Dear friends and family,
This has been a wonderful year for the Farrer family! We are especially excited to have our whole family here for Christmas this year. Here is a summary of our year:

It was the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America and the Grand Teton Council celebrated with a Jamboral. It was well attended and a lot of fun! Clarke also went to the National Jamboree in Virginia. While he was gone Nancy had vinyl trim added to the house and had the driveway resurfaced. That’s what happens when he leaves for three weeks! He is the president of the Young Men and Venture advisor in our church and loves it. Nancy finally finished a dual degree in Early Childhood Special Education at BYU Idaho and will be student teaching (again) for the next few months. We both travelled to NJ to pick up Shawn from his mission and took a side trip to Connecticut to visit some of Nancy’s old high school friends. We visited Palmyra New York and walked through church historical sites. In August we flew to Texas to watch Clarke Douglas graduate from Texas A&M with a degree in Recreation, Parks and Tourism. He and Bethany are living with us until he finds a job with the National Parks or Forest Service. We love having them here. You’ll often find their Benjamin standing on top of counters and inspecting Nana’s pretty things. Clarke is working as a teacher’s aide and Bethany works at the hospital ER. Daniel graduated from BYU-I in April and is now attending graduate school at Idaho State University, working on a degree in marriage and family counseling. He and Sarah bought a cute house that’s just a mile from us. Wyatt was joined by a new baby sister Bella, who was born in January. We love having our grandchildren close! Shawn returned home from a mission to Morristown, New Jersey after an honorable two year service. We had the great honor of meeting some of the faithful members of our church who live in that area. Shawn will be attending BYU Idaho in January. Amanda and Derek are continuing their education at BYU Idaho. Amanda will be finished with college a year from now with a degree in Elementary Education. She is super enthusiastic and will make a wonderful teacher. Derek is working on his degree in Mechanical Engineering and is currently searching for a summer internship.

We are grateful for this time of year to remember the birth of Jesus Christ.
We send our love to all of you, our friends and family.

We have our full family with us for Christmas this year. Now that Shawn is home from his mission we are all together again for the first time in three or four years. We are continuing with our gingerbread house tradition--with typical Farrer sense of twisted humor.


Shawn's house. If you look closely everything is color coordianted and symetrical. He's a little OCD.


Clarke's & Bethany's Mobile-home. Note the toilet in the yard and the outhouse.


Amanda's & Derek's House. Santa fell through the roof and started a chimney fire. Santa did not survive and there was serious damage to the house as you can see.


Dan's & Sarah's Disaster House. They tried to make a normal house but it kept collapsing, so they got creative.

Merry Christmas!

The Farrer’s 2009 [Christmas Letter]

Clarke continues to direct the Grand Teton Council here in Idaho Falls. Scouting is still going strong thanks to a community that supports the Scouting effort!

Nancy is attending BYU-Idaho to certify in Early Childhood Special Education. Hopefully there’s a job waiting for her as soon as she certifies.

We traveled to San Francisco this summer to attend our nephew Mike Reed’s wedding. It was a lot of fun being with several members of Nancy’s family. However, driving though millions of crickets on the highway on the way back was disgusting!! The noise! The smell! UGH! We also went on a 30 mile canoe trip down the Snake River. We swamped the canoe twice but we had fun and plan to do it again. Our summer vacation was building a patio in our back yard. We had to move 12,000 pounds of rock by hand.

Clarke D., Bethany, and Benjamin (15 months), are living in College Station, Texas, while Clarke finishes up his degree in Recreational Management at Texas A&M. August is his projected graduation month. We are proud of him! Bethany flew up to Idaho Falls with Benjamin in July. It was so good to see them. It’s hard to live apart from them. We’re watching Benjamin grow up on webcam.

Daniel, Sarah, Wyatt (18 months) are living in Rexburg while Dan finishes up his degree in Psychology from BYU-I. He expects to graduate in April. (Hooray!) In January, we’re expecting Bella, our third grandbaby. We’re so excited—but not as much as Sarah is.

Shawn will finish up his mission at the end of March. He’s been serving in a rough part of Newark, New Jersey, and LOVES it. He’s had several baptisms and has grown to love the people he works with and the area/ward that he lives in. Clarke and Nancy both graduated from High School in New Jersey and Connecticut so we’re going to take a stroll down memory lane when we go to pick him up.

Amanda and Derek also live in Rexburg where they both attend BYU-I. They’re busy and happy and are enjoying life. Amanda is working on her Elementary Education degree and Derek is studying Mechanical Engineering.

We love Idaho and the Lord has truly blessed us and our family. Everyone is healthy and happy and firm in their testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Season’s greetings with love and best wishes from,

The Farrer Family

Christmas Morning at the Farrer's

Christmas Eve at the Farrer's

Look what's happening at our house . . .

The finished products:

Merry Christmas!

Well, the year-end rush at work got the best of me this year and I feel like a Scrooge. No cards, no gifts, and no time left--Christmas is here. But the spirit of Christmas is in our hearts!

Shawn is in northeastern New Jersey spreading the gospel. [http://farrerawaynj.blogspot.com]

Dan, Sarah, Wyatt, Amanda, and Derek are all “home for the holidays” with us. Clarke, Bethany, and Benjamin are coming over the river and through the woods in two weeks to join us for a late holiday celebration and we are excited about that. We will have the whole family together for one wonderful week.

We haven't sent any cards out yet, but when we are all together in January we are going to have a family photo taken and we will send that out with a Happy New Year greeting to family and friends. In the meantime, enjoy the Holidays with your family!