Family Photo Album Christmas 1993 With our new house on the hill only six months old, we wanted to do something meaningful for our first Christmas. We purchased a dozen strands of lights and strung them between the balconies in the shape of a star. Although immense, and easily visible from the neighborhood below, it showed as little more that a dot. A star shines from the hill over Ogden Utah It could be readily seen for about three miles Our Thanksgiving was unfortunately memorable as Lyn's parents visited and were not always on their best behavior. We cut a huge tree at a nearby tree farm, then struggled greatly to get it placed in our immense front window alcove area. Bagging a Christmas Tree in the mountains Raising the Tree during Lyn's Parents visit Our oversized tree and our trip to Twin Falls for Christmas shopping couldn't kick the fact that it had been a bleak and exhausting year for us. But the excitement of our new home and Christmas with six year old Jesse made up for it. Santa brought a bike for Jesse to ride on our new street. Soon, we hoped, there would be a neighborhood full of kids to play with, too. Hot rolls on Christmas Morning Santa came last night Christmas morning view from the balcony Santa bought a new bicycle Our first  "Feliz Navidad" party for the gang from work. Don had just relocated to Utah from Grand Rapids and Mark brought his young daughter. Dave bought a Spanish-language Christmas CD in honor of Mark's hilarious stories about his LDS mission to Puerto Rico. Hola!   Mark with his young daughter We had lots of fun playing games (of course) We used New Years Eve as an excuse to get to know all of our non-LDS neighbors. We celebrated with lots of champaign, Utah-legal fireworks, and plenty of fun games. Everybody brought their kids and nobody went home until well after 1am. We all lived walking distance, so no "designated drivers" were required. Our group was a lot of fun, but we always wished it could be larger with more families like ourselves. Room for everybody but not enough furniture Pictionary was a big hit that year - everybody played Dave ran the New Year's pinata from the balcony The kids all took a swing for toys and candy When midnight arrived we all toasted 1994's arrival  Click to view a different holiday or year Original Web Upload July, 2001 Last Update: January 13, 2003