Ada's Letter to Santa

First off - Happy Thanksgiving! There is nothing I'm more thankful for than Al's girls and Alison, Ada and Kate. See Alison's post about the girls here.

Ada figured that she needed to send a letter to Santa this year. She suggested to Alison that she should just take it outside and let the wind carry it up to the North Pole. I countered that suggestion be telling her that we should mail it to the North Pole (I hope she doesn't find her letter in my work bag. I'd better hide it)...

Here is her letter to Santa (we try and help on the spelling, but she often just tries to wing it on her own):

Translation:

Princess makeup

Princess instrument set

Sleeping Beauty house

Pillow pet

Rainbow dash pony bicycle

I also had her address an envelope to Santa:
To Santa

From Ada Squire (notice the Squire reads right to left).

Let's just say that Santa got the message and it should be a good Christmas for little Ada.

Squire Holiday Times - Volume III

It's Christmas Eve and we finally got our family newsletter out. Most of you probably received this over the e-mail, but if you didn't, click on the photo below to be taken to an online version (use the Forward to a Friend button at the top to send yourself a copy. It will automatically subscribe you to our future mailings). We hope that everybody has a safe, healthy and happy Christmas!

Good Luck Charm?

Al and I have gone to two Jazz games in the last 8 days. The first game was against the Dallas Mavericks the day after Christmas. Previous to this game the Jazz had lost 9 of 11 so the outlook was not good. While Dallas has been playing nowhere near the level that they were playing at last year, they are still a rather formidable opponent. Luckily, The Blonde Bomber (Nowitzki) was only 3-10 from behind the arc and Jason Terry finished the game with a big goose egg going 0-10 from the floor. The Jazz started the game on a 16-0 run, but the lead was all but gone by halftime. The Jazz eventually came away with a win 99-90.

We again went to a Jazz game on New Year's Eve (Al gave me tickets for Christmas). This time around, the Jazz had to play the streaking Trailblazers. They came into the game sporting a 12 game winning streak (with 2 of those wins coming against the Jazz). After beating Dallas, the Jazz lost games against the Lakers and Celtics. This second game was more exciting than the first because it was a pretty close game for most of the time. It's hard to say how the Blazers are so good. Greg Oden (#1 draft pick from last year) is out rehabbing his knee, and I think that I read somewhere that the Blazers are the 3rd youngest team in the NBA, of ALL time (I cannot cite where I read this, and I am not going to do the appropriate research to verify it, so take it for what its worth). The highlight of the game was the play of new Jazzman Kyle Korver (acquired in a trade with the 76ers two days before). Almost everybody agrees that he is an improvement over Giricek and it will be interesting to see how he fits in Sloan's system. The Jazz played a very balanced game (with 6 players in double figures). They again came away with a win 111-101.

Obviously Alison and I are a bit of a good luck charm for the Jazz. LHM, how 'bout some free tix?

Squire Holiday Times - Volume II

I planned on posting this earlier, but I had some problems hosting the html file. Anyways, click on the picture below to be taken to Volume II of the Squire Holiday Times (the lame e-mail message that Alison and I send out each year). Most of you hopefully received this, but if you didn't then use the "Forward to a Friend" link at the top of the message, forward it to yourself and it will automatically subscribe you to our mailings. This is a good place to comment on how cute all those pictures of Ada are :>).

Christmas Treat

**Update** - I had forgotten where I had first seen this video. It turns out that I originally saw it on this post from Clark's blog - gotta give credit where credit is due.

Once again, I hope that everybody had a Merry Christmas. Here's a little video treat.

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

This is one of my favorite times of the year - and this year has turned out to be especially nice. It's always hard for me to really get into the Christmas spirit because I refuse to think about it until finals are over. This year, however, finals ended a little earlier than usual and I feel like I've made the most of the time that I've had. Alison has done a fantastic job making our house all festive and baking lots of goodies that we've shared with friends and neighbors. She also took care of all of the Christmas shopping and finished most of it a couple of weeks ago (I haven't been to Wal-Mart in months!). This has allowed us to enjoy the time together as a family without a lot of the stressful hustle and bustle of other years.

