A Petri Dish Christmas

Okay so the truth of it is, there were sick people at EVERY CHRISTMAS GATHERING we went to this year - and about half the station is sick, too. So I pretty much feel like I'm swimming in a Petri dish wherever I go! I've been pumping Echinacea and sanitizing my hands and trying to generally stay far, far away, though traditionally I am not a germophobe. And I'm still not sure I'm out of the woods where illness is concerned, but hopefully it won't be too bad.

But I think the sickest Christmas was the Freelan family Christmas. My sister and brother-in-law drove up from Indianapolis, and Ryan and I went, and since Ryan's family already had their family Christmas, we invited his mom, Allen and Bre to come over for the day as well. That would be the list of healthy people. And THEN there were my parents. Sickie one and sickie two. Dad, especially, was about the worst I think I've ever heard him - with some nasty mcnasterson chest cold thing.

You KNOW he's sick when he skips lunch. WHOA. Hope you were sitting down for that one. I mean, for Dad to skip lunch would be like ME skipping lunch. WHOA. Hope you were sitting down again. I just got you twice in one paragraph.

Mom had the house looking so pretty:

And then there was Dad...

Poor guy!!! We felt awful for him!! From a distance!

Unfortunately for him, he's got some daughters with a bit of an ornery streak. so when everyone opened their eyes after the prayer for lunch, it's possible we all looked like this:

And oh yes. We took the rest of the fam down with us:

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh we crack ourselves up.

We made one for Dad too. With a tooth and everything:

Mom wanted Julie to play the piano, which she did {not without a valiant fight, but no one can win against Mama}. Mom played the audio of me reciting Luke 2 from the King James version, which left me with a VERY red face. Ryan won major points for saying he thought it was darling. {It is not darling.}

Lunch was so good, and then we hit the presents!!! I won't bore you with all the present pictures - but I'll throw in a couple just for fun. {And Nita, THANK YOU for taking over my camera. It was a treat to be able to just open presents and not play photographer for a little while!}

This is actually a cozy for a mug...but given the day, I thought this might be a better immediate use. 

Things that happen while I enjoy my gift...

 We asked for an ice bucket, because we like to have people over for dinner outside in the summer, and we always have to borrow Mom's ice bucket. She got us a fancy pants one. I was SO HOT in their house that I went straight to the freezer and got some ice!!!

 Mom loved this gift. One day on the morning show, the guys asked about the best gift you ever got as a kid. Mine was a Cabbage Patch Kid. Mom said she wanted me to know she listens to me on the air - so look what we got! our very own little dimply elbowed family!

And then there was the family photo: 

Ohhhhhh we slay me!!!!!

Okay here's the nice version:

Merry Christmas from the Freelan Petri Dish!

The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday, as you already saw, was our first Christmas of 2014. It was at Ryan's mom and Allen's STUNNING log cabin in the woods...and we had a really nice time with his brother and sisters and their kids. So much good food. So many lovely gifts. SO MANY PICTURES. Fun fact that will get you nowhere in life...this was our second Christmas with them in 2014 as our Christmas LAST year got postponed until New Year's Day!

* Monday was Ryan's mom's actual 60th birthday, so her kids organized a little dinner-out adventure at Bob Evans. We all gathered for a meal and gifts and fun - and it WAS fun, until we left, and Ryan came down with what I can only assume was food poisoning. He was one miserable boy the rest of the night, and I felt TERRIBLE for him!

* By Tuesday, Ryan was better, and we both went to work...and for me, it was my last day of work this week!! YAY!!!! It was a CRAZY mid-fifties day for the first day of winter. SERIOUSLY!!? Didn't it snow on Halloween? Ohhhh, Indiana. Tuesday night, y'all, I got a massage. And not just a massage. A massage AT MY HOUSE. I told Ryan the only thing I wanted after our house sold was to get a nice massage to work away the 2 year stress of selling the thing. I couldn't find a therapist in town open late, so I found a therapist who makes house calls! She came over, set up her table right by my Christmas tree, and then she worked away all my stress. HEAVENLY. She even brought purple sheets because she knows I love purple! I was happy at the end of that! Went to sleep by the light of the Christmas tree, one happy girl.

* Wednesday was Christmas Eve, and I was off work, but Ryan was not. I worked on some last minute things at home, and when Ryan got off work, we went to our church to take communion, since we weren't going to be able to go to the Christmas Eve service. We hadn't done that before, and it was really a sacred experience. After that, we headed to Ryan's grandma's house to have Christmas with his dad's side of the family. I got to hang out with Ryan and his two brothers, and we laughed until we cried! A great night!

* Thursday was, of course, Christmas day, and we had two celebrations to attend after enjoying our own stocking exchange that morning. The first was with my family - and Ryan's mom and Allen and his sister, Bre, came as well. My parents are sick, so we had a Petri dish Christmas, complete with masks!!! So fun. We also had a photo booth - which ended up being so much fun, we brought it out again that night at Allen's family Christmas with all the cousins, aunts, and uncles. A blast!! It was a long day, and we were pooped by the end, but it really was a lovely Christmas.

* When I woke up on Friday, I felt horrible! Ryan had to go to work, so I moved to the couch and stayed there the majority of the day. Braeya sat with me and was a quiet, good girl. I did feel a little better for a while in the afternoon, so I got up and did some cleaning and sorting of the Christmas gifts. Next year's stash-o-boxes are ready to be stored in the attic!! {I hate buying boxes!!!} Ryan brought home an iced tea to make me feel better and we curled up to watch The Nativity Story for our Friday night date!

* Yesterday was our last Christmas celebration with family...and it was Ryan's extended family on his mom's side. We had a huge and delicious taco bar to eat for lunch, and then we brought the photo booth back...and played all kinds of games...and watched the little kids open their presents. Ryan's grandpa shared with everyone the story of how he became a Christian, and Ryan's mom recorded it so we always have it. It was a really beautiful day {even if I did make a whole bunch of mistakes and ended up having multiple meltdowns - one right there in the middle of Christmas!}

The Saturday Six

One.

Wanted to show you one of my Christmas gift creations! I gave these to Ryan's sisters...the adult kids don't really exchange gifts, but I wanted to get them a little something. I got trays that hold chips on the outside and dip on the inside...added a jar of salsa in the center, put a bag of chips around the back, with a note that says "Tis the SEASON for taco night..." and then added a little jar of my homemade taco seasoning. I found a cute free printable for the seasoning jar here...

Two.

Source

I would like to believe this one falls into the category of something you read on the internet and CAN believe, because it's pretty cool. Days of yore fascinate me, though I'm eternally grateful to live in the age of air conditioning!! 

Three.

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A little PSA for all my fellow coffee lovers out there. BIG recall on the Keurig Mini Plus...reports of water spraying out as it heats and burning people. This affects these versions made between December 2009 and July 2014...so a pretty big range! Here's the link to the full report and what to do!

Four.

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Really cool {LITERALLY!} gift from Ryan this year - the Mega Chill straw. I love my drinks really really cold, and I also drink Advocare Spark every morning, in a cup that's pretty tall. Regular straws get lost in it. So this straw is long enough for my Spark cup AND it keeps my drink cold in there! Pretty cool!   {And yes, mine is purple!}

Five.

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ANOTHER really cool gift I got this year was from my friend Amy...and she said it was on Shark Tank! {So maybe you saw it on there a while back, if you like to watch Shark Tank.} It's called the Scrub Daddy, and it's a scratch free sponge of sorts that cleans in areas that are round, and has a way for you to grip it from the inside so the outside can be cleaning. It has lots of cool things about it...check it out! 

Six.

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You know I love reading KariAnne's blog over at Thistlewood Farm. She said this week that she's going to be part of a free online 8 week study starting in January {along with other bloggers} - in which she'll be sharing her own journey to weight loss. Different bloggers will share different stories, and the whole study is called Becoming: The Unfolding of You. It's a study about finding your identity in Christ. It's free to register, so if you're looking for some inside changes in yourself in 2015, you might want to check it out as an inspiration! 

Our Little Christmas

Did you have a good Christmas yesterday? We had an interesting one...that's for sure! We went to my parents' house for lunch, and Ryan's parents and sister, Bre, joined us. My parents are both sick...and Dad is really sick. I'll show you more of that Christmas later, but let's just say there were many rounds of hand sanitizing and some immunity boosting supplements being ingested! The Christmas Petri Dish of 2014! After leaving my parents' house, we headed to Ryan's grandparents' house, for dinner and Christmas with the extended family.

But before we did all that...we had our own Christmas at home!

You might remember that on our anniversary trip earlier this month, we went to IKEA and found the couch of our dreams. We decided to take money we would have spent on Christmas gifts and put it instead toward the couch. {Please let the record show that I knew Ryan had already done some shopping for me, so I asked at IKEA if it was going to mess him up if we did that little switcharoo, and he said no.}

I still wanted to unwrap SOMETHING on Christmas, so we decided to exchange stockings instead.

We kept our tradition of sleeping by the tree on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas morning, we had cinnamon rolls and coffee {obviously}.

SOMEONE pretended to be on her best behavior. Except, you know, she was not on her best behavior.

Check out this really cool straw I got! I drink Advocare Spark every morning, and the cup I use for it is extra tall, so I need an extra tall straw. AND this one keeps the drink cold while you drink! BONUS!

Sorry for my bedhead.

Had a little help....

New texting gloves, since my old one has a hole in the finger. Ryan claims it's from too much texting. Doubtful. HIGHLY doubtful.

Ryan got his turn too!

THAT is the face of someone very excited about his new e-cloths for washing his car. He does love a clean car!!

AND I got him his very own charger {like the kind for when you don't have a place to plug in a charger} that ISN'T purple! I have one of these, but it's purple, and I know he always feels kind of unmanly when he has to use it. HA!

See? Told you she wasn't behaving. Do you even KNOW how many bows we had to chase down and reapply this month?

Whilst I went into the other room to prepare Braeya's stocking, lo and behold, a gift appeared in our living room!

Like an ACTUAL gift! The kind we weren't buying so we could buy our couch!

And as always, there's a story behind it.

Ryan and I like to browse through TJ Maxx occasionally. One day, I found this ottoman that was PERFECT for our house. We owned two little square storage ottomans that I bought years ago during a back-to-school sale. There were three major issues with these ottomans. One: they matched nothing. Two: They were suede on the outside and black suede ottomans with a white and tan cat = one hairy disaster. Three: The lid to one of them cracked a while back, and constant sitting on it made it cave in completely.

So the one I found at the store was PERFECT. It did match our house. It was leather, so no cat hair issues. And it wasn't broken. And best of all, it had storage too...and the lids flip over to make trays, which is very handy when we try to eat dinner on the couch.

And the next time we went back, it was gone. I was sad. Exceedingly sad. This is why you should ALWAYS buy something at TJ Maxx when you find it because next time, it could be gone and they might never get another one.

So imagine my delight when:

It was in OUR LIVING ROOM!!!

Way back in September, when I worked the Beth Moore event, Ryan went back to TJ Maxx and bought it - and hid it in our attic. When we decided to skip presents in favor of a couch, he planned to return it, but alas, they have a 30 day return policy, so isn't THAT a shame...he was stuck with it!

And I'm so glad.

Even though this meant he was the better present giver this year. :)

It was a pretty great start to Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Shafferland!

Originally I planned to share our Christmas letter with you here today, but after taking communion at church last night, I changed my mind.

Ryan and I usually go to a Christmas Eve service, but our church holds theirs at a time that conflicted with a family get-together, so we weren't able to attend. We were thankful, though, that they offered open doors for communion for a couple of hours prior to the service, so on our way to our Christmas celebration, we stopped by the church to at least participate in that.

Pastor Alex read some Scripture to us, and my mind locked in on a verse from John 1 - "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (verse 14)

We have seen God's glory.

We have.

In 2014, we have seen God's glory.

If you had read the Christmas letter I intended to post here today, you would have read about all our adventures for the year {possibly terribly boring for you since you already read about them when they happened!} - and that would have been the entertaining version. But the deeper version is that tucked into each of those things...we saw the glory of God.

We saw Him in the protection He offered in those long, long months of Polar Vortexing, when we drove for hours each day, just getting to and from work on ridiculously treacherous roads.

We saw Him in the money raised during our Share fundraiser last January, when our listeners shared not only of their resources, but of their hearts as they told stories of how God had been at work in their hearts through the music we played.

We saw Him in our travels throughout the state of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan, as we traveled through beautiful scenery and saw the magnificent creation He made - including the lamb that had just been born and lay, still wet and groggy, in the muddy field beside the road.

We saw Him in the exhausting journey of selling Ryan's house. In the days when we didn't have the strength to wait one more day, and then somehow we did. In the day when the offer arrived, and in the day 141 days later when the house closed and we were free from the burden that plagued us so long.

We saw Him in the remarkable way I was able to get through my dental procedure this summer and the subsequent healing that has taken place in the months following. We saw Him in the prognosis for full recovery.

We saw Him in the vehicle breakdowns - and the one vehicle DEATH - in our household this year. We saw Him in the way He provided loaner cars and a replacement truck for Ryan.

We saw Him in the times we shared together in prayer and Bible study - seeking always to know the next step He has for us and aching to be obedient in following.

We have seen His glory - all year long. Every day. He has been present in our lives and in our hearts, and we overflow with gratitude today.

We pray that you will also see His glory today. That He will be so present on His birthday and show you His love.

Merry Christmas...from both of us...

Ryan and Bekah

Just a Note to You This Christmas

I don't normally copy my own writing to you here...but I wrote the words below for the December e-newsletter we send out for Mid-Morning, and it's just been weighing on my heart to share it with you, since I know not all of you receive that mailing.

For some, Christmas is a beautiful season, full of tradition, full of memories, full of hope. 

And for some, Christmas is a brutal season, full of loneliness, full of brokenness, full of tears. 

We fall into these two camps and it seems like no matter which one claims us, we are made to feel guilty for not venturing into the other. If we struggle, people push us – shove, even – toward the feel-good happiness of the season. We feel obligated to wipe away tears and stuff feelings and be merry and bright so those around us know we’re okay. If we celebrate, people push us – shove, even – toward a hurting world. We feel obligated to silence our celebration so we won’t offend the suffering around us.

May I offer a prayer for you…in both camps?

To the suffering…

Sweet Lord, my friends are hurting. They’re hurting from losses already experienced and losses that loom and consume them. Their hearts rip and their eyes overflow with tears and they see no way that life will ever feel normal again. They’re reeling from news and afraid of an uncertain future. They don’t want to celebrate. They want to sit and hurt because it’s all they know to do. And You know how that feels. You walked among a hurting people. You saw the sick and heart-sick. You reached out and touched them and sat in their hurting worlds alongside them. And so for my hurting friends this season, I pray that You would see their hurt and reach out in ways they recognize as unmistakably YOU. On the days they long for a happier Christmas season, I pray for a measure of joy for their souls, so they can feel Your hope – the same Hope born over 2000 years ago, born in a new way in their hearts. And while their circumstances may not change, I pray they would know, in the stillness, that You are God now as You were God then. Comfort them. Reach to them. Be born in a new way in their hearts today, right in the middle of the hurt.

And to the celebrating…

Sweet Lord, my friends are celebrating. They’re basking in the glorious answers to long-prayed requests. Their hearts nearly burst with a joy they’ve never known and they want nothing more than to soak up this beautiful season in ways they’ve never been able to do before. They’re celebrating births and reconciliations and new relationships, fresh beginnings, releases from bondage and wholeness through healing. They want to shout with joy and sing loudly, and they should. Your birth was a cause for celebration, and this new birth of whatever sort in their lives is no less cause for joy, smiling, and happiness. Reach out to them this season. Allow them the freedom to celebrate the gifts you have given alongside the Gift You gave.

Only in God can something like the birth of the Messiah relate as profoundly to the hurting as to the celebrating.

This Christmas, let’s give each other the gift of grace. Grace for the hurting to hurt…and grace to allow God to work in their hearts to comfort and transform them. Grace for the joyful to be joyful…and grace to allow God to work in their hearts to finish the good work He began.

The First Christmas {This Year}

This past Sunday was the first of our Christmas celebrations this year. We got together with Ryan's mom and step-dad and all his siblings for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. What I love about Christmas with this side of the fam is the chance to see Christmas with a bunch of kids in the mix. I was the caboose in my family, and I only have one niece, and while it was always fun to watch her open gifts, there's a whole separate element of a handful of kids squealing with glee over each other. So much fun! Ryan and I hung out in the back and took pictures of all the gift festivities - and loved it.

Ryan's mom and Allen live in a STUNNING log cabin. Seriously STUNNING. Check it out:

Ryan and I went over early to help with some final preparations, which for Ryan, meant making a cheeseball:

...WHILE drinking eggnog. {Do you guys like eggnog? I cannot handle the mere SMELL of it!}

We uncovered an art project he made for his mom in the 5th grade. I have a very similar one somewhere at my parents' house. Awwww...meant to be, right???

I helped with some cleaning and gift wrapping - and taking pictures of the beautiful decorations Nita worked on so hard the last few weeks!

Ryan went to find the shrimp in the fridge where his mom said it would be...and...

...evidently there was ANOTHER package in there. WHEW!

Dinner was scrumptious. Pancakes, sausage, cheesy potatoes, ham, pecan rolls, and a million desserts.

{Ryan stole our niece's chair before dinner. When she finally noticed, he had some SPLAININ' to do!

The kids wasted no time getting full, so we could get to the presents!

Ryan has some blognonymous family, so I can't show you all the pics, but here's a few of us {and proof that I actually was there.}

 When it was all done, the tree area no longer looked like this...

 And Ryan looked like this:

Great night for Christmas numero uno!!