Christmas Letter 2006

Greetings of the season to you all.

Joe Mullins came to San Francisco for a visit and when he, Tricia and I got into my car to drive to dinner, I remarked that the CD player wasn’t working. It was like a song cue in a musical. Without further prompting, we launched into a rendition of “Smilin’ Thru,” our mother’s favorite song. It’s those kinds of traditions that keep families close over the years. Here’s hoping you and yours enjoy the traditions of Christmas together this year.


Joe and Tricia
at Packers (30)-49ers (19)
game.

Members of the McCorry extended family gathered in Chicago on May 21 to mark Sr. Mary Benedicta’s 70 years with the Religious Sisters of Mercy. The celebration started with a mass at the Mercy Convent followed by a luncheon and time spent looking through photo albums and getting caught up on family news. “We had a great time just visiting and reminiscing about our wonderful family,” said Betty Mullins. The McCorry, Schield and Jonas families were all represented there. Relatives contributed to the purchase of a pew in Sr. Benedicta’s honor at the former St. Matthew’s Church where she and her siblings grew up in Milwaukee.
Sr. Mary Aquinice is recovering from foot problems she had over this past year.
Aunt Teresa Jonas was hospitalized, too, with back problems, but is also getting better. Good wishes to both of them. Teresa’s youngest daughter Sarah and her husband Scott Pryzbylowski went to Ireland this year and stayed at the same Slieve Croob Inn in Northern Ireland that the Mullinses, Freers and Dwyers stayed at three years earlier. I hope you enjoyed it. They also met Brian McCorry’s son Patrick, who lives and works in Dublin. Tess Jonas-Moede moved back to Milwaukee this year from the Twin Cities. Her updated address, as well as those of others, accompanies this letter.
Joe Schield also moved this year from San Diego to the Wine Country of Northern California near his sisters Mary Alice and Pat. Pat, daughter Megan, her husband Nadim and their daughter Juliana visited Wisconsin this summer to see Grandma and Grandpa Schield, Dan and David Schield and their families.

Pat Werth (center) with parents
Carroll and Betty Schield



Unfortunately, the dam at Lake Arbutus is undergoing renovations so the creek in front of the Never-Never Land cottage has been dry. Dan’s daughter Miranda graduated with honors in May from Marquette University (the alma mater of her father and grandfather, among others) with a degree in Advertising/Public Relations and is employed by Vollrath & Associates, an agency in Milwaukee. Son Michael is in his third year at Methodist College in North Carolina and Emily will attend UW-Madison in the fall. David’s daughter Jessica, a senior at UW-Stout, spent the summer in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on an internship running the fine dining restaurant at the Jackson Lake Lodge. Her family visited her there as well as to Yellowstone. Son Jeff, a sophomore at Western Illinois University on a soccer scholarship, was on the team that won their conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Daughter Grace is a freshman in high school, plays soccer and basketball and recently traveled with her mother, Bobbi, to Las Vegas where her team played in a Thanksgiving soccer tournament.
Maureen Drabik’s daughter Megan wrote a history of Charles McCorry’s immigration to America as part of her class’s study on immigration during the debate in Congress this year. My niece Lizzie, Mary and Bill’s daughter, also wrote a family history report for a school project.
Brian McCorry welcomed another grandchild into the world Nov. 24 when his son David and his wife Lisa had their third child, Molly, in Durango, Colorado. Brian and his family visited Durango this summer. His wife Betsy wrote a travelogue about their trip, which is posted on the McCorry Family USA blog I created earlier this year. Visit http://mccorryfamilyusa.blogspot.com/ to read it and other family news and photos.
I have a new job as a reporter for IDG News Service in San Francisco. IDG publishes scores of technology industry magazines such as PCWorld, Computerworld and InfoWorld. I cover companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sun Microsystems. It’s a very exciting job! I covered an event at Stanford University on Web 2.0 companies in Poland. Web 2.0 refers to user-provided content sites such as My Space and You Tube. I filed the story to our IDG bureau in Warsaw where it was translated into Polish and posted online.
My brother Bill created a Wiki Web site that you can link to from the blog, where he posts, among other things, photos of him at various celebrity events he attends with a reporter friend.
Angie Harmon and Lindsay Lohan intruding
on a photo of Bill Mullins (left)




Betty took our nephew Casey to Washington, D.C., this summer where they saw the sites. Casey’s mom, Linda, is expecting her third child any day now with new husband Pete Hirthe. Tricia and Ken’s daughter Erin is looking for colleges to attend after she graduates from high school next spring. Ken’s son Robert Freer is engaged to longtime girlfriend Candi Miceli. Tricia and Erin visited Milwaukee in August for IrishFest. Kathy’s daughter Maureen is in her second year at UW-Madison. We got together with her and her brothers, Sam and Brendan, over the Thanksgiving holiday here in California.
Sam Gesley (top) with (l-r) Brendan and
Maureen Gesley and Erin Freer



I hope I haven’t forgotten any other news from your families. If so, send me an update at rjmullins5@comcast.net or call 408-243-4302 and I’ll add it to the blog. This letter will be posted on the blog along with pictures some of you have provided this year.
I hope you all have a blessed and joyful Christmas this year and that the Lord and good fortune smile on you in 2007. And, as always, keep Smilin’ Thru!
Robert Mullins