The Last Saturday Six of 2016

It's the last Saturday Six of 2016! Thanks for playing along with the links each week. It's fun to share them with you and I plan to continue right on into next year! :)


One.

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Since some of you may be committing to healthier eating habits starting...you know...tomorrow...I thought I'd share this link to the best of 2016 from the Recipe Runner website. I just happened upon that site this year and am looking forward to trying several from this list, actually!


Two.

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I. Just. Absolutely. Loved. This. Idea. Read up. I think this would be such a fun thing to host!

Three.

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Found this post this week, which has a Scripture/discussion question calendar that would be great for personal reflection or starting conversations with your kids or spouse, and there are also a handful of free Scripture art printables. If you're looking for some new art/traditions for 2017, check it out!

Four.

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And speaking of calendars, I happened upon this site this week that has free 5x7 calendar printables for 2017. So if you need a calendar just to reference dates {no squares to actually write in}, this is a cute one to print and hang wherever!

Five.

I've never done this before, but curiosity got the best of me, and I had to see what all the "best nine" fuss was about on Instagram. I wanted to know what my 9 most liked pictures of 2016 were...and some were no surprise, but others were! It was a great trip down memory lane from our journey this year. Fun little thing to do! 

Six.

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I did finish a book this week, bringing my total for 2016 to SIXTY books - can you believe that? WOW! I had no idea it was that many until I just now counted them! But I'm holding off my review on the one I read this week, because I need to post it in a specific time frame in January. But in the MEANTIME...I found this fun challenge for reading that I thought I'd pass along to you. I know reading a book {or more} a week is not everyone's gig, and that's totally fine. But now and then it's good to stretch outside your reading comfort zone. Maybe this will help! 

What I Learned in December

Tomorrow is the last day of 2016 {WHAT?!?!?!!?} and I'll be Saturday Sixing, so I thought I'd tell you today all the things I learned this fine month! So, without further ado, I present to you...

1. Christmas trees {at least around here} are much more affordable from a grocery store lot than a tree lot.

This is the first year of our marriage that Ryan and I did not go to a Christmas tree lot to cut down our own live tree. We had planned to, but weather changed our plans and we had to come up with an alternative at that point, because of time constraints. We went to the grocery store, where all the trees in the lot were the same price and ended up getting the biggest, nicest tree we've ever had...for the least amount of money we've ever spent!

2. You can buy cream cheese in big box bricks - like Velveeta cheese!

Did you know that?? Ryan and I were meandering through the Sam's Club samples earlier this month, and one of the ladies was in the middle of assembling this croissant/prosciutto/cream cheese thing, and I have no idea what sales pitch she gave, because all I could see was this GIANT brick of cream cheese. I spent the next five minutes hunting the refrigerated section for it. If you're making a bunch of frosted cookies, it is way more cost-effective than buying a bunch of little boxes at the regular store.  

3. I. Am. So. Over. The. Endless. Colds.

I got sick in September. Then, over six weeks later, I got well. Then I got sick again on Thanksgiving. Then I got well. Then Ryan got it. Then he gave it back to me. We're tired of being sick. {And yes, we're eating well, drinking lots of water, washing our hands, getting rest, taking vitamins, swimming in oils, and doing all the stuff. It's just a rough germ year.} I do think we are officially on the mend now. And fortunately, I don't think we managed to RE-get it at any of the Christmases where others had it!

4. Ryan wishes the yule log channel played year round.

Do you guys watch this channel at Christmas? The yule log and the music? Ryan LOVES it and if it played all year - even if it played CHRISTMAS music all year, I think - he would watch it! I fear for the day it goes away and he has to resume watching regular programming!

5. I am terrified of sledding.

Even if sledding is done on ice down a short driveway. This photo proves why. I'm sorry, Ryan, that the toboggan run is never happening.

6. The cookie scoop has revolutionized my baking experience.

I've developed a fond affinity for cookie baking, and I mentioned in passing that I would really love to have a cookie scoop to make it go faster. My award winning husband showed up later that same day with said scoop and gifted it to me. First of all: swoon. Second of all: cookie scoop FOR THE WIN!!!!! {He also got me that spatula that removes cookies from the pan four at a time. BONUS!}

7. When at a loss for a gift idea for your husband, check Twitter.

 I needed one good gift to kick Ryan's stocking gifts out of lame and into cool, and I was STUMPED. To take a break, I scrolled through Twitter and found that Beth Moore was having a similar issue finding a gift for her husband. She asked Twitter what she should get, so I popped right in and read every answer. And that's where I found the idea for a drone. I have seriously never seen Ryan so excited about a gift in his whole life. Thanks, Twitterverse!

