Merry Christmas from Shafferland!

We know you're probably super busy today, but we still wanted to send some Christmas podcast love your way. If you can't catch it today, we'll be here whenever you have time!

Listen here.

And even though today is Christmas, we did have an early celebration I can share with you today! Every year, we have a gathering with Ryan's mom, Allen, his siblings, and all the grandkids. Allen and Nita host it in their beautiful cabin, and we eat breakfast for dinner before we open gifts. This year, with Ryan's mom in the rehab hospital, she obviously couldn't host. And since our house is much closer to the hospital than theirs, she wanted to have the celebration here. She felt like this was a commute she could handle. And indeed, it seemed to nearly wear her out even to come this far. We were happy to host it, even though we were a little nervous about having eighteen people fit comfortably inside our little house.

We did breakfast for dinner again, and we thought it turned out really well. Sure, it was a different kind of evening, but Nita was able to get a hospital pass and join us, which was very special. Our home is a far cry from a rustic log cabin, but everyone seemed warm and comfy, so that's what matters!

We set up our garage for the dinner portion. We used all our tables and borrowed more when our supply ran out. We borrowed chairs, strategically places space heaters around the room, and tried to make it look festive and cheery!

We cleared out the living room as much as we could, so there would be plenty of room for people and presents.

Ryan and I did some of the cooking, but Allen made his pancakes, the siblings contributed food, and even my mom shared a pan of her homemade sticky rolls!

Dinner was delicious!

(One of the few photos of me, so I thought I'd give you proof I was there.)

 Allen and Nita - I thought this was a really good picture of them!

 We didn't do any group pictures, but this give you an idea:

After dinner, Ryan shared a devotional reading with everyone. I'd written it, and it was geared more for the kids, but hopefully the message was for everyone! He did a great job presenting it, and the kids stayed pretty attentive. We used my friend Brent's art print as the focal point. Three cheers for a visual aid!

And then it was time for presents!! The kids were so good to wait their turn and pause to appreciate what they got.

Allen and Nita's present from us was the photo shoot from earlier this week. We were able to get the group picture in time to print one and frame it so we could give them an actual gift.

And after presents, everyone hung around for a while, talking, drinking hot chocolate, playing games, and (in the case of some of the kids) spooning sugar onto marshmallows and eating it.

We are so glad we were able to host. It wasn't stressful at all (truly!) but we were a little bit tired at the end. LOL. This is the best we have of the two of us.

Thanks for taking a peek at our Christmas celebration! We wish you a very merry Christmas today!

Much love!!!