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