The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, our traveling vacation ended, and we had to pack up the car and come home from French Lick. Ryan did an amazing job keeping us safe in the wintry mix that dominated our trip home, and we went out in the snow to the "Kroger Tree Farm" to get our live tree for this year. Old Grizzy was much skinnier in a net than he was all settled into our living room!

* Ryan had Monday off work as well, which was a huge treat, and we enjoyed the whole day together. {I dearly love days when I do not have to share him. I'm greedy that way.} We decorated Grizzy, took naps, and watched football! Perfection. {OH! And he ran his first carpool trip with me. That was fun!}

* Tuesday, neither Braeya nor I wanted Ryan to go back to work, but he had to. And what a poor choice that was. He came home SICK. He ended up with the same stupid cold I've had off and on since the end of September - and it literally just smacks you in the face with no warning. You can imagine how amused the two of us were! So when he came home, he settled in for a nap, and I thought maybe some chocolate chip cookies would fix the issue, so I made a batch. He's still sick, but those were GOOD cookies. I will not lie.

* I spent all of Wednesday wrapping gifts {with the help of my "assistant," and loved the way they turned out! :) My mom stopped by and brought our annual gift of a box of her Christmas candy, which is ridiculously good, and I'm making Ryan eat most of it, because left to my own devices, I could eat the entire box in one sitting. That night, even though Ryan was sick and I told him he should stay home and rest, he wanted to go help his mom haul some Christmas tubs out of a barn loft. So we did that, and in the process, found Ryan's first Christmas ornament! :)

* I'll tell you more about this part this week, but Thursday night, we toured the Seiberling mansion, which is this huge historic house in Kokomo, and for the Christmas season, it's all decked out with trees and lights and much festivity! It was kind of an impromptu date and then it turned even bigger and more fun when we met up with friends and had this big group fun night!

* Friday, Ryan's work provided a Christmas lunch - complete with a quartet singing Christmas songs! How cool is that!?!? We planned to get groceries that night, ahead of the panicked-store-emptying-extravaganza we imagined would happen on Saturday, since snow is predicted, and it turned into a whole date night! We got coffee and drove through the lights in the park - so much fun! {Ryan really is a trooper when he's sick. I am proud of him for how he pushes through when he feels TERRIBLE.}

* Yesterday, Ryan had to work all day, but while he was gone, look who came to visit me! PHOEBE!!!! We cuddled and snuggled and took walks and had the best time! I have been planning and planning a special date for Ryan for the last several weeks, and it was last night! Of course he was still sick, but he said he had fun, even though he didn't feel well. I can't wait to tell you more about it!!