Blogging Through the Seasons

I’m a planner. A researcher. A know-all-the-things-before-you-make-a-decision person. So when my friend Katie invited me to her home for an afternoon of gingerbread house decorating, tea and pie, and relaxing with her and her three-year-old (does one ever really relax...

Prepare. Or don’t. Patience. Angst. Anticipation. Dread. Looking and waiting for the coming Christ is far more troubling and swirly than the arrival. As I anticipate holiday celebrations, the hamster wