I decided I needed to post one more time before 2008 is over. Our past two weeks have been busy but so much fun. I don't have pictures right now because I'm at work (shame on me) and my camera is at home. But I will add the pictures later.

• Dec 20th - Stokes Family Progressive Dinner. This is now a tradition on my side of the family. We start at one of our homes and visit all the homes here in Utah, look at their decorations and eat food at each stop. This year we started at Cami and Juan's one bedroom apartment in Provo. I mention the size because there were 24 of us and we shoved into their apartment. We fit with room for 6 more I'm sure when Kelly, Kevin and family are back in Utah. (We missed them and wished we could have fit their home in New Hampshire into the loop). I stole these pictures from Cami's blog. She served yummy breads from Great Harvest. My favorite was pumpkin chocolate chip. YUM!!




• Next we stopped at Paul and Rachelle's home in Lehi. Judson had fun playing in their toy room. We had a salad bar here. It was one of the best salads I've had all year!!
  
• We made a stop at M&D's house in South Jordan. Ginger, Sam, Darren and I made ham and yummy potatoes. It was my first time making a spiral ham. I was nervous, but when I found out it was fully cooked and I was just re-heating I wasn't too worried. I'm always afraid of giving everyone food poisening. It's never happened, but it is a fear.
  
• Next stop, Kent and Steph's. We had hot chocolate and donuts. The hot chocolate was so good because it was a cold day.
  
• Last stop was Heather and Tyler's home in Tooele. By this time we were all hungry again so they made their world famous spring rolls. (Ok, maybe not world famous yet, but their so good the fame must be coming soon.)

It was a fun day with a lot of time spent in a car, but we made it.

Next post: Christmas Parties. ( I just know you can hardly wait. That's why I announced it in advance. )

Tuesday Was Fun

Judson and I visited my good friend Pam on Tuesday. Pam, Shawn and Jackson just got a new home. It is so cute!! They did a great job picking it out. I am so happy for them and super jealous. I guess my new home time will come... I'm sad I didn't get pictures. Jackson is so cute. He's happy and smiles a lot. At one point I told Judson to hold Jackson's hand, and he did. ADORABLE!!!!

After that we stopped at mom and dad Farr's and hung out for a bit. Then we went to Winder Dairy. My family has gone to Winder Dairy at Christmas time for scones and hot chocolate for as long as I can remember. It was fun and Yummy!! Judson wouldn't have anything to do with Santa, as you can see from the picture below. I'm happy about it, though because after my sisters told me that they think Santa had Pink Eye. GROSS!!! Judson did enjoy the candy cane he got from Santa, though. (Yuck, I just thought of the pink eye again. I hope Santa didn't really have that.)

After Winder Dairy we went to the Christmas Utah house. This house has lights set to music. It's very impressive and fun!! They had new elves this year so the show was changed a bit. There was a song by Harry Connick Jr. He's so great!! Anyway, it was a fun, busy day. I'm sure there will be many busy days before the holidays are out. I love spending time with family and going to all these great places and not having to spend much money. SO MUCH FUN!!!

Zach and Jennie

One more thing. Click on the button to the left. Zach and Jennie are trying to adopt and word of mouth is great!! Zach and Jennie are great!!

I've know Zach since he was a missionary in my parent's mission. We've been friends ever since. Zach made an amazing choice in wife choosing Jennie. They would be great parents. I just love them. You can love them too. Read about them on their blog!

Primary

So, Darren and I have been teaching CTR 8 for the past couple of months. Our class consists of 8 - 8 year olds. Well, they are now all officially 8. It has been a fun experience. It's challenging at times because we have to bring Judson with us to class. He cries and falls to the floor when we try to walk him through the classroom door. I think the primary presidency thought he was closer to nursery age. We still have 3 months before that happens. Anyway, I love our primary class. They are so fun to teach and tease. I have always been nervous about teaching primary. I have never known if I would get along with the kids, but it's been great. We only have one more week with these kids. I'll miss them, and I'm sure Darren will too. I'm sure the kids will at least miss Judson. He wanders the classroom and the rows during primary. It's fun to see him interact with the kids. Judson just loves kids. He'd follow them anywhere. With the new year comes a new age we're teaching. We've been assigned to teach CTR 6. We'll have a bunch of 5 year olds. Hopefully for not too long. I'm hoping to find a house first thing in 2009. It will be exciting and fun. I just didn't want to forget how great our primary class is, so I wanted to post about it.

