the twelve dyer days of christmas

technically speaking i think our christmas festivities stretched over ten days instead of twelve, but i'm rounding up.  we had a house full of friends and family staying with us and stopping by all week leading up to christmas and that's just how we like it.  our sleep schedules took a bit of a hit, but it was definitely worth it.  [plus we're pretty spoiled in the sleep department to begin with, so we can't really complain]  

this was also the first year for me to not be in st. louis on christmas day.  fortunately my family is flexible and we just pushed everything back twenty four hours and had 'pretend christmas'...i hardly even noticed the difference!

so to remember this week of fun and festivities, i've created our own 2014 version of the twelve dyer days of christmas...

12

the number of times i jumped up and down after we opened gifts with my mom

11

the number of interesting raytownians we encountered at dyer family bowling night

10

the number of friends who came over to visit...plus four more via skype

9

the number of meinhardt's playing and singing at the annual sing-a-long

[including the brand new baby ava]

8 

the number of succotash games we played

7

the number of overnight guests that stayed with us

6

the pounds of potatoes mashed in the church kitchen for the cockrell christmas eve

5

the number of $5 bills frozen in to a block of ice for carson's christmas gift

4

the number of songs i sang in the lakeland christmas eve choir

3

the number of happy hosts [i'm counting dag]

2

the strings of lights glowing in the living room

1

magical week of christmas festivities

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the first year

my dear friend joy got married last weekend. i somewhat randomly joined a bible study she was in over ten years ago and we are still studying together today. since she was the first friend to get married after me, i started thinking about what i wanted to share with her as she begins her marriage.  

i thought back to the cards and advice that were given to us and remembered that the ones that stuck out in my mind the most were the handful that warned us not to be surprised if our first year of marriage was hard. at the time i wasn't sure if that would apply to us or not, but i suppose it was kind of freeing to know that if things started feeling hard, that was okay.  

as we went through that year i remember thinking from time to time, this is really good, but this is hard. i couldn't quite make sense of how it could be both at the same time, and i couldn't figure out how to articulate the ways it was hard. we didn't really have any rough patches that first year [though donald may argue that my back injury was on the rough side], but there were definitely times that it was hard.

it was hard to always be trying to figure out 'our' new way of doing everything. money was different. groceries were different. sleeping schedules were different. every. thing. was. different. one day, probably about six months in, i actually sat down to make a list of the things in my life that were the same and/or different from the same time the previous year. the different list seemed to never end. i had a new marital status, a new home, new furniture, a new neighborhood, a new cell phone company, a new roommate, a new dog, a new grocery store, a new bank, a new budget and a new job. the same list was short. it was my car. i had the same car. it was the only thing that hadn't changed.

now i obviously still had the same friends and family [though i had new additions to the latter] and all these changes weren't bad, they were just numerous. but now we've settled in. everything doesn't feel new and different all the time. we've figured out our new normal.

i'm thankful i was able to celebrate joy's joyous day with her and for the chance to pass a little encouragement onto her as she and steve begin their first year as husband and wife.

shelly . joy . beth

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the year donald started to travel

prior to our marriage donald hadn't traveled much. a senior trip to colorado, a few vegas trips to visit his brothers and that was it. he had otherwise not been more than five hours from kansas city at any given time in his life.  i, on the other hand, start to feel kind of anxious and unsettled if more than six months have passed since i've been on a plane.  

we honeymooned in california, but after that travel took a backseat while we worked on our budget and settled into married life. for the next year and a half we stuck close to home and the only traveling we did were some weekend trips to st. louis, the lake, branson and bolivar. but that was then, and this is now.

in the span of three months, donald's travel life will be revolutionized. in july we took a big trip to new york city. it was a rather intense five days of exploring and living it up in the big apple. i was in my happy place. donald enjoyed the trip too, even though it was pretty far from his comfort zone [which is the 4'x4' area in our living room surrounding his recliner].

then last weekend we flew east again for a trip that was a little more his speed. jacob, nickie, donald and i went to north carolina to visit jenn and tyler. the pullens and i have made this an almost annual event, but it was donald's inaugural journey. traveling with friends is one of my favorite things, so this trip was bound to be a winner. and jenn is always the hostess with the mostess, planning a food menu [in advance, of course] that had both of us very excited.  

after our customary first stop at the mellow mushroom for pizza, we spent a big chunk of our long weekend at the talton's lake house. we played games, ate lots of delicious things and enjoyed all of the fun lake toys. 

now the big kicker will be in october when donald leaves the country for the very first time. we're going to mexico with my mom and a group from calvary to work with some missionary friends there. i'm excited to literally show him the world!

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