I love Christmas music (well, most of it at least). If I didn't like non-Christmas music so much as well, then I would gladly listen to it the year round. I love eating all of the junk food and treats that happen to find themselves in my way. I love the traditions that our families have (and the traditions that Alison and I are implementing in our own family). Traditions give us things to look forward to all year long - and I think that they are a big part of the reason why Christmas is so special to everybody.

My favorite part of the holidays, though, is spending time with family and friends. I love reconnecting with people that you may only see or hear from once a year. I wish that I was better at keeping my connections to people from my past open. I usually do a poor job at "keeping in touch". It's so fun to have everybody in town with all of their kids. Ada just loves getting to know all of her cousins.

I also try to take a few moments at this time of year to ponder our Savior's birth. In doing this I always remember how blessed we are to live where we live, when we live and the talents and skills that God has given to us. I (just like many of you, I'm sure) make an extra effort to help other people out, to be a kinder driver (I'll admit, I'm fairly aggressive - although I tend to look at it as being defensive...), and to share a bit of what we have with others.

I hope that everybody has a Merry Christmas, full of peace and love!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! I love this time of year. It sure gets busy leading up to it though. It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit before the semester finishes so once it does Chirstmas preparations are always on the top of the list. Alison, Ada and I had a great Chirstmas. We love spending time with family and we enjoy it when our siblings and friends are in town.

On Christmas Eve we visited Alison's grandparents and ate dinner by candlelight at the Squires. Cheryce gave me a multimeter that night (that reminds me, I need to take it off my wishlist...). We slept there because Jordan called home from Jacksonville early Christmas morning - for the record, he is doing well. From Santa I mainly got money.

One of the most exciting gifts wasn't even given to me. I did get to unwrap it though. My parents bought a Nintendo Wii for the family. It's pretty dang fun. I think that they may be a little afraid of things like this happening though.

On Christmas afternoon, we went to Alison's parents to eat dinner. We got a very interesting gift there as well. Alison's grandma's father and grandfather were involved in the founding of the Lewiston Bank. She has a lot of stock in the bank and she gave all of the married grandkids some shares of the stock. They pay dividends twice a year. The stock has split 5 times since she has owned it. Each share is worth ~$125. The dividends will be our Christmas and birthday presents for the rest of our lives. It's a pretty exciting and forward thinking gift.

You can read a rundown of Ada's first Christmas here. Alison and I are always amazed by the generosity of those around us each year. We are so grateful for the nice things that people always give to us. Hopefully everybody out there had great Christmases as well.

Family Christmas Photo

We sent out Christmas cards to family last week and this is the picture that we sent with them. What a cute little family!

Christmas Lights

I finally got our lights up a couple of days ago. I wish that I could have gotten them up earlier but, I guess I was a little busy. Can you guess which apartment is ours?

Sissel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert

Alison and I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert in the Conference Center tonite. They had Norwegian singer Sissel as their special guest. It was absolutely amazing. I especially enjoyed hearin Sissel sing. She had an amazing voice. She sang with such power but she was so relaxed. Special thanks to Dan for inviting us!

Christmas Cheer!

I had a little free time this morning and I decided to make this place a little more festive. As you may have noticed (If your volume is turned on), I added a little Christmas music to the landscape. There are 7 different songs and they all play in random order. I'm not going to tell you what they are but you're welcome to stay and listen a bit!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Today was an exciting news. Lots of things to share with the family and lots of exciting things going on around here. First of all, Alison and I are having a baby. She is due on the 25th of July. She will be 10 weeks tomorrow. We are very excited. We shared the news with our families - which I will tell about later. Below are photos of an ultrasound that Alison had last week.

