Christmas Eve Traditions

We were with William's parents on Christmas Eve and so we kept up their old Christmas traditions. First, William's mom made some of her fabulous Christmas candy- penuche (a pecan type fudge) and Clark's candy (kind of like the center of a Baby Ruth, but much better). They were both SO GOOD that I ate way too much, especially of the Clark's candy because it was at the perfect caramel consistency. I now know how to make the dishes.

and drove around Orem. I was pleased that I was able to remember where the decked out neighborhood that we saw with Chris and Karen last year. And our favorite house from last year had up the same elaborate decorations

However, there weren't nearly as many lights up around the rest of the neighborhood as last year due to the economic status. We saw SO MANY house dark and up for sale- how tragic that it affects so many lives.

Since we didn't get our fill of lights in this neighborhood, we then went out further into Orem where we saw the estate that I called the "mini temple square." You could see the glow from all of the lights for blocks. And there were tons of people checking it out as well. Sadly, most of the lights were behind these beautifully decorated gates.

Masterpiece Theater

Masterpiece Theater has re-invented themselves over the past two years reverting back to showing film adaptations of literary classics. Last year, they showed some of the works of Jane Austen. They just started this year with Tess of the D'Urbervilles. This is a great book by Thomas Hardy that I read while I was doing my study abroad in London. We even visited the main church featured in the book. The next film is going to be Wuthering Heights, another book that I read in part to graduate with honors from BYU. Later on in the season, they will do several Charles Dicken's novels, including my favorite novel of his, David Copperfield. The best part is that they now have the shows archived online at the PBS site for a short period. I think I will try to read some of the other Dicken's novels that I haven't read before they come out. I highly recommend you support your local PBS station in this endeavor :-)

The Little Religious Kid

Our nephew Charles is already on his way to becoming a spiritual giant. At 9 months, he LOVES the Ensign- he played with it for most of the evening while we were with him, even turning the pages and looking at the pictures. He really liked looking at baby Jesus with Mary.

Isn't he so angelic :-) Now he just needs to learn how to read . . .

Uncovering Forgotten Treasures

William's parents are back from Russia! Well, at least on a more permanent basis. They bought a house out at Saratoga Springs in Lehi. Check out the gorgeous view they have of Utah lake-
And check out how great the interior is- I love the stone lining along the entry way.
And all of these big windows above the fireplace
All of their stuff that has been in storage in Houston for about 6 years so they got their shipment while we were in Utah for Christmas. We had a great time uncovering these long forgotten treasures amidst the myriads of boxes.

Literally, the very first box we opened we saw this on top.
This puzzle of Britney Spears. It was on top of a bunch of Star Wars boxes so we know that it was yours Corey :-) We also found one of Corey's most prized posessions- the lifesize cardboard cut out of Boba Fett.
We uoncovered several great treasures of William. Most importantly, William found ALL of his awards/trophies- just look at how many of them there are! I couldn't get them into one photo frame

And since he got so many awards, he was able to get a letterman jacket in high school- for lettering in academics. Check out that handsome
Besides that angelic face, you can also see his national honors society patch :-)
In this other photo, I think that he looks like he belongs in Grease :-)

We also found "Bill Moley" a take off of Bill Murray and Groundhog Day. This little guy is a treasure in the Kunz household. Everyone remembered who he was and smiled happily when they saw him.
William amazingly made it through all of his stuff. And found a lot of his old computer games, video games- he set up the Super Nintendo and it worked! We are so thankful that William's parents are kind enough to store all of these treasures for us since we are pretty much out of room in our 500 sp ft apartment.

And we are thrilled that they are getting their house set up and settled in!

Merry Christmas to William from Google!

William got an amazing Christmas present from Google . . . the G1 Android phone!!! So one good thing that came from our flight being canceled was that William was able to go to TGIF and get his gift. They had unlocked the phone so that William could use the Internet at my parents house over the break, but he wasn't able to call anyone. William DEFINITELY needed a new phone- he has had his previous Sony Ericsson phone since he got back from his mission. Last night, we went to the T Moblie store by our house and William was able to establish a phone service plan. And the Google gift didn't stop with the phone- Googlers also have a deal with T Moblie where they can get the cheapest amount of minutes (300) and unlimited data for only $47!!! That's what I pay (with taxes) for my phone plan! Granted, I do get 750 minutes a month plus nights and weekends (William only gets weekends) but still. I'm just glad that I am able to reap the benefits from his gift :-) The phone has some super cool features to it- my personal favorite is the shopping one. You go to a store (or at home) and take a photo of the bar code and it will identify what the product is, where you can buy it, and how much it costs. Hello quick and easy price comparison shopping. And the GPS function is quite nice as well. The only problem is that William needs to now charge it everyday (he used to go for days without charging his other phone, only to have it die on him).

Books Read in 2008

Here is the list of books that I read in 2008- and I am proud to say that only a couple of them are for my dissertation!

• The Last Lecture- Randy Pausch
  
• The Woman the Body- Emily Martin
• Founding Mothers- Cokie Roberts
• Wonder Genes- Maxwell J. Mehlman
• John Adams- David McCullough
• Devil Bones- Kathy Reichs
• Freakonomics- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• Cross Bones- Kathy Reichs
• Bare Bones- Kathy Reichs
• Break No Bones- Kathy Reichs
• Grave Secrets- Kathy Reichs
• Fatal Voyage- Kathy Reichs
• Bones to Ashes- Kathy Reichs
• Monday Mourning- Kathy Reichs
• Deadly Decisions- Kathy Reichs
• Death Du Jour- Kathy Reichs
• Deja Dead- Kathy Reichs
• Digging to America- Anne Tyler
• Inclusion: The Politics of Difference in Medical Research- Steven Epstein
• For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
• Hot and Bothered: Women, Medicine and Menopause in Modern America- Judith Houck
• The Well-Beloved- Thomas Hardy
• Selling Science- Dorothy Nelkin
• Science on Trial- Marcia Angell
• A Grief Observed- C.S. Lewis
• World Without End- Ken Follett
• Twilight- Stephanie Meyers
• Selling Sickness- Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
• Jesus The Christ- James E. Talmage
• The Pillars of the Earth- Ken Follett
• Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• For One More Day- Mitch Albom
• God Wants a Powerful People- Sheri Dew
• Listening to Prozac- Peter Kramer

Hopefully, I will be able to read even more for 2009

Back from the Holidays

So, we've technically been "back" in Cali since Sunday night but its taken me awhile to get back to blogging. Needless to say, there will be many updates from our time in Utah as well as the New Year. I am thrilled that our blog has been "jazzed" up by William- that was his Christmas gift to me. I didn't want anything too over-the-top but just a little redesigned- and this is what my talented computer programmer of a husband came up with. THANK-YOU!!! Think of this as a new look to our blog for the new year.