Two Christmases

Yeah, it is pretty sad that it is February 1st and I am still doing photos from Christmas!! I like to think that it is only because we had such a great time that we wanted to spread out all of the wonderful memories we made.

We were lucky to have TWO Christmases- I actually really liked having two separate days of Christmas. It made the holiday even more magical.

Christmas Eve- the whole day was spent with the Kunz family. We were truly so spoiled by Santa-

And the stockings

Mmmm- just look at all of the yummy treats inside of our stockings.

And check out these super cool candy Legos in William's stocking! It was fun to be able to put together some creations and then snack on them.

Brother Corey got a super sweet gift from his wife- a BYU helmet signed by the current football players!

Charlie was a pro at opening his presents without help

William and I were spoiled with lots of great gifts including video games- Super Mario Wii was my personal favorite addition (btw- it makes for some crazy games when you play with 4 people at a time!), baking supplies, cds, handsoaps, makeup (for me :-) But of course the highlights of the day was the gift exchange between William and Chris as earlier chronicled.

We had an amazing Christmas dinner with turkey and all the fixings and then went out and saw Christmas lights. This was the most impressive house of the ones that we saw.

On Christmas morning, we went and saw Sherlock Holmes and then headed over to my parents house to have our second Christmas. Since my dad has to go into work on Christmas morning, we open up our presents in the afternoon. William loved his Chik-fil-a gift card and we went 3 times during our 2 week stay (did you know that some of the ones do breakfast- it is SUPER good and we are sad that the nearest one to us in Cali is an hour and a half away) and I loved the framing I got on this painting. My mom knows how much I love Van Gogh and so she bought this replica for me several years ago for my birthday and got it framed for me. It really enhances the overall look of the painting.

Here's the happy family- my Dad was so excited by his book that he immediately started reading.

We truly felt so spoiled and loved by both families. But the best gifts we received from them was being able to spend quality time with ALL of our families. We truly have THE BEST families in the world.

San Francisco Dine About Town 2010: Sauce

I very luckily realized in the middle of the week that it was the FINAL week of San Francisco Dine About Town where you can get a 3 course meal for $35 at some of the city's best restaurants. I wish that I would have figured it out sooner so that we could have enjoyed two meals in the city but at least we had one.

I choose the restaurant due to their online menu selection offerings. Too bad for those places that didn't list anything because they were not even in the running. The finalist for this year was the restaurant Sauce. It COMPLETELY exceeded our expectations. The one drawback was that we had a tough time parking- it is down by the Symphony and Ballet, both of which had performances that night- and it was after they had both started at 8 pm and we arrived just after 8. We spent 20 minutes looking for parking and FINALLY found one so that we were still on time for our reservation.

The food was INCREDIBLE. I would call it contemporary, upscale American cuisine. I have even included the wording from the restaurant of the dishes. William and I each shared our appetizers and desserts and then we each got the same entree. We loved every dish and will definitely return on another occasion.

First Course
Scallops wrapped in Bacon & Portobello Fries Gravy & Fat Boy Ranch

and

Tomato Bisque White Truffle Grilled Cheese Toast Sticks

Second Course
Baked Mac & Cheese David's Old World Ham & Pulled Ham Hock Tillamook Cheddar & Four Cheese Cream Sauce Served with Green Beans & Bacon

Third Course
Cookie Dough Bon Bons- Cookie Dough Sandwich with Vanilla Ice Cream Center
and

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts Vanilla Bourbon Dipping Sauce

A Head Start

The love of reading starts early in the Kunz family. Our little 20 month old nephew, Charlie, already "reading" on his own.

He has even mastered the art of page turning with a book that is nearly as big as he is

Cartier and America

After a LONG week of pretty much non-stop RAIN, I just had to venture outside of the apartment and so I went up to the Legion of Honor to see their special exhibit entitled "Cartier and America." It was so unbelievable the amount of jewels they had in one exhibition. The exhibit began in December 2009 marking the 100th anniversary of the opening of Cartier's New York store. The exhibit had a room containing the sketches and designs of the jewelry- each having to be approved by the customer (if it was a couture piece) and Cartier. They had a short film illustrating the complicated process of making fine jewelry. I never realized the huge amount of craftsmanship that each piece has. First, a wax replica of the piece is made and then a metal cast of it. The metal cast is then carved to hold the stones and then each stone is put into place. I never realized just what a steady hand you need to have inlay the stones. After all the stones are set, it is then polished. And the pieces from this workshop are so seamless and beautiful. Of course, no photography is allowed in the exhibit so I have taken photos of a few of the postcards I bought which DEFINITELY do not these artistic creations justice- you need to see them with the light reflecting off the different facets and literally sparkling.