8. Creatures with eyes should not be on buffets.

 No. Just no. 

9. I should just accept help on building websites.

Last month I reported that website building was not for the faint of heart or the technology challenged, and I'm both. Well, one of my friends happens to have gifts and skills in that area, and after she learned I was struggling, she reached out and offered to help me. I drove a couple of hours to her house and spent the entire day with her, accepting her help and trying to learn a bit of the trade. Made. All. The. Difference. In. The. World. Julie, you are a rock star!!!

That's it! I'm as smart as I"m going to get for 2016! We'll see what kinds of things I can learn next year! :) 

A Little Time with My Sweetie

Well, I had planned to round out our Christmas recap today, but alas, our first scheduled celebration still hasn't happened! Christmas with Ryan's family was scheduled for the Sunday before the 25th, but ice caused us to delay it, and then on the rescheduled date of this past Monday, most of Ryan's family was sick. {PLEASE LET THE RECORD SHOW IT WAS FINALLY NOT THE TWO OF US DOWN FOR THE COUNT!!!} So we're still waiting on that one.

Meanwhile, I would also like the record to show that this is the first Christmas in our entire marriage that we've had more than half a minute together, because for once, Ryan had a little time off work! Normally he only gets Christmas day, and of course that is spent hopping from one celebration to the next, but THIS year, his department shut down at noon on Friday, so he got that afternoon off, he worked the shortest Christmas Eve in history, so we had part of that day together. And then, because Christmas fell on Sunday, his department was closed on Monday, so we had that day together too.

Shut. The. Front. Door.

So I thought I'd let you peek into the fun of our weekend!

Friday, while Ryan was finishing up work, I got together with one of my friends from college - along with her two daughters - for our annual Christmas celebration. The four of us went out for lunch, and then they came back here to see our house for the first time. By the time we got home, Ryan was home too, and we all had the nicest afternoon together, hanging out, drinking coffee/hot chocolate, looking at scrapbooks and having much fun. Here are just a couple of pictures from that day:

 The girls loved our counter and thought it looked like a coffee shop. So we were pretending to be baristas and they were ordering. It was fun!

Speaking of coffee, that was the theme of our gift, too! They gave us chalkboard mugs {SWOON!} and the 12 coffees of Christmas.

{Both kids belong to her, even though I currently match the hair color of one. Ha!}

After they left, Ryan and I went on a date: last minute Christmas shopping, dinner at McAlisters, and a quick drive through the lights at the We Care park. It was nasty rainy out, but we had a great time!

Saturday was Christmas Eve, and we had dinner/Christmas with Ryan's Dad's side of the family. His grandma does ALL the cooking, and she is amazing. She's a fabulous cook!

{When the Colts play during a Christmas celebration, you may find Ryan hiding on his phone. HA!}

And then Monday, we had a whole day together! We went out shopping for some after-Christmas sales, which is one of my favorite things to do, and it was more fun to have him with me!

He loves to eat at the Chinese buffet, but we rarely do, for obvious it's-not-clean-eating reasons, but that day, we went. Someone had a little fun with the food!

Food should not have eyes.  End of story.

Then we came home and Ryan began his practice sessions with Daryl the Drone. Only two objects were broken during the first night of flight. And they're fixable.

It's funnier to watch:

Since we ended up with a free evening, we went to visit Ryan's grandpa - the one who had surgery this summer, not the one I wrote about yesterday - and then we stayed for dinner with Grandpa and Ryan's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Bob!

And then...home to watch a movie. We watched Sully, because that whole story fascinated me back when it happened in real time.

It was a great weekend of extra time together, for which I was really grateful. And now - back to watching Daryl the Drone practice sessions.  

Joining up with Tamar today!

When Christmas Gets Messy

Christmas is supposed to be pretty, isn't it? Twinkly lights and shiny paper. Glittery nail polish {no? just me?} and cheery gatherings. We demand this perfection out of a handful of days that we wouldn't dream of demanding from the rest of the year because let's face it: who can keep up with that?

