Dear 2015

Dear 2015...

You were just full of surprises, weren't you? We rang you in with a toast of coffee {not toast AND coffee} and looked ahead to all the wonder you would hold.

We began our time with you by bringing home our dear Mo, and the year looked bright as we imagined so many evenings and weekends sacked out on him...

What we did NOT anticipate you bringing with you was this little adventure:

The great gallbladder eviction of 2015. It was a physical, emotional, and mental drama of gargantuan proportions, but we made it through, and we did get to spend two straight weeks on Mo, proving it's good to be careful what you wish for.

You brought some home improvement projects with you...like repainting our master bedroom. Weeks of painting and fixing and sprucing, with an end result of much beauty.

You brought us to two more birthday celebrations - which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 During our time with you, we saw more counties, more states, and even another country.

2015, you brought one of the biggest goodbyes we've seen yet, and though it hurt in unimaginable ways, it also brought new blessings we couldn't have fathomed.

A pivotal ending on the same ground as our official beginning as a couple.

You brought around sweet traditions, like visits to the fair and memories made at the lake.

And you brought new adventures, like running a 5K together, going to a shooting range, and holding our first yard sale.

 You brought opportunities to celebrate more versaries. Monthiversaries, engagementversaries, datingversaries, and anniversaries. 

And while we savored every moment you gave us together, 2015, we also savored the moments we enjoyed with our friends and family.

2015, you were memorable in so many ways. We enjoyed you {even when the times weren't so easy.} But we bid you farewell today and look ahead to a new year, new memories, new joys.

Love, 

Ryan and Bekah

Linking up!

A Christmas Wrap-Up

Thought I'd shoot a few more pictures of our various Christmas celebrations your way, just for fun {and for posterity}. These are in no particular order, but are some of my favorites.

When we had Christmas at Ryan's grandma's house, he picked out mugs for us to have our coffee. He chose one that came form the restaurant our entire family wanted to bring home from Florida after our wedding. MEMORIES!

Who wore it better? Ryan or Rudolph?

Or maybe it's Ryan wearing Rudolph??

Ryan's dear grandmother with the newest great-grandchild. His grandmother is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. And she has more energy than I do!

This was one of my faves: Ryan's dad reading to our nephew.

 The photo booth made an appearance again this year:

And there was even a photo booth at our extended family celebration!

What a fun, memory-filled Christmas!

Some Random Christmas Fun

Happy Tuesday! We have a new podcast all ready for YOU! We're sharing some of our favorite moments from Christmas - and some of our dreams for 2016!

 Click here to listen

I realize that it is EVERYONE'S dream to read the recaps of everyone else's Christmas celebrations - ha!! - so I'll lump together the celebrations we had on Christmas day and let you see some of the highlights!

We started out at my parents' house, and Ryan's mom and Allen - and his sister, Bre - joined us as well! My Aunt B was with us this year, too, which was fun! She's so funny and I always love it when she joins us.

You might remember, if you heard the podcast a couple of weeks ago, that one of my mom's traditions for Christmas day is taking a picture of everyone as soon as they come in the door. So here we are, heads and all!

My new shiplap shirt, as you may have heard us talking about this week on the old podcast. I plan to wear this every Tuesday for Fixer Upper Facebook party night - and possibly every other day just for funsies!

Allen and Bre after lunch {my mom cooked a HUGE, delicious lunch for us.}

Nita and my Aunt B!

The Freelan sons-in-law, minus one. This is Ryan with our brother-in-law, Tom. Our other brother-in-law, Jeff, was home in Kansas for Christmas.

Every now and then I stumble upon a random fun gift, and this year, my mom received it. Years ago {like YEARSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ago} she and my grandparents worked in a local bakery called the Rosemary. {How I wish it still existed. I've heard such good things about it!!} I found this rolling pin with Rosemary on it and thought it was a perfect tribute!

The group photo for 2015.

And just our little family {minus the Kansas crew}:

And here is a more realistic presentation of our family:

I also wanted to let you peek into Ryan's family Christmas - on Allen's side. This year we played some Minute-to-Win-It games, and Ryan and Rod were the first to face off in the "shake the jingle bells out of the box" game. There is a video of this, but I will spare my sweet husband the posting of it.

We also played a game that combined Christmas Bingo with a gift exchange - and all the gifts were $10 gift cards to an assortment of places.

I got a Starbucks card and tried to put it in a safe place so it wouldn't get stolen by another game-player. It did not work.

In the end, we did get a Starbucks card - and Meijer too!!

Oh! And Ryan was a taxi. Again.

A fun and full Christmas!!! :) We enjoyed it. Hope you did too!!

A Shafferland Christmas

Did you all have a good Christmas? I hope so! I hope it was a lovely time - whatever it looked like and however unconventional it may have been. {Springlike weather definitely made it feel unconventional around here! }

I have so much to tell you about our Christmases! We had a great couple of days of celebrating, and I'm not going to necessarily report in about them in order, but I'll tell you about them.

One of the perks of not having kids on Christmas is that you get to sleep in past 4 a.m. or whatever time they tend to get up.

Oh wait. No you don't.

Mom? Dad? Is it Christmas yet? Huh? Huh? Is it?

She actually did let us sleep in a bit, but she reached her saturation point and it was time to get up and get to OPENING!!!!

We started out with breakfast - a new recipe this year! We began a tradition of cinnamon rolls and coffee on Christmas morning, but with our new clean eating, I tried to make it as healthy as I could. I found this recipe over at Dashing Dish and it was DELICIOUS. Tasted just like the much more butter-saturated/fattening version, without all the calories and sugar! We had that with some turkey bacon and an orange, and it was a tasty little breakfast!

 After breakfast, we continued our tradition of reading from my Advent book. Unfortunately, right before I read the last chapter, I filled Braeya's new toy with catnip and it spilled on my hand. Even though I washed my hands, she knew it was there and attacked me the entire time I read.

 Last Christmas, we decided to skip buying gifts for each other and instead put that money toward purchasing our beloved Mo {our couch, if you're new}. We still did stockings so we could open presents on Christmas day and so we could still have the fun of getting little things for each other. We liked that so much, we did it again this year! Except apparently the year after you buy a couch, you spend your money on workout equipment. LOL!!

So we opened presents in the form of stocking stuffers!

 He loved this sign. LOL. 

 I gave him this as a sign of my deep love for him. I hate absolutely everything about gum. And when I say hate, I mean abhor. So the fact that I bought him gum is TRULY a Christmas miracle.

It's true. We have never owned a selfie stick. Until now. Shafferland revolutionized.

You think I'm kidding, don't you?

She waited SO patiently and finally it was her turn.

After presents, it was time to clean up so we could go to the celebrations for the day. But we couldn't leave without some official Christmas photos!

A pretty perfect Christmas morning!

Playing along here today!