Ultrasound at 9 weeks and 2 days


Ultrasound at 9 weeks and 2 days (2)

What good news for Christmas right?

Our Christmas and Christmas Eve celebrations went very well. We were home most of the morning on Christmas Eve making jello and funeral potatoes that we had to take to our families houses for dinner. Before we went to our parties we went to visit Grandma Lisonbee at St. Mark's Hospital. She is having some breathing difficulties which they are possibly attributing to pneumonia. It was nice to see her, but we were sad that she will be in the hospital over Christmas.

After visiting Grandma in the hospital we went to Grandma and Grandpa Dickson's for dinner. It was fun to see family. Grandma Dickson gave us a book Granny's Silly Little Garden Songs. It is a collection of garden songs that she wrote as well as garden stories, garden drawings and a CD with grandma singing the garden songs. She put a ton of thought and work into this project. It's fun to have.

After dinner at the Dickson's we went to mom and dad's for dinner (#2). It was our traditional candlelight dinner. It was fun with all of the little girls there. After dinner we played the traditional dice game (roll 7, 11 or doubles - pick a gift). During the first round (pick a gift from the middle) Alison and I did pretty well. During the second round (steal a gift from somebody else - the important round) Alison and I didn't do quite as well. We still ended up with all sorts of good gifts. We got a $10 gift card to Restoration Harware, a small reading light, a box of chocolates, gift certificates to McDonald's, Farr's Ice Cream, Wendy's, an uncut sheet of 16 $1 bills, and some other good stuff. It was a fun game.

After the game the siblings exchanged gifts. Kevin and Alysia drew our names and they gave us an electric fondue set. We are really excited. They also gave us all sorts dips and things to dip.

I had Cheryce and was supposed to give her a gift that Mom had. Mom couldn't find it so hopefully it will turn up soon. Alison gave Rachelle an American Eagle hoodie.

Alison and I slept in Rachelle's old room. We weren't in any rush to get up early so we slept in a little bit. When we did get up we opened our presents from each other. I gave Alison some shoes and she gave me a pair of pants and some velcro shoes. Between the two of us we spent $40 (Our budget is a little tighter with the news mentioned above).

We went to Mom and Dad's sacrament meeting. They had a choir Christmas program. After church we waited until everybody was there and then we gave our gifts to mom and dad. We gave mom a small bottle of ham baby food to announce our pregnancy. Everybody was really excited and we were excited to tell everybody. It's quite a load off of our chests.

Jordan called not long after that. We had told him about Alison's pregnancy last week in an e-mail. It was good to talk to him. He seems to be doing well. Morgan was there to talk with him as well. He talked for about 40 minutes.

Alison and I left for her parents house after that. Alison was really antsy to tell everybody the news, but we had to wait for everyone to get there first. We weren't able to break it until after Christmas dinner. Once we did break the news, everybody was so excited. Her sisters all jumped up to hug her as did her mom. We are excited to be able to talk openly about this now.

Alison's parents gave us some gift cards to the Olive Garden, Applebee's and the movie theater as well as some money (very generous). Korrin had me and gave me a Utah blanket that she sewed an edge onto and a screenprinted t-shirt with The Muss and Brent Mussberger on it. It's pretty funny. Alison got a KU t-shirt from Neal as well as a gift card to Michael's for scrapbook stuff. I gave Abby Sense and Sensibility on DVD and some bath stuff, Alison gave Emily some earrings and a calendar.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. On the drive down to Alison's parents we read Luke 2 and about the wise men in Matthew. I actually quite enjoyed the Sunday Christmas. The last Sunday Christmas was in 1994 so its been a while. We are grateful for everyone's generosity. We can learn a little about that.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa

This editorial is one of the most famous ever written. It first appeared in The New York Sun in 1897. I thought that it was just fabulous.

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?
We take pleasure in answering at once thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor--
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
-- Virginia O'Hanlon, 115 West Ninety-fifth street.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.