And for the last couple of days, I've shared with you the pretty part of our Christmas. {Braeya-family-photo excluded.}

But it wasn't all pretty and sparkly. And the part that wasn't deserves to be told just as much. Maybe more.

I've told you many times that Ryan has a lot of family. Part of that is because his mom's side of the family has about a billion aunts, uncles, and cousins. But part of it is because he also has a step-family. And it's our Christmas with them that I want to tell you about today.

We always gather with them on Christmas night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's a tiny house {not like an ACTUAL tiny house, but a small house} and Christmas happens on the sun room just off the kitchen. We eat and talk, take turns leading devotions, sing Christmas carols {including Space Age Santa Claus, which I have STILL not learned in its entirety} and then Grandma passes out presents to everyone.

This family is made up of a group that has come together by a mix of blood and marriage, but you can't tell the difference. "Step" family is a term that I use merely for clarification. It's not how they dole out love. Ryan is loved just as much as any of their grandchildren by blood. And I know I'm just as welcomed as he is, though I came in by marriage.

This year, all the things that always happen at Christmas still happened, but we had something new in the mix this year.

Grandpa's health is not good.

We knew that before we walked in the door Sunday night. We've watched him slowly go downhill the last many months. In fact, I've never truly known him as the man that Ryan remembers from his childhood. The fun-loving, active grandpa who loved to farm had already been subdued by illness before I ever arrived. But I love hearing Ryan's stories of the grandpa he knew and loved, and every now and then I'd catch a glimpse of that man.

{The one I remember most was two years ago at Christmas when I took a photo booth and NO ONE expected him to take a stab at it, but he did!}

That Grandpa wasn't the one we saw when we walked in the door this year. Knowing he was sick and declining in no way prepared any of us for his actual condition, and it was heartbreaking to see.

We ate and talked and watched the kids play together. We sang Christmas carols and then Ryan's brother read Luke 2 to start the devotion time for the year. And when he was done, he said he didn't want to talk about Christmas this year.

And what he proceeded to say was the most beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful, terrible acknowledgment of the truth before us. The entire house was silent except for Grandpa struggling to breathe and Rod's voice speaking aloud the truth no one wanted to say. And we were all relieved he said it. And then he went on to do something that reminded me of what I imagine it was like in Bible times when patriarchs reached the end and responsibility for the family was passed to the next generation.

Rod praised Grandpa and Grandma for their choices and perseverance and decisions - all of which have led all of us to be the people we are. He honored them out loud for the good and extended grace for the hard. And then he prayed over every single adult male in the entire family by name - whether those people were there or not - and over their specific lives, work, relationships, and needs.

When he was done praying, Ryan stood up and prayed over his brother {and yes, of course by that time I was a mascara-losing MESS}, and then we all gathered around Grandpa and laid hands on him and prayed for mercy and comfort and healing of some kind.

You guys? I will say it straight up. I am not a sickness kind of person. I'm not good with it. It makes me panic and feel sick and we will not even discuss what it does to my blood pressure. I have no future in health care. I was scared out of my mind to be there in the midst of such heartbreaking illness.

But those moments of acknowledgement and honoring and challenge and praying and hands-on-loving in the middle of heartbreak were moments I will never ever forget. I could feel them searing into my mind and heart.

There was a Christmas tree in the corner with twinkling lights and shiny presents underneath. Christmas was there in the way we ask it to be. But the raw love in that room...the love that awkwardly and messily pushed through the heartbreak of illness...that was a piece of Christmas that was more authentic than any carol or party.

A gift. A hard, awkward, messy gift that will be mine forever.

Freelan Family Festivities

I'll be honest with you: I have no idea what day it is! Sunday didn't feel like a Sunday, yesterday felt like a Saturday...so who knows!!?? I might end up at church today! But I hear it's really podcast Tuesday, so here's the last Spill the Beans of 2016! A little bit of Christmas story, a little bit of looking ahead, and hopefully some fun for you!

 Click here to listen.

I think most of you know by now that my family is a bit on the small side. And some don't live around here, so Christmas is usually a bit more of an intimate affair when it comes to that celebration. One thing we've really enjoyed in the last four years is having Ryan's mom, Allen, and his sister Bre join us on Christmas day. I love it that our two families enjoy spending time together and that they include each other in celebrations like this!

Mom is famous for taking the let-me-get-your-picture-as-you-walk-in-the-door photos, which is also something her mom did when I was a kid. And much like her own mother, the photos often have to be redone to actually give someone a head on their shoulders or something. :)

This was about the fourth try. HA!

