Christmas Card 2015

Before I show you our Christmas card from this year, I wanted to tell you that our newest podcast is up! This week we're talking Christmas traditions and wrestling...and no, the two are not related. Click below the picture to hear...hope you enjoy this one!

 Click here to listen

I love mail.

And it's possible that during the Christmas season, I practically meet the mailman AT the door to see what treasures he brought that day, because Christmas card season has arrived!!!!

I know a lot of people have given up the card-sending because it's so expensive, but we still like to send them. We can't send to EVERYONE, though, so I thought I would share the card here for you to see! :) It's a Merry Christmas to you from us!

The front of our card. {Click to enlarge}

...and the back!

Since our anniversary is so close to Christmas, we use the card-sending moment to document each season of our marriage, and our letter matches it. Here's this year's letter, if you want to see it!

No matter what comes our way...with you, I am home.

            And that sums up our third complete season of Shafferland, which we just celebrated on December 2. Actually, the 3rd season began away from home, in Chicago, where we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We did all the Chicago-ey things of visiting the SkyDeck at Willis tower, walking the Magnificent Mile, visiting the Bean, strolling through Lincoln Park Zoo, visiting IKEA for the first time, and having a romantic anniversary dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. And then we came home. 

            At that time, we actually still owned two homes, but on December 11th of last year, 141 days after we agreed to the offer placed on the house, Ryan's Greentown home finally sold, leaving us as one-home owners and greatly rejoicing in this change! It was the perfect way to end a calendar year and begin a marriage year.

            We spent a little extra time in our home in the early part of this year, because in January, I ended up in the emergency room and after a long month of tests, waiting, and  stunning medical miscommunications, I had surgery to remove the gallbladder that has apparently been the culprit of my 15 years of intermittent abdominal pain. I took two weeks of gallternity leave, and Ryan took excellent care of me as I recovered and got back to whatever normal is for me. 

            We continued the adventure we began in 2014 {though we didn't get very far on it this year} of visiting all 92 counties in the state of Indiana. We trudged through snow to visit Huntington County, went home to Howard County, ventured north to Steuben County, and squeezed in a trip to Madison County later in the year...returning to the same state park where we made our relationship official three years ago. We also packed in one last tour right before our 3rd anniversary, crossing Allen County off the list, too! We still have almost 80 counties to go in this adventure, so maybe in the year to come, we can pick up the pace a bit!

            Day trips to counties weren't our only adventures away from home this year. In May, we took our annual birthday trip and drove to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a long weekend away. We drove around in the mountains, hiked 5 miles round trip to a picturesque waterfall, went shopping, had the lovely caricature from the back of our Christmas card made, visited an aquarium, and had all sorts of fun. And then in October, we took our first long vacation since our cruise two years ago. In eight days, we saw seven states and two countries, when we visited Virginia Beach, Colonial Williamsburg, the Cape Henry Lighthouse, Furnace Hills Coffee Roasters, Letchworth State Park, and Niagara Falls. Braeya wasn't too happy with us when we finally came home from that trip. She made us pay for a while.

            As you know, for the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage, we've been double commuters. While we both loved our jobs so much, we were weary of four collective hours on the road each day, pouring our paychecks into our gas tanks, and coming home each night utterly exhausted. Once we only owned one home, we had more freedom to make changes, so our HUGE life change this year was my resignation from WBCL. It was difficult to turn in a resignation letter to a place that so changed the trajectory of my life and also held memories of the beginning of our life as the Shaffers, but we knew we were walking in obedience by making this change. After three months of preparing to leave and training a new producer, I left the station at the end of June, and both of us were eager to see what God had next for our little Shaffer home.

            Actually, our home itself has undergone more change this year. In January, we brought home a new couch, which we named Mo. It converts to a queen size bed and we spent a lot of happy weekends curled up on Mo, resting from busy weeks. {It also came in handy for that gallternity leave and recovery!} We redecorated our master bedroom, relieving Ryan from a three-shades-of-purple sanctuary and transforming it into a beach paradise, minus the beach, of course. And we had a new heating and air system installed, rounding out the changes - hopefully for a long time - on this home of ours.

            We put our house on the market this summer, hoping to move closer to Kokomo and Ryan's work, but so far, God seems to be indicating that our place is here in Marion, and we're learning {to be fair, I'm learning} to be content with our calling for this time. 

            This 3rd season of Shafferland brought so much more with it: a surprise 60th birthday party for Ryan's mom, some speaking engagements for me {one of them was to 350 women - eeek!}, monthiversary celebrations on the second day of each month, venturing into the world of essential oils, photography gigs, hosting game nights and family get-togethers, a new nephew, visits from family, training for a half marathon {that turned into a 5K}, taking a gun safety class and visiting a shooting range, holding our first ever rummage sale, jury duty {that was Ryan's week of fun - he was even elected foreman!} and many other adventures.

            It's definitely been a full year. We're grateful, as we look back to one year ago, that things are so different today. Though going down to one income has been an adjustment, we're grateful for the calmness we've begun to know, having me home each day and able to be a homemaker and pursue writing. {I finished a new book manuscript already, so I'm excited to see where that journey takes us.} Ryan is still driving back and forth to his PTA job in Kokomo and has added a side home health care job to try out that atmosphere and see how it compares to working full time in a hospital. We're excited to begin our fourth season of life together, to begin recording and sharing a podcast about life {we actually already have three episodes under our belt!}, to serve God together in our church, and to wait for His further direction on what He wants from us as a couple.

            A busy, fulfilling year. A year of change. But a year that has made us realize that no matter where we are, no matter what chaos upends us, when we're together, we're home.