Every Christmas our family presents my parents with a beautiful calendar full of grandchildren pictures. Everyone loves the calendar. Everyone except, well, maybe the person who knows the calendar is going to be her responsibility the next year.

Our fourth grader may have only had one brief job to do, but he embraced it wholeheartedly. He held the Star proudly and peered through the center of it with an enormous smile. His eyes, his smile, and his whole face were full of joy.

Christmas comes at the same speed no matter how quickly or slowly you open those Advent calendar doors.

During this season of giving, as we thoughtfully select gifts for people we know and love – and maybe even for strangers – how wonderful to consider that a gift may bring joy not just in the moment of opening, but also for years to come.

When my husband and I were matched with our son, we thought we might travel to China to adopt him in just a few short months. But it turned out to be a much longer process.As the months dragged on and the wheels of bureaucracy moved slowly on both sides of the world, I grew […]

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Every year we leave our shoes by the door the night before his feast day, and we wake up the next morning to treats in our shoes.

It’s almost impossible not to get caught up in the busyness of the season. So, maybe instead of resisting, we should lean into all of it. Maybe we can embrace the fullness of Advent and soak it all in.

Thanksgiving is about spending time with people we love, but it’s also about the food. And you can’t have Thanksgiving dinner without pie.

Sauerkraut at Thanksgiving adds that extra something you didn’t even know you were missing.

There are Sunday school teachers who prepare days ahead of time. Then you have me, who often spends Sunday morning flipping through the curriculum for the day while feeding people breakfast.