There's no place like home for the holidays...

Hello everyone!

It's been a long time since we've written. But it's okay, here we are!

The first thing I would like to share with you today is the real, honest-to-goodness answer that I found to one of life's deep, inspiring, unanswered questions: "In the Spanish version of Toy Story 3 (*WARNING: SPOILERS*), what language does Buzz speak when he is switched to Spanish mode?" I know you've all been pondering this as you go to sleep every night, and I know the answer will ease many a troubled mind and heart. And the answer is this: the Spanish-speaking version of Toy Story 3 was released in two different dialects: Latino (as in Latin America), and European Spanish (the kind they speak in Spain). Therefore, in the Latino version, Buzz switches to speak European Spanish. And in the European Spanish version, Buzz switches to speak Latino Spanish. Here is the Youtube clip of the switch in Spanish for those of you who care to view it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKdp1UUi61I Unfortunately, I am not awesome enough to know which version of Spanish is originally spoken and switched to in this clip. But I think my first guess would be a switch from Latino Spanish to European Spanish, since "Buzz se pone flamenco" (the title of the Youtube clip) in this context essentially means "Buzz puts on a flamenco accent". I looked up "flamenco" and it has to do with Spain. But if you know for sure, please comment and tell us!

Continuing with our movie theme, we went to see Harry Potter 7 (part 1) on opening night! We had tickets for the midnight showing at a relatively small, not-very-well-known theater. We arrived around 10:45 pm, and the line was already out the theater door, out into the parking lot, and wrapped most of the way around the side of the building. And it was cold outside - I'd guess around 20 degrees. Everyone was huddled, shivering in blankets. I asked a girl in line near the door to the theater how long she'd been standing there in the cold. She said four hours. WOW. That put her arrival at around 6:45 pm for a MIDNIGHT SHOWING, and she didn't even make it inside the theater! And there were a ton of people in front of her, too, who were already inside the warm theater, who had come even earlier than she did! I bet the lines were twice as bad at the more well-known theaters, and even worse at the ones with IMAX screens! People are crazy.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, there was predicted the storm of the decade here in Utah. It was really crazy how far they went; BYU campus shut down completely and they were sending out all kinds of warnings and watches to stay home, etc. Well Wednesday night came and went, but no storm. All we got was a bit of wind and a half inch of snow! It was a real let down. The good snow didn't come until Friday, where we got about 2-4 inches. It was fun to wake up and see the winter wonderland around - although the snow made it REALLY hard to get up our steeply-inclined street. We are starting to like winters here in Provo.

Thanksgiving day was really fun! Originally we had planned for about 5-6 people showing up for dinner (Me and Christian, our friend Chris, one of Chris's roommates, and Christian extended an invitation to the horns who didn't have anywhere to go (what a good section leader!) so 2 of them were going to come). However, once the day came, Chris's roommate ended up having plans, and the 2 horns found family to go to after all. So it was down to us three and a 17-lb turkey. We did the turkey right this time (in an oven bag) and it came out DELICIOUS!!!! It was so juicy and the dark meat actually got done. We played some games and watched movies. It was great! Here is a picture of Chris and Christian with our feast:and of me and Christian at the feast:

and a video of our delicious turkey.

For Christmas, Christian had to play in the band at a bowl game scheduled for December 18 in Albuquerque (he was being transported by bus with the rest of the band). So for Christmas, we planned to find someone off the BYU Ride Board to take me down to Albuquerque for the game, where I would meet Christian and drive down the rest of the way with him. I didn't want to drive myself to Albuquerque because I wasn't comfortable with a 10 hour drive on the road alone. So we found this lovely couple on the Ride Board that was going to Arizona that I called up and they agreed to drive with me.

So then the night of December 16, (we were going to drive down there on morning of the 17th) I called them up to find out when they were planning to get to my house. They then sprang the news on us that, "Oh, I actually don't think we'll be going. Yeah, we're not coming." So suddenly, I had no way to get down to Albuquerque. What ended up happening was that Christian went to the bowl game, then came back with the band to Provo. Two hours after he arrived in Provo (he came home and showered and packed a few things), we left to go the exact same route down to Houston (straight through Albuquerque, where he'd only been about 12 hours before).

We made it to Houston a few days later than we'd planned, but we still had a great Christmas break. We spent up through Christmas at Christian's parents' house, cuddling our adorable newest niece (Bekah):

and nephew (Aaron):

(who incidentally are cousins born a week apart), making gingerbread houses,

and just having some overall fun with the family. Then we spent December 26 through New Year's at my parents' house, having parties with my friends and shooting off fireworks.

Overall, we had a blast!

When we came back to Utah, we helped my sister Sarah move in to her dorm at BYU-Idaho. She started just this January as a freshman and has already made TONS of friends, and it sounds like she is having the time of her life! We took her on her very first college shopping trip:

and were with her to witness the very first time in her life where she realized her boogers had frozen - right as she walked up the steps to her dorm for the first time. Priceless.

We did a ton of driving over the holidays, and Christian ended up crossing 12 state lines within 2 weeks (UT-CO, CO-NM, NM-CO, CO-UT, UT-CO, CO-NM, NM-TX, TX-NM, NM-CO, CO-UT, UT-ID, ID-UT), but we really did enjoy our break.

Now that school has started, we are both really busy again. Christian is taking 15 credits. He has resolved to get into the Music Ed program this February - final decision on his major. We both think he'll get in, but he says if he doesn't get in, he will go with Computer Science with a music minor. His favorite class this semester is Astronomy (he took it as an elective), and he really loves it. He tells me all the time about things in the night sky - how that glowing star over there is this certain planet, and how the constellations move every so often because the earth rotates a certain way on its axis, and why all our zodiac signs are "off" now, and whether the moon is waxing gibbous or waning something or other, and how one day the North Star won't be in the North anymore, and so on. We keep planning to go on a date to the star-gazing place with a big telescope in the Eyring Science Center on campus, but every time we plan to go, the sky ends up cloudy and the place closes.

I'm taking 18 credits this semester, and am planning to graduate on April 22 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. I'm taking tons of classes and it'll be a lot of work, but I can do it. I've also decided that I want to attempt to get into the BCBA Master's program at Utah State University (a brand-new program only two years old), so that I can prepare for and take the exam that will allow me to become a "national board-certified behavior analyst" and design all the ABA programs and provide behavioral consulting services for parents of kids with autism and other disorders. I think that would be an awesomely fun job, and the pay isn't half bad. The application deadline for this fall is July 1. To get into the program, I have to take the GRE and get a score at or above the 40th percentile, as well as have 3 letters of recommendation, a few essays, and a few other things. I'm scheduled to take the GRE in mid-March, and am taking practice tests whenever I get a chance. It shouldn't be too hard to get higher than the 40th percentile, but I'm still a little nervous. I've heard that this program is new enough that it accepts about 75% of its applicants, so hopefully it won't be super hard to get in.

Anyway, this blog is long enough, so I'll end it here. Kudos for reading the whole thing! Love you all!

Brittany and Christian

The recipe for this quarter (heh) is a really yummy one! It's a meatball with spaghetti sauce recipe that we found that is truly DELICIOUS. They come out so delectably moist and perfectly done.

3-4 cups spaghetti sauce

1 lb lean ground beef

1 c fresh bread crumbs

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 egg, beaten

Bring spaghetti sauce to a simmer. In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients. Mix well and form into small balls. Stir meatballs into sauce. Simmer 30 minutes then serve.