First Contact

I just thought I'd let you all know I got into Temple University yesterday. This means I will most definately attend college next year and I'm not a total failure. This the first I've heard from any of the schools I've applied to so hopefully more letters with similar content will arrive shortly.

The Day of All Days

Christmas morning dawned bright and early for the Muldowney children and, thus, for the parents as well. Shana made sure we all got up at 7:00 a.m. Dad took the usual picture on the stairs in which we all look so chipper and wide awake each year. There was an object veiled in a quilt below that looked suspiciously like a harp, but Mom, considering this an impossibility, made the shape into a painting in her mind despite the lack of convincing evidence. The human mind is a remarkable thing. Wouldn't you know it was a harp. Monique Ames had brought her harp as a gift back in October when they visited and it had remained unseen and hidden in Dad's Art Room until Christmas. Every one was very happy with their gifts, but the great hit was a family gift lovingly assembled the previous evening by Dad and Doug- a Foosball table. Everyone had lots of fun all day down in the Rec Room and we are looking forward to a dyn-o-mite tourney on New Year's Eve. We had a great time skyping with Shane and Leah and Miah and Missy both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Washington was the place for snow this year! Doug and Mimi, Shana and Mike Rucker (her boyfriend), and Mom-mom came to dinner. Mimi cooked the ham and Shana made the gravy for the turkey. Mom-mom brought delicious cookies and cupcakes and Liz made the outstanding mashed potatoes. Our celebration was capped by hearing from Jacob via telephone. We all got a chance to talk to him and he sounded great. We have been reading Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' over the holiday and finished just last night. It's a great story- no movie really fully captures the written word. "God bless us, everyone!"

mother wrote this... thus the amazingness

John with the Book he got for Abe and Abe got for him:

Opening the Gifts!!


Shana and Mike after opening their gifts
Christmas Breakfast w/ Eggo Waffles *gasp*

The Traditional Stair Shot

Playing Checkers
Mommom sharing her blanket with the dogs

The Eve of Christmas

Christmas Eve was rather laid back. The Monroes came with their traditional lasagna meal which we enjoyed immensely. After dinner Doug and a sick Mimi came over to ah... help the Clauses.

The kids literally didn't sleep all night. I can vouch for that because they woke me up every 10 minutes whining about how they couldn't fall asleep. Ah the excitement of Christmas Eve!!

The Monroes

After Santa visited

Annual Caroling Shindig

The Monday before Christmas we had our usual Christmas get together. Our guest were the traditional Erekson and Clark-Child families plus the Schwans. After a good deal of lively chatter we settled down to the business portion of the evening. We sounded especially amazing this year. Laura, of course, sang a couple of solos with the amazing accompaniment of Linda Child and then we coerced Shana into singing a duet with Laura. It was quite lovely. Linda Child said they rocked, and she would know! It was especially fun to be with the Ereksons knowing that it may be the last year they are able to come.

The Muldowney household started their Christmas Break early in order to make the trek to Washington D.C. for Amanda's wedding. It was a wonderful experience for the fam. After the wedding itself was over, we headed to the bookstore for a little Christmas shopping. From there we went to the neighborhood Mommy grew up in. We got to see her old house and elementary school as well as the old beautiful church building she attended. The Chevey Chase Ward building was actually where the reception was, so Mom gave some of the kids a tour of it's two stories. The reception was sweet and of course the bride was lovely. Unfortunately we don't really have any non-fuzzy pictures of her. The camera wasn't really cooperating.

Mom with Uncle Mark and Uncle D holding his Granddaughter

Uncle John, Mom, and Uncle Mark

The fam (minus Abe because he had a swim meet) in front of the Temple

A Christmas Carroll

"The time has come," the children said.

"To talk of many things

Of Horowitz and Santa Claus

Of Angels without wings.

And whether the tree is live or not

And ornaments on strings."

After much debate (and time), we finally set up our tree! This was a while ago...but oh well! We got the tallest tree we've ever had. It's about 6-7 ft tall! We enjoyed setting it up and Mom enjoyed listening to us interact.







Dad's classic face without a mustache

Lizzy with a Walnut Santa

The Black Santa by Anonymous

Abe with Rubinstein

Clay-Head Collection

by Jacob Muldowney

Final Product

Abby (standing) and Bekah (hiding)

forewarning

Hello All!

So..... as I am sure you are aware I've got a lot of posting to do. But I won't really be able to do any of it just yet because I'm giving a talk at a bi-stake activity tomorrow and I need to prepare.
Sorry there will be a delay, but I will get everthing up on Monday at the very latest!

Lizzy

Twelve Tribes of Muldowney

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Man Suffering From a Cold Upper Lip

Daddy broke down and shaved off is mustache for an up and coming CES class presentation. We, his children, were shocked to find him mustache-less when we woke up sunday morning. He does look a lot like he did in his youth though.

With no further delays, I present to you a naked liped papa.

Thanksgiving

For the first time in a long time, the Muldowney family Thanksgiving feast was eaten on one table. Although our numbers were few (only 9!!) we enjoyed the day immensely.
Abby, Bekah, and I started the day off at 7:15. We were responsible for Thanksgiving breakfast. The girlies watched the waffles why I made incredible sticky buns. They were simply amazing. Sadly I do not have a picture for you to drool over. When I was making the bacon though I stupidly poured the hot fat into a room temperature jar. A moment later when I moved the jar, only the top went anywhere. The boiling oil had made a clean cut around the bottle. Miraculously it didn't explode. Abby and Bekah were wonderful kitchen aids and were key factors in setting the meal out in time. Shana, Mike, and Doug all came over to partake in breakfast and watch the parade for a while. Sadly the couple and Doug departed before noon
With no guests to entertain our afternoon was very relaxed (except for mommy's, she was cooking). Abe got restless and so when Mimi and Doug returned most of the family took a walk. The rest stayed home and put together dinner.
The feast was wonderful, as always. Doug and Abe had a bet on who could eat more. They weighed in before and after the meal and Abe won by a long shot. Doug ate a measly 4.4 lbs while the champion ate 5.2 lbs. Our evening ended with our traditional movies White Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street.
It's been a wonderful year and we have lots to be thankful for! like you people. We hope every one's Thanksgiving was marvelous!


the clean cut bottle:

The half frozen pond:

Ready to sword fight:

Throwing rocks into the duck pond:

Thanksgiving dinner: