Easter!

Our forecast for yesterday promised a rainy, yucky day, and while there certainly were rainy parts, we actually had a fairly lovely day! (Big sighs of relief for egg hunters everywhere, I'm sure!)

We happened to be visiting a church yesterday that was really big and had quite a grand service. I adored singing all the big Easter anthems (in a crowd so big that I could actually sing out and not be heard!) and listening to a piano solo that made me drop my jaw. Such talent! (Ahhhh Bekah. If you had only applied yourself...well, let's be honest. You probably still wouldn't be that good!) Anyway. It was a wonderful way to start the day.

We had a little bit of time in between church and the Freelan family lunch, so we exchanged our Easter baskets here at home. (I had grand plans for coloring eggs and all manner of things, but it was much too busy a weekend. Next year, right? Nevertheless, we kept our basket-exchanging tradition.)

Ryan's basket for me was perfect. I've been joking (not joking) that I'd like to have an open/closed sign to hang on my office door so when I'm in "office hours" I can feel like a real place. He remembered this conversation and found REVERSIBLE CHALKBOARDS that I can use to write open and closed! (And I can use them for other purposes as needed, too!) How perfect is THIS????

Also, props for presentation!

 Also featured in my basket? Chocolates!!!!!!!

Ryan's gift was a bit lame in looks, so I tried to spice it up with a scavenger hunt plan I found on Pinterest! It definitely added to the experience.

The clues were hidden around the house in plastic eggs:

And he had a good time hunting for them!

(His helper had a good time as well.)

He found the prize!!

Funny story about his gift.

We are repainting our (badly peeling) porch this spring and wanted to replace our house numbers while we do that project. We think the ones out there now are hard to see, and isn't visibility kind of the POINT of house numbers? Anyway. We had looked at several kits at the store quite a while ago, so I went to the store this past week and labored over them all, trying to figure out which one would be the best. I finally picked one and came home. (He did not know I had been to the store that day.) That evening, we went there together to shop and he said, "Hey let's go look at house numbers!" I stood and held my breath, alternately terrified that he would purchase some/that he would hate the ones I got. Fortunately he did NOT make a purchase and he had no unkind words toward my choice.

Just in case the sunshine was temporary, we ran out to take our official Easter outfit photo. Now for those of you who caught the end of the shuffle yesterday, I know you're expecting Ryan to be in this:

I'm sorry. He did not buy it. But I think he still looks awfully handsome.

We spent the Easter meal with my family this year, and there were just five of us:

I feel like I've been awkwardly photoshopped into this family selfie.

This was Mom's first hostessing with the mostessing after her surgery, and I thought she did a great job! Good food, pretty flowers, great day!

And after lunch was over, Julie and I went out to the "pet cemetery" where all our dearly departed cats were laid to rest. Kaegan is apparently not the most well-loved in the plot. LOL!!

After we left my parents', we went to Ryan's family Easter, but we were so late, the meal and egg hunt had finished. We stayed for a while to talk, and then we came home.

Hope you all had great Easter Sundays too!!

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!

A Shafferland Christmas

Well, as I sit to write this to you, it's late on Sunday night, and we have had one very full, nice, hard, unexpected, and fulfilling day. That's a lot to ask of one Christmas, isn't it? My mind is still processing all the things that made up this day, but I wanted to tell you about our part here at home!

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, our day looked a little different from what it normally does. We got up early and made a breakfast together. This was a new recipe that one of Ryan's co-workers just gave us on Christmas Eve, but we went to get the stuff for it, and it was delicious. {Not clean, but delicious!} Maple cream praline goodness in a dish. {Pardon my wet hair.}

Then we went to church! Our church did a Christmas Eve service Saturday night that was identical to the Christmas morning service, so people had the option of going at the time that best fit their schedules. We couldn't go Saturday night because of the Shaffer family Christmas, so we went Sunday morning. We sang ALL the Christmas songs, and I loved it! The message was excellent, too!

We had about an hour in between church and my family Christmas, so we exchanged our stockings then. These are the only gifts we exchange at Christmas now, since we've moved to doing a collective gift to each other as our "big" thing.

Braeya went first, and I think she liked her new toy. And her dad.

Oh my word, people. I forgot to show you our attempt at a family photo. Let's just say Braeya prefers to cuddle on her own terms. {aka never.} Here are a few of the shots:

Doesn't it just crack you up???

It went a lot better when it was just the two of us:

Our stockings were fun and I'll show you a few of our treasures:

 {Yes, that is a Christmas Vacation mug.}

And his "big gift" for the stocking...a little toy!

{A drone with a camera, if you can't see. He was pretty excited!}

ALSO excited...

 And then it was my turn!

 {I use the alarm on my phone for a clock, but I had mentioned to Ryan a while ago that it would be nice to have an actual clock for when I wake up in the night and have to fumble for my phone to see the time. We started to buy a clock and then I told him to just wait and put it in my stocking. And then I promptly FORGOT about that, so this was quite a surprise!}

My first grown up coloring book!!!!

 And my "big gift" - which I was SO excited about. There's a house in our neighborhood that has this super cute "hello" on the front door. I comment on it EVERY time we walk by it. So bless Ryan's little heart, he got on Etsy, {ETSY!!!!} and found a shop that made not only a "hello" sign for the front door but a "see ya later" sign for the inside of the front door. I'm so excited to see them on the door!

We finished up just in time to pack up the car and head out to my parents'. {And on the way, we encountered an SUV that had just broken down in the middle of a busy road, so we pulled over and Ryan helped the guy push the car into a parking lot. Another gentleman stopped to help too, which was very nice. Poor guy with a broken car on Christmas!! :(

It was just the beginning of our busy day, but it was a nice beginning!