9 days until Christmas!! Yeah!! Are you ready?

Temple Square

On Saturday we took Trax downtown to see the lights. It was fun. It wasn't too cold, that's always a plus. We walked around the Church Office Building plaza and saw a few Nativities from around the world. On Main Street Plaza was a beautiful white Nativity. Shepherds to the north and Wise Men to the south of the reflection pool. Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus were in the middle of the pool. It was beautiful. Although I miss the big red tree on the South East corner of Temple Square, there are many beautiful, bright white lit trees. There are also many orange and pink trees by the tabernacle. These colors are a little un-traditional, but very pretty. We stopped to see the big Nativity and hear the story. There was a concert going on in the Tabernacle so the the sound was off. I think Judson enjoyed looking at all the lights and the people. There were so many people. It was busy, but we were still able to move in spurts and find unoccupied benches and photo ops. We stopped outside to look at the horsies pulling the carriages. Judson got a kick out of that. He was so excited. He was waving his arms and saying "hee, hee." So cute!! I think that was his favorite part of the night. Judson was a little restless on the train, but all in all it was a fun night. I love Temple Square.

This is Judson's "smile". Whenever I pull out the camera this squinty look is what I get. The second picture is just cute. He's all snuggled up in his winter attire.

The lights and the Temple. So pretty!!

The Christus statue is in the back. You can kind of see it, right?

Judson and Darren on the train.

Festival of Trees 2008

I had never been to the Festival of Trees before last year when Cami and Juan invited us to go. It was fun. Judson didn't really know what was going on last year, but this year was a different story. He loved seeing all the lights, the toys, the trees and all the people. It was wonderful to see the discovery in Judson's eyes. Christmas is really so much better when experienced through your child. It's great to watch hime realize what is going on and to have fun with it. Cami and Juan wanted to go again this year and we decided to go opening night. It was fun. My favorite tree was the one made out of glass. It was amazing!!!

Going to the Zoo, zoo, zoo

You can come too, too, too.

I don't even know if that's an actual song or one that my mom made up and sang to us. But it's what popped into my head when Darren and Judson went to the zoo. Here are some fun pictures from last Wednesday. Darren was invided to the zoo by his brother Kevin, wife Pela and their son Tui. It was free Zoo day. Who could pass that up!! I had to work, but we'll be getting a family zoo pass next year. Judson is starting to notice all the animals and loves to see them and learn the sounds they make.

On a completely different subject... These photos were also on my camera. Judson loves watching dancing with the stars with me. On the night of the finale I noticed Judson would twirl and dance while the dancers on TV would dance. I tried to get this on my camera video so I could post. However, everytime Judson saw the camera he would come up to me, squint his eyes, scrunch his face and attempt a smile. It was super cute. I never got video of his cute dancing, but these pictures are super cute, none-the-less.

Happy December

WOW, December came quickly this year. Only 25 days until Christmas. I love Christmas. I can't wait until next year when Judson will hopefully understand what is going on and love all the things about Christmas too. I also can't wait until we are in our own home next year and I can have my decorations out of storage. All our decorations are in storage and are too hard to get to. So, we're just using my mom's decor upstairs for this year. I love decorating for Christmas, so I have really missed this. I did help my mom decorate, but it's just not the same. Oh well.

Thanksgiving this year was fabulous. We spent time with family, over-ate wonderful food, played games and went crazy shopping on Black Friday. It was so much fun. I think I have everything for Judson's Christmas. I plan on getting it all wrapped this week. Darren and I are keeping Christmas limited this year for us. Hopefully in January we'll be able to get our big Christmas gift of a house. That would be great.

Our planned activities for this holiday season are:

• Seeing the lights on Temple Square (we attempted this Saturday evening and couldn't find parking. Take Trax!)
• Going to Winder Dairy for Scones, Hot Chocolate and a visit with Santa
• Christmas Utah house in Murray. (the lights are set to music. If you've never been, go this year. More info at christmasutah.com)
• Festival of Trees
• Watching Christmas movies on ABCFAM and Hallmark
• Family Progressive Dinner to see every one's decor
• Looking forward to visits from Ginger, Sam and Doug and Kristi and fam.

It will be a fabulous holiday season this year. May we all take this time to remember our Savior and all that he did for us and the example he set. What a wonderful time of year set aside just for celebration of Jesus Christ.