Cartier is generally associated with the intricate diamond and platinum settings (although he did experiment with both white and yellow gold as trends demanded). I think that these bracelets exemplify this style. Yeah, I could definitely wear these (some of the pieces I couldn't see myself wearing since they are so gaudy and extreme)

I wish that they had a postcard of one of my favorite pieces- this diamond jaguar bracelet that was completely bendable, yet appeared so fluid (at least on the surface). Just pretend that the jaguar from this photo is fully extended

Cartier was also a genius at making pieces multi-functional. For example, there was this bandeau tiara that could be separated into a bracelet and a necklace. I also liked his pieces that incorporated diamonds with other stones like this brooch with gorgeous emeralds. They had one necklace that had a 143 carat emerald! That is ginormous!

Cartier went through a couple of "phases" that I appreciate from an art/fashion standpoint but I was not a big fan of them. The main one was the "Tutti Fruiti" style (I'm not making it up- it was featured on the exhibit plaques) where it combined pink, blue, purple, and green stones. He also did some Egyptian style pieces after King Tut's tomb discovery as well as some Chinese jade work. The pieces were definitely beautiful but I just prefer his own characteristic style.

They also had Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco's over 10 carat diamond wedding ring as well as several other of her more extravagant pieces. They also had the ruby jewelry of Elizabeth Taylor who received Cartier from several of her husbands. I found out that she gave the huge 45 carat stone from Richard Burton to raise money for hospitals in a developing country.

My favorite unexpected discovery was Cartier's "Mystery Clocks". I had never heard them associated with him but he created many- at least a dozen were on exhibit. They call it a "mystery clock" due to the hands appearing to be suspended within the quartz. It turns out that each hand is placed in a unique cut in the quarts- but it didn't give anymore detail than that.

It was an incredible exhibit- I wish that they would have included the appraised value for the works just to kind of bring it back to the "real world."

The Revenge of Chris

But I would have to say that Chris did get his "revenge" this year with William's gift. It looked innocuous enough

The package said

Stud . . . . . $1.39
Duck Tape . . . . $3.37
Watching Bill unwrap this . . .
PRICELESS!!!

Last year you "trained" me
This year I'll "sour" you
Can't wait until next year!!!

You definitely can't tell that there is a war going on between these two :-) There was one small layer of duck tape (I love the smirk on Chris' face just knowing what lies ahead)

and then was this wooden box that was completely nailed shut.

William had to use a CROWBAR to open it!!

He finally managed to pry it open and get out another duck taped package

William kept unwrapping duck tape for quite awhile

this one gift produced this huge ball of tape!

It says
Whats the
Matter Feeling
a Little Sour

Try looking in the front seat of the Ford

Chris also had William go on a little treasure hunt. They actually ended up hiding their gifts in the same room- the laundry room- but in different places.
All for this little gift card to Chili's

It took over an hour just to unwrap these two gifts. It was a good thing we had Charlie open his gift first since he was entertained by it the entire time

William has already started thinking about what he is going to do next year . . . .

William's "Snotty" Gift

William and his youngest brother Chris have this ongoing Christmas gift giving feud. It is ALL about HOW you give the gift in the most creative yet difficult way possible. Two years ago it was the infamous diaper, last year it was the train theme, and this year, William decided to take it back towards the diaper vein.

I came up with the idea of placing a number of coins with letters on them inside the toilet paper layers and so Chris would have to unroll the whole roll to get the coins. Chris starting to unravel

And still not done

He then had to unscramble the letters to find the location of the next part of the "gift"- this tissue box.

It looks innocent enough- but let me show you some of the behind the scenes shots of William assembling it. I love the look of absolute glee on his face- he could not stop laughing and smiling about how "awesome" this gift would be.

Off to the right of the photo is a cup of pudding- "Juicy Pear Jelly Belly" to be precise. Just look at that unique color which made a great base to look like "boogers" or "snot." William placed several coins with letters on them into the tissues that Chris has to unscramble.

I thought it was pretty gross and I knew that is was just pudding. (No one ate the other 3 containers of pudding after this incident)

Chris was very disgusted by the appearance of the "used" tissues. He subsequently flicked the pudding around the room in an attempt to get out the coins without touching it.

)
He ultimately succumbed and had to handle it.

Let's just say that Chris would definitely be "getting" William back as evidenced in the next post

Stanley Lloyd Kunz

We flew out to Utah the morning of December 20th for the blessing of our 2nd nephew- Stanley Lloyd Kunz. The blessing was at 2 pm Utah time and down in Santaquin and so our flight leaving at 7 am California time would have left us with buffer time to get there. The plane pulled back from the gate at 7 am but the plane experienced engine problems (at least they figured this out before taking off). We all were taken off the plane as they attempted to "fix" it- something that we thought would take awhile. We started to panic a little about making the blessing but FORTUNATELY, they had a spare plane available and we were only a couple of hours late getting in to Utah. And we made it ON TIME for the blessing.

I just noticed that ALL of the photos I have of him during the break are when he was asleep. I love his white blessing outfit

Already getting into the holiday spirit- what a cute Christmas gift

He is just such a sweetie- we are so happy he is a part of Kunz family!