2004 McCorry Family Christmas Letter

Blessings of the Season to All, Christmas 2004

I hope you are all doing well this holiday season and able to share it with family, friends and loved ones. Throughout the year it’s hard to stay in touch with so many McCorry relatives that I hope this letter can bring you up to date as best as possible.
The year began on a sad note when our uncle, Fr. Robert Mullins (left), died March 4. He had turned 90 three months before. He spent his life in God's service. He was ordained in 1945, was pastor of a parish in Thompson, N.D., and taught at the University of North Dakota-Grand Forks. We will always remember his devotion to God and his gentle and loving ways with our family. Kathy, Betty, Mary and Lizzie and I flew to Fargo for the services. He was buried in a small cemetery near St. Jude’s Church in Thompson.

Our nephew Casey George Mullins has a new half-brother. Thomas Walter Hirthe was born April 27 to Pete Hirthe and Linda Mullins-Hirthe, who married in November 2003. They are expecting another child this coming May.
Members of the Jonas family visited the maternity ward this year, too. Jamison Jonas Borden (below) , 22 inches, 10 lbs., 11 ounces, was born in August to John and Anna Borden, their third. His parents toasted his birth in the delivery room with shots of Jameson’s, of course! No, just kidding! That didn’t happen!
He was baptized with it.
Tess Jonas Moede graduated this month from St. Catherine’s college in St. Paul with an undergraduate degree in accounting. Jane’s son Luke Shaner bought a house in St. Paul and is building the garage himself, “brick-by-brick,” his mother says. Luke works for Wold Architects and Engineers in St. Paul. Her other son, Jonas, works in San Diego while pursuing a nursing degree at San Diego State University. Jane’s husband John T.’s son Ryan passed the California Bar exam and works for a law firm in San Diego. Son Scott works for a staffing services firm in San Francisco. Mary Pat and Michael Groth’s son Jeremy began studies this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jim Jonas sent me a post card in July from Costa Rica, where he was vacationing with his brother Peter.
The Schield family gathered at Never-Never Land this summer for a reunion. Pat Werth, Mary Alice, Betty and Carroll met in Milwaukee with the nuns, who came up from Chicago and Joe and Betty Mullins at the Jonases. Betty and Carroll’s Florida home escaped damage from all three of the hurricanes that hit that state this year. David Schield started a business this year in Madison, Third Hand Solutions, which makes point-of-sale graphic design products. Those are store displays for products. Since he works from home, David has dinner on the table when Becky gets home from her job at US Bank. Daughter Jessica is in her second year at UW-Stout studying hotel-restaurant management; Jeff is finishing high school and trying to line up a college scholarship; and Grace, 12, is active in soccer.
Srs. Benedicta and Aquinice are in Chicago. Auntie B was fitted with two hearing aids, “the better to hear you with my dear,” she says. Auntie A was diagnosed with diabetes but is able to treat it with proper diet. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes last year, so I can no longer live on the “Oh, you’re so skinny, you can eat anything” diet. I control it with diet and exercise. Those FDA food labels make interesting reading!
My sister Tricia’s husband, Ken, is finishing up chemotherapy after colon cancer surgery this past May. Their daughter Erin, 15, was in a school play attended by various relatives. It was a murder mystery and she was the murderer! Can someone get typecast at 15? Her school is doing “South Pacific” next year, which her Aunt Betty appeared in years before. Tricia and Erin visited Milwaukee in October, I did in June, and Kathy did in November. Kathy and her son, Brendan, fly to Boston Dec. 26. Bill is now a full time tech writer at Shopzilla.com (formerly Bizrate), a comparison shopping Web site in Santa Monica. He started as a contract worker but they liked his work and took him on. Bill and I joined Mary in San Diego in November for her mother-in-law Berniece Van Pelt’s funeral. She was 86. Kathy’s daughter Maureen, 17, is spending the holidays in Dublin with a school friend. With trips to Ireland, Paris, Japan and South America already stamped on her passport, she has more frequent flier miles than her aunts and uncles combined!
Brian McCorry sent out an e-mail earlier this year congratulating his wife, Betsy, for winning the “Hearts Afire” award, an honor for church and community service. She has been president of the Sacred Heart Parish Council at their parish. “I'm writing to brag about Betsy because she won't,” Brian wrote. Dan McCorry’s wife, Robin, is planning to take her mother-in-law, Aunt MaryAnn, to Austria next year. Sounds exciting!
I’ve included another address list, updated as well as I can keep up. Stay in touch. Brian Mc Corry e-mails me news articles about current affairs and I send others back. And David Schield usually has a good e-mail joke to pass around. One was an updated version of the “Catholic Vocabulary.” A few of the entries:

Amen: The only part of the prayer that everyone knows.
Ten Commandments: The most important Top Ten list not given by DavidLetterman.
Bulletin: Your receipt for attending Mass.

Best wishes to all of you for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!