There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

3 Days Before Christmas...

It's so nice to have a few days off of school. It's nice to have some of the associated stress taken off of my back and it's been nice to just "hang out" a little bit. I've been working a little, watching some of the first bowl games and playing a little Playstation 2 (It's my neightbors).

On Tuesday I went with Mom, Kevin, Alysia and Ellie shopping at the Outlet Stores in Park City. I didn't buy anything, but I was looking for stuff to buy for just about everybody :). Tuesday night I got 1/2 of my home teaching done. I visited the Adams' with Ryan Garlick.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had a dentist appointment. I went to get some fillings and sealants replaced. I didn't have any new cavities last time I went, but they still had to drill out my old fillings and sealants and put some new ones in. At least the new ones are "tooth" colored - whereas my old ones were silver. After that Alison and I went to Cottonwood Mall to do a little shopping. We were able to buy for Rachelle and Emily.

Today I ran errands most of the morning. Lurp (The Geo Prizm) hasn't been starting. I think that the battery is dead (i.e. unrechargeable) and so I bought a new one and put it in. I got the new battery for $40 at Wal-Mart and the similar battery was $60 at Pep Boys. I read a couple of months ago that Wal-Mart's batteries were actually rated higher than any others. It was a surprise even to the editors if I recall. Tonight, BYU played Cal in the Las Vegas Bowl. It looked many times as if BYU was going to get killed but they were able to always stick in there and they only lost by 7. I don't normally cheer for BYU but I would like to see the Mountain West win all of their bowl games. It would be nice for the conference. While the game was going on I made nutty buddies (the peanut butter, chocolate and powdered sugar coated Chex snacks) to give out to our friends and neighbors. They seemed to turn out well. We'll probably give them out tomorrow.

As far as Christmas goes, I getting closer. I still haven't made any purchases for Mom and Dad, but I think that I've got everyone else covered. Other than that, everything is going well. Looks like it's time to go feed my frog.

One week to Christmas...

So it was a pretty busy weekend.

On Saturday we were supposed to have a ward service project (provided by the Elders) but it was cancelled. I was then really looking forward to sleeping in. Alas, that wasn't to be because by 6:00 Saturday morning, I was done sleeping. I guess my body had acclimated itself to arising early because of Finals Week. At 10:00 we had the ward Christmas party at the Union building. We had the bowling alley rented out for 2 hours and had pizza. Bowling - went ok. I bowled an 85, 137 and 105. If only I were consistent.

After bowling we had a little bit of time before we went to watch the Utes play Arizona at the Huntsman Center. They pretty much got killed. The Utes are just too "soft" of a team this year. Within a year or two they will be pretty good (at least better than they are now). The AP article of the game is here.

Mom and Dad came over to our apartment afterwards to wrap some presents. They gave us a ride to Chuck-a-Rama where the Squire Christmas party was held this year. Alysia, Kevin and Ellie were there. This was the first time that we got to see them since they arrived. After dinner we sang a few Christmas songs before Alison and I had to leave to get to the U2 concert at the Delta Center.

I bought tickets to watch U2 on ebay last week with some leftover birthday money. It was an awesome concert with an amazing stage and sound. Our original tickets were "rear view" but when we got to our seats somebody was already sititng in them and they offered to trade us tickets. We traded and the new seats were loads better than our originals. There were more than 26,000 people at the concert (the D.C. seats 19,911 for Jazz games) and it sold out in under 2 hours. Well worth the money. Here is a website with lots of good photos of this tour (unfortunately no photos of Salt Lake City, but they're all the same). Here are a few photos of the show in Salt Lake by the Deseret News from the article here.

After the concert I had to write a talk for sacrament meeting. It was on Christmas and the Savior (not a tough topic). It was part of the choir program, but I was the concluding speaker and it's always hard to know how long to prepare for.

