Karl and Angela Rees

We both really hate finals, now, but fortunately they’re almost done. Karl had finals last Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning, and Friday morning, plus a take-home final (which sounds a lot easier than it really is) that he did this weekend and turned in just this morning. Now, all he has left is another take-home exam and a final on Thursday afternoon. Plus a brief he has to turn in before Christmas Eve. For those of you who have never taken a law school final, count yourself lucky. But Karl feels that so far he’s doing better than he did last year.

After his final last Tuesday, Karl took his first real break since Thanksgiving. So after a long nap, we celebrated by having a long date night and FHE. We did Christmas shopping and got ourselves a real Christmas tree (we even haggled for it, how fun). It smells so good. Karl always had artificial trees growing up, so the smell was kind of new to him. We’re amazed how quickly the tree is drinking water.

Angela had some fun while Karl studied this week. Wednesday she went to her book club (even though she hadn’t read the book), and Friday she hung out with Tina all day. They got their hair cut, had lunch, went shopping, and watched “Bride and Prejudice” downstairs. (And then Angela watched it again with Karl on Saturday. We both agree, it’s a pretty fun movie, although Karl wonders how accurately it portrays life in India).

Friday night we had a ward Christmas party. It was fun, but also a bit stressful because we both had to sing in two numbers for the program. The most stressful was the Elders Quorum number at the end. Karl had been put in charge of it. He’d assumed no one would want to sing, so he’d just tell all the dads to come up and sing Jingle Bells for their kids. Instead, he got a good response from five guys, one of whom played the guitar, and they decided to do “O, Holy Night.” But come Friday, only Karl and the guitar player were there at the start of the party. Now, as you may know, Karl sings bass fairly well—but there is no way he can hit the high notes on “O Holy Night,” so he was very nervous for a while. Fortunately, the rest of the guys showed up in the end, and besides a rather humorous incident involving dropped sheet music during the second verse, it went well. So Angela claims.

Angela’s been a little sick this weekend with cold-like symptoms and an upset stomach. It’s the first time either of us has been really sick since we got married. She’s getting better, though. And Karl actually kind of enjoys the chance to take care of her, since she’s been taking such good care of him during finals.

Karl decided to get himself a new phone after his final on Friday—his old one was dying, and Sprint was offering a big discount on a new one. So now he has a new toy—an LG PM325 for those of you who care. It’s really no more exciting than his last phone, since the only new feature—a very poor resolution camera—is virtually worthless (he would have gotten it without a camera if they actually made Bluetooth phones without cameras). But it does seem to have more reliable service, a nicer screen, and a battery that isn’t dying constantly.

It’s so cold here. It seems colder than Winters in recent memory. It hasn’t been above freezing all week, and the snow doesn’t appear to be going away soon. Our garage/driveway area is literally an ice skating rink, as a stream of ice sliding from the roof down the side of our house has slowly been pooling in it for the last week. The weather makes it hard to want to do anything outside (like go running, though Karl did sneak in an hour of Frisbee on Saturday). But maybe we’ll get the courage to do something adventurous outside once finals are over.