska. It is a beautiful place, but the weather is gloomy most of the time. I’m glad we got the opportunity to go up and see her while she was there. We will put another Alaska trip on the back burner. I’ve always wanted to drive the Alcan, so maybe that will happen.

We were very sad to hear of Cara’s passing. We are reaching that age of you better do today rather than put off till tomorrow. It’s good to hear Ralph is retiring and I know that he will be busier than he was when he was working. He’ll probably develop into a great novelist. Who knows, they might even make a movie of one of his books. We could all go to the red carpet.

It was great to see so many of you this summer at Branson and at Aunt Ruth’s 90th. Hopefully some of you will make it out this way in the near future. We would love to show you the great area that we are in.

May you all have a Very Merry Christmas and A Very Prosperous New Year. We hope that we are able to see our economy grow and our fortunes start the other way. God Bless and May the Lord be with you every step of the way.

Love,
Brian and Annette

Well, we've had the first snowfall of the season. Hopefully this will be a Very Merry White Christmas. The weatherman says it will not be in the 30's until after Christmas. Then the ground should clear and we can play golf in the sunshine. We were at the kids over the weekend baby sitting. Annette can't get enough of that. Zmo certainly enjoys the snow as you can attest. We are going over to Wenatchee for Christmas and I think we have signed a baby-sitting commitment for New Years Eve. I guess that means I can drink at home and not worry about the drunks on the streets. We saw two roll-over accidents in a five mile stretch on the way home today. They were both 4-wheel drive vehicles. I have always questioned as to their safety. I still believe the driver has a lot to do with it. Oh, by the way, You can left click on the picture and see it full size.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

Well, the Christmas Tree is up and almost decorated. The cat is really not very interested. I guess nothing on the tree tastes good. Annette found this tree in Oregon at a Michaels store. It was on sale like everything else. It's a pretty little tree and will fill our needs quite well. The kids of course will expect bigger. I played golf again today, but it looks like a storm on the horizon. We could get some snow tomorrow. We are supposed to get into the single digits this weekend. The 15 day outlook is cold. Hopefully it will get better. We certainly don't want to miss anymore golf than necessary. We hope to get to Kathleens and Jims this weekend, but might have to defer to the weather.

Craft Show

We spent a very good weekend with Annette's brother Stan and his wife Teri. Stan and Annette had a booth at a craft show in Salem, OR. It was on the state fairgrounds in a very large hall. The Salem Garden Club puts this on every year. This was their 40th year. Lots of people, but you can sure tell the economy is down. Annette did OK, selling enough to pay for the entry and make a few bucks. I'm sure that we will do it again next year. They spent the days at the show and I stayed at the house and watched football. What could be better than that. We forgot to take the camera so there are no shots available of the site.

Was the Morn after Thanksgiving and Zmo was the only one at the table. She was probably the only that had room for more food. I guess the rest of us did eat a little later. We had a wonderful weekend. All but Cindy were gone by Saturday morning. Cindy and I watched with delight as Kansas dumped Missouri and later Oklahoma and OSU, thenOregon and Oregon State. We enjoyed most of the games and we are very happy that Ralph didn't have heart failure, cause Auburn didn't even get close. Maybe Washington will have a new coach this week, maybe not. We are looking forward to next weekend as we travel to Oregon to visit Stan and Teri and Annette and Stan's products will be in a craft show. Maybe we will have enough money for Christmas.

What a Ham

As you can see, dinner hasn't been served yet. When it was there was more than enough to feed the 14 that were here. It's really neat to have family for the holidays. Today we move to the north end of Desert Aire to share a Big Ole Turkey with Dave and Maggie. The temperature is cold, so I don't think there will be much Thanksgiving Golf today. You would certainly need some bourbon.

This was my first attempt with Traegerizing a ham. I was very good. The outside temperature yesterday was in the thirties and I don't think the temp in the Traeger got above 200 degrees. It smoked about 5 hours. And now we must set our sights on a beautiful bird today. The holidays are tough on the diet.

Well, it looks like little one is getting ready to come to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. And by the temperature outside it must bet getting close to the day. We have had heavy frost the last couple of days and the sun is exiting the Western sky much too early. Dave and I had to quit yesterday after 6 holes. I guess I'll have to fire up the heater and get serious. We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope that friends and family will be with you to enjoy the vast variety of goodies available to all of us this time of year.

As you can see, Simone' is learning first hand from the specialist on how to make a great crust for a pie. Hopefully she will continue to have great learning experiences, so that grandpa will get a pie one of these days. Thanksgiving is upon us and we will be seeing Annette's two brothers, Stan and Phil and their wives, along with Mom Van Wagner. Dave and Maggie Bevers also live here in Desert Aire. Maggie is Annette's sister. We all enjoy having the family here at the holiday season. Cindy, Jim, Kathleen and Simone' will be here too. We look forward to having lots of good grits and libations to celebrate the occasion.

This is Desert Aire

This is Desert Aire. We were developed in 1974 and have grown consistantly since that time. The golf course was started in 1974 and the second nine was completed in 1992. We have just been selected by "Golf Digest" as "Best Places to Play in 2008-2009." We are excited to see what effect this will have on the amount of play we get from the outside world. The reason you see no buildings near the water is that the shoreline is controlled by Grant County PUD. The water you see is the Columbia River backed by Priest Rapids Dam. The river below the dam is the last free flowing water in the Columbia in the state of Washington. Priest Rapids Dam generates electricity and is owned by Grant County. We have one of the lowest electric rates in the United States.

The Mullen Family Site

Hi all, this is a site developed to help keep you informed on what's happening in our family. We hope that we will be able to up date this site on a regular basis. Our previous website is now gone. We will continue by using this google blog site http://www.abmullen.blogspot.com/

Annette tried a new Quilt Retreat this fall in Prosser, WA. It was on the same weekend as the balloon rally. The balloons touch down in the Yakima River which runs right next to the property where the Quilt Retreat took place. Annette took many shots of the balloons. It looks like we might have to spend a day or two down there next year. It's about an hour from our house. There is also many wineries in the Prosser area. I probably would sample a few or their products. Want a reason to come to Washington? There are many.

Mark this on your calendar and we'll have a party. Last weekend in September. Golf is still very good with temps in the 70's and 80's. Wine tasting is good any time. It's almost Thanksgiving and we will be celebrating the the holiday with family. Annette's Mom and children will be here for the weekend. We will enjoy the fruits of our labor and the fellowship of our family. May you all have a great holiday time with friends and family.