What a wonderful life

Dear Santa,

I am having a hard time deciding what I really want for Christmas this year, usually there are a couple large items on my list that I would most likely buy myself if I didn't get them from someone else (something I've done for the past couple years and has resulted in some nice stuff). This year, however, I don't seem to want too much and although there are some expensive items that would be sweet to get such as a mountain bike, a snowboard and snowboarding boots, another gun (you never know when we'll loose a lot of the choices due to government legislation and regulation), and a surround sound system to complete my basic home entertainment system, these items aren't as appealing to me due to recent changes in my life.

As I'm sure you are aware, I have finally found the woman of my dreams, the love of my life, my "one and only", and because she has agreed to be sealed to me for time and all eternity I am finding all of the customary things I ask for are appealing less and less to me when compared to Staci Wilcock (soon to be Staci Andelin)

I have been thinking of a literary character to whom I could compare my soon-to-be bride and I think Desdemona from the Shakespearian play Othello will suffice. Desdemona is known for her beauty, purity and devotion to her husband; Staci fits those comparisons very well. Now Santa don't misundersand me, I am not comparing myself to Othello and fortunately there is no Iago in our relationship (except that one tempter, Satan, who tries to destroy everything good and beautiful), and I am certainly not suggesting that Staci will have a similar fate to Desdemona, I am merely comparing Staci to Desdemona due to her beauty, loyalty, and above all her purity. I love her so much; I have gone two days without seeing her amd my life has felt empty in those two days. She makes me happy, she keeps me laughing, she helps me grow spiritually and helps me see new perspectives to life, she takes care of me when I'm sick and loves to have fun when I'm well, she keeps me healthy by motivating me to eat healthy (and she usually generously prepares the food herself) and by encouraging me to exercise regularly through her example (something I am needing more and more with a desk job). She gives me direction, motivation, and above all she gives my life so much more meaing. I had a realization the other day that from now on all of my decisions will effect her; I am humbled at the trust she is placing in me and I hope and pray that I can live up to that trust.

So as you can see, my life is so much better with Staci in it. But that is not all that is going well for me; I also have been blessed with a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior so much; I am reminded of one of my favorite lines from a fantastic movie, "Amazing Grace"; the priest who was a former slave ship captian says a very profound yet simple line towards the end of the movie (and his life) "I can remember two things, that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior". Sometimes I wonder why He is so merciful towards me; the scripture in D&C 18:10 comes to mind, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God", I am humbled to realize that the worth of my sould is also great in the sight of God.

So as you can see, my life is very good right now and I foresee it only getting better regardless of what I get or don't get for Christmas this year. I hope you don't take that the wrong way; I really do enjoy receiving gifts and I really appreciate the effort you go through to get the right gifts for the right people, but my happiness is not related to my material possessions (but they're still nice). To show that I appreciate receiving gifts as a simple gesture of friendship and love (I say simple because it is just one of the many ways to show these things and it is not necessary either) I will attempt to right down some smaller items that would be nice to receive on December 25, 2008.

I realized the other day that I don't have very many whit Sunday shirts; I would prefer nicer shirts, with some texture, French cuffs (not necessary), and a wide European collar (pretty important). I don't want any ties though, I am a little too picky with my ties and I don't want you to feel bad because you bought me a tie that I won't enjoy wearing.

Some how I have lost most of my black socks that I received last year for Christmas; I'm not sure how that happened but it did and again this I could use some black socks, I prefer the thick kind.

I am a fan of Church books; Hugh Nibley books are good as well as books written by Apostles, but no LDS fiction.

I think Batman: The Dark Knight is coming out soon on Blu-ray, I would absolutely love to receive that.

That is about it, if you come up with something that you think I'd like then I'm sure I will enjoy it, you have bben doing this for a long time and I trust your judgment. Oh, I just remember that next to my fiance the other great gift I have already received is for my parents to be able to come to our wedding. Those two things have made my life great.

Merry Christmas

PS. I trust I'll be getting the customary orange in my stocking right? :)

Dang, We look good!

Here are our pics,
Tell us what you think
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Many thanks to Jed Brown and Stephanie Calton for helping make these pictures look so great.

Election Day

I have been thinking about politics and the future of America a lot recently, as I'm sure a lot of people have been. I thought I would write down a few of my thoughts before elections are finalized.

First off I want to say that I really don't want an Obama presidency; I do not hate everything about him but there is a lot of his views that I totally disagree with. I do have to admit that there are some things that are admirable about him, first and foremost is he seems to be a genuine family man. He cares about his wife, daughters, mother, and grandmother (who just passed away today, which is unfortunate that she passed away at an already stressful time for Obama). It is true, however, that he has a half brother living in poverty in Kenya although admittedly I don't know all details about that.

Another thing that is admirable about Obama is his ability to get young people excited about politics. I have seen a couple interesting youth groups singing songs and praising Obama, one was a steppin routine done based on exerpts from some of Obama's speeches with the teenagers starting out by chanting "Alpha and Omega" over and over, that I found a bit disturbing. I have read a lot of criticism comparing these youth groups to Hitler's youth groups in Nazi Germany. That is a bit unfair though because even those youth groups were based on community service and serving the public good, they were all just so completely deceived about their leader's intentions.

Then I have to ask the question, what are Obama's motives? I don't know but there are a number of disturbing patterns about his life and associations. He has repeatedly associated himself with the extremists of society, including domestic terrorists, Palestinian terrorist sympathizers, and racist religious leaders. It may be true that these men are not involved in his administration but I see these as signs to what his personal views are, and with a man so inexperienced we have very little to judge him with so why not use all the information we can gather. I am very concerned about what will happen to this country if Barack Obama is elected the next president and with the most recent Fox News poll showing Obama with 50% and McCain with only 43% it is looking more and more likely that Obama will win.

But I must remind myself not to fall into the liberal mentality of the past 8 years where bad news for America was good news for liberals because they could pass the blame onto the Bush administration. (This very well could have been the mentality of conservatives during the Clinton years but I don't remember and I certainly hope it wasn't). I will not become an America hater just because I don't agree with the current administration. I will still pray for my elected officials that they will be able to make good decisions for the great country and that we can stay protected from our enemies and that the wars we are involved in can end as soon as possible with the best possible results for us.

God Bless the USA