On Sunday morning at 7:30 there was a Stake General Priesthood meeting. It wasn't too bad. It was followed immediately by Ward Council and then by choir practice. The choir program in sacrament was ok. It didn't turn out quite as well as we hoped (the singing that is). My talk went well. I had to give the short version because there were only a couple of minutes left when it was my turn to speak. It was my first day conductin in Elders Quorum. I am still the executive secretary as well because a replacement hasn't been called yet. I am looking farward to when they do.

After church I had a PPI with President Hunter and the rest of my presidency. It was the first time that we have met together and it went well. We have a lot to do. Bishop Moffat also had an open house for the ward today. He invited everybody over for farewell style food. He is a great bishop and we will miss him when he is released. (He an his wife announced last week in sacrament that they have been called to serve as mission presidents).

Dinner tonite at Mom and Dads was nice. It's always fun to see the nieces. I e-mailed Jordan today for permission to post his letters to a blog and it was granted. If you are interested, visit http://eldersquire.blogspot.com.

Ahh. December.

Christmas is quickly approaching. This only means a few things. First off, Finals are coming quickly. For me, they actually start on Monday and run through next Friday. Today was my “reading day.” What did I do today? Hmm. Not read much unfortunately.

My first final is on Monday and will actually be the most difficult for me. It’s in ECE 3500 (Signals and Systems). I’ve actually found the class to be very interesting. It’s been tough for me to answer questions the way that they are asked by the teacher on the quizzes and exams. I’ve got to get a pretty good grade on the final if I want a decent grade in the class. On the final exam we are allowed one sheet of notes but no calculator. Now, if only I knew how to integrate….

My next final is on Wednesday. It is for my math class (PDE’s or Partial Differential Equations). This exam could very easily be the hardest one material wise but the teacher has proven to only test moderately difficult. We are allowed to use our notes, books, calculators, etc. That makes it easier to be able to take the exam when time is short. I should have an A out of the class – unless I bomb the final.

On Thursday I have a final in ECE 3110. This class is Engineer Electronics II. It has mainly focused on microelectronics and circuit design. I’ve enjoyed the class but it’s been a lot of work (they all have). Right now I have an A- in the class. If I do well on the final I should be fine, especially after the curve is put in place.

My last final is in ECE 3300 Electromagnetics and Transmission Lines. This class has probably required the most time overall. The final exam will be 4 hours (from 6-10 AM). I should be able to do quite well on it if I study hard. I will sure be glad when this test is over.

I know that what I’ve written so far today isn’t exactly the most interesting stuff, but it’s what consumes my life right now. Some days it seems that all day every day is engineering. That’s not really a bad thing because it’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life but, when I’ve got homework, tests or quizzes that I should be studying for or doing on the back of my mind it takes the fun out of relaxing.

Alison has been a little sick the last couple of days. A fever mainly, so not really anything too bad. Still it’s not fun for her and I hate it when she's feeling bad. It’s sure been hard to study the last two days because she has been home sick from work. It’s been tough to force myself to focus. I will sure need to tomorrow because it’s my last day to study for my Monday test (the most important one). At there won’t be any college football on TV to take me away from my studying. That’s always a struggle during the fall.

Tonite we won the 400 court door-decorating contest. I hung a couple of strands outside our apartment. I think it looks great. From what I can tell, we have more lights than anyone in the village. I’m sure when I grow up and have a real house, I’ll be one of those guys that just totally over does it with the Christmas lights. That kind of scares me. J

I’ve obviously got nothing too exciting to report. The Jazz got killed tonite, at home, by the Seattle Supersonics. They’re only 3-8 at home so far this year. Ouch. At least they’re playing a little better on the road.

Tonite we were supposed to go to Temple Square to see the lights with our ward. We didn’t go because Alison wasn’t feeling well. I hope that it was well attended. On that note, I will leave with a photo of Temple Square at Christmas time and I will go to feed my fish.

Good night.