Mui’s Cousin Comes to Visit

August 1985

Mui’s mother has three sisters.  One of them is Leman.  Her two kids — Rıfat and Nüket — both emigrated to North America.

Rıfat lived in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) — unfortunately we lost him to cancer at a very young age.  Nüket, on the other hand, lived in California (she now lives in Antalya, Turkey part of the year).  My first opportunity to meet Nüket came when she and her family visited us in Kaysville.

Nüket, Don and Maya

Until I saw this photo, I had forgotten all about our old cookie jar — the one straight out of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.  I wonder what happened to it?

There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children
she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth
without any bread;
She whipped them all soundly
and put them to bed.

Dining at La Caille

19 May 1985

As we’d done when my family visited the previous year, we took Mui’s parents to La Caille for dinner, but first, a quickie visit to Temple Square in Salt Lake City (where Mui tested some of his fancy lens filters).

Happy Birthday to Me

11 April 1985

Happy Birthday Mui

15 January 1985

A quiet meal at home, and some handy presents … that’s how we celebrated Mui’s birthday.  The walkman I gave him as a gift accompanied him on many a morning jog; it lasted until cassette tapes went out of vogue and were replaced with CDs.  The drill and tool box … well, they’re still in use to this day.

Happy Birthday Mui!

Christmas Season: Parties & Gifts

December 1984

The ‘84 Christmas season was a busy one …

On December 9, we went to Green Street, a private club in Salt Lake City, for a fundraiser called “Glass Slipper” …

This was our Christmas Tree …

… And this was the tree our landlord put up.

On December 13, we attended a Christmas party at the Maxfield residence …

With Robyn and her son, Taylor.

As was our tradition, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, December 24 …

Electric footbath/massager from Mui.

This glue gun has served Mui for 27 years.

An appointment book from Mui (L); and an apron from Aunt Lorraine (R).

One of my gifts to Mui was a sweater to keep him warm.

A Christmas Eve photo from Turkey.  My paternal aunt and her family always visited on December 24 to help my mother and sister celebrate their Christmas Eve birthdays …

On Christmas Night, we were invited to the home of Connie and Rudy (Robyn’s parents) …

Here I am with Mr Christiansen … or as he was fondly known, Mr C.

Family Visit: Portraits

19 August 1984

We took advantage of the family being all together in one place to take some family portraits.

Snow and More Snow

December 1983

We brought the year to a close with plenty of snow in our neck of the woods.

Onward to a new year.

Merry Christmas

Christmas 1983

Mom and Aylin share a Christmas Eve birthday.  So, it was a tradition in our house to open Christmas gifts on December 24.  After Mui and I got married and moved to the US, that tradition continued.

Yes, we went a bit crazy with the gift giving.  After all, we weren’t together for our first Christmas in the US; Mui was at Air Force Basic Training, and I was in Wichita with my brother.  In our defense, many of the gifts were from friends, and we bought “household” stuff as joint gifts for each other.

Music box from the Pinskis.

Duck decoy lint brush from the Rapps.

Pair of  “Christmas Love” mugs from Mui.

Six chocolate “Kisses” from me.

Gloves from Mui.

Wool sweater from me.

I opened the practical “house” gifts; Mui used them.
Left: Thin Slicer; Right: Pressure Cooker

Left: Brass Planter; Right: Turkish Rummikub

That's what I call a microwave!

Mom made the Christmas stockings for us.

And here we are on Christmas Day …

Merry Christmas!

It was a great first Christmas together since starting our married life.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

26 November 1983

On our first wedding anniversary in ‘82 Mui left to begin Basic Training in the Air Force, so we didn’t celebrate the occasion.  We made up for that in 1983.

Until we stopped decorating the house for the holidays a few years ago, we always set up our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner.  In 1983, we made an exception since we had guests for Thanksgiving.  Instead we set up the tree after our anniversary celebration.  By the end of the evening, not only was our tree decorated, but all the gifts were under it ... well OK; the gifts were around it.  Yeah, we did go a bit overboard with the gift exchange, but it was our first year celebrating Christmas together since Mui was gone for the holidays in 1982.

The big gift box in the back … that was our first microwave.  Do you remember how big those first models were?  It served us well and was still in working order when we finally donated it in 2006.