Unbelievably, another year has passed and life keeps going on in very much the same old way.  Geoff and I were talking about this letter and wondering what news there was to share that was different from last year; let me tell you, life certainly becomes routine in a lot of ways.  However I know that deep in the recesses of my mind there is news to tell.
    Lets see, first we will start with Geoff.  He has now been with Allied Business Systems for a little over a year and enjoys his work. As always his job involves problem solving for their clients and he is the guy that addresses and solves those problems, which seems like a heavy burden to me. However, get this: he loves that part of the job the best.
 This year our hobby was to work on the house and the back yard was the specific target.  I have this vision of a Sunset Magazine yard (I know, I get carried away with what I envision, but I can't help myself, it's the designer in me) and with the little progress we achieved this year we might make that goal by 1999.  Just before Thanksgiving we finished painting our living room which required renting scaffolding and three weekends, but it looks great and now we can scratch that goal off our list.  It's been there for five years.  Of the two of us Geoff definitely is the harder worker and I'm the happy camper.
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   Timmy still enjoys skiing, in fact so much so that he paid his own way to ski camp this summer at Mount Hood.  This season he is taking a course to become a ski instructor.  School is a much happier experience for him from last year, as he is now a freshman at Issaquah High School.  His next big achievement is to get his permit to drive and save for a car.  Our rule for this to become reality is all B's or no keys.  So far he's coming close.
 Jenny is still our social butterfly.  This last summer we met more of our neighbors than we had in the last five years since we moved here.  She'd say she was going to see one friend, and when we'd check on her, she'd be off down the street at someone else's house.  When she was inside someone's house, then was the time to start knocking on doors and asking Is our daughter in your house?  Eventually she'd turn up at a new friend's house. but it was panic time for a few minutes. We crack up at how she continually wins the adoration of young and old alike.  Are you sure she's our daughter?
 As for myself, what can I say?  My business is my main interest.  Right now I'm working on a chiropractic office and have just finished an office for nine therapists.  I'm branching more into the commercial side of design and I'm liking it better than the residential, although I will continue to do both.  Hopefully this next spring I will be going with a few designers to Highpoint, North Carolina, the furniture Mecca of the world.  Literally they have high-rise after high-rise of furniture showrooms open only to the trade. I've heard that you cannot see it all in an entire week.  Only a design junky like myself can get excited at seeing nothing but thousands of sofas and chairs for a solid week and killing my feet at the same time.
 Well for this year the Hazel Family wishes all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with the guidance and protection of the Lord Jesus upon your lives, whose birthday we joyfully and gratefully celebrate.

With Love,
 Geoff, Fran, Timmy, Jenny