We had a low-key lunch, which I loved, actually. BBQ sammiches, baked beans, potato salad, broccoli salad (THANK YOU, JULIE!!!), and cookies and cheesecake for dessert. Delicious!

Julie and I have issues with our food touching, so Mom bought us school lunch trays for occasions such as this. LOL!!!!

You'll notice the photo booth background was up, but we spent so much time eating, opening gifts, and FaceTiming with my sister in Kansas, that we never got around to taking photo booth pictures.

After lunch (and coffee...Ryan brought his newly acquired Christmas vacation mug), we gathered around in a big circle to exchange gifts.

I realize that looking at endless photos of people you don't actually know in real life unwrapping gifts you may not care about could border on boring, so I'll pick some of my favorites that have good stories with them and share that with you today!

My sister Lori always comes up with the coolest themes for her gifts, and this year, the girl-gifts {Mom, Julie, yours truly} theme was "quiet time." So we each got our gifts in a bag we could keep, and all the bags had to do with quietness. Mine was Be still, and know that I am God, which was the theme of the retreats I did this fall. I love that!!! Inside, she'd given me a book, a Wood Wick candle (if you've never had one of those, you are missing out. They are so cool!!) and a mug that holds coffee AND a cookie on the bottom. My. Love. Language.

Because everyone knows bird feeders are THE most riveting gifts. LOL!!! This cracked me up!! How many people does it take to pay attention to Dad's new bird feeder?

The straw hat was the gift. I just thought the black wig added a little something extra that we all needed to see.

This picture cracks me up {many of these photos are the result of what happens when Ryan takes over being the main photographer so I can be IN pictures} because I feel like it's story hour for Mom and she's loving the picture on this page. LOL!!!! In reality, I'd given her some art from Lindsay Letters, and I was explaining to her about the artist and why I love her work so much.

My brother-in-law and I were a little overheated. So we took a break to fan. LOL!!!

Not a flattering photo, but a funny story. Mom heard me say {I think on the podcast recently} that I'd never read The Secret Garden. She happened to have a copy from HER childhood, so she gifted it to me. I was excited to open it and said again that I'd never read it. She said, "Me either. I got it in 1947 and quit about 20 pages in. So it may be an old book, but it's practically brand new. I looked in the front, and sure enough, someone had given it to her and written 1947 in the front cover. And page 23 was dog eared, so I'm guessing that's where she quit! Guess what I'll be reading to open 2017?

Next to the photo of Mom holding a Victoria's Secret bag a few years, ago, this may be my favorite.

Because I feel like this post has not featured NEARLY enough of my handsome husband.

We ALMOST forgot to take a group photo, but we remembered. Now to be fair, my dad does not normally wear a winter coat inside the house, but my mom had asked him to show it to my sister, and he thought it could best be shown by being WORN. And I'm not real sure why he's holding a Clark bar. My mom has my sister Lori on FaceTime.

And here are a couple more.

We were the last two to leave, and when my Mom went to the back of the house to get a curtain for Ryan to hang up before we left, we heard her shout "WE FORGOT TO GIVE RYAN AND BEKAH THEIR PRESENTS!!!"

What???

We had such a stack of spoils that we hadn't noticed we didn't get as much stuff as my sister. Apparently we actually had gotten very little from my parents, because our BIG GIFT was hiding in the back of the house.

Now, before I tell you what it was, I should tell you THIS part of the story too. Early in gift opening, Ryan and my brother-in-law Tom opened these gifts from Lori:

It's a trunk organizer and even comes with a little cooler that fits in one of those compartments. When I was busy taking this picture of Ryan, Mom hollered "It can go on the boat!!" I stopped taking the picture and said, "WE'RE GETTING A BOAT?!?!!?!?"

Apparently she was actually talking to my brother-in-law, Tom, who HAS a boat. But it became a joke that we were getting a boat for Christmas. So when she found this mysterious big gift that she'd forgotten to give us, I said, "IT'S OUR BOAT!!!!!!"

Turns out...not so much.

But we loved the gift very much! Two folding tables and six folding chairs so we can entertain in our new garage without having to borrow/haul tables and chairs every single time we have company! Such a blessing!

And just for funsies, we turned them into a boat.

So that was the Freelan Family Christmas! Maybe a little on the different side from some, but much fun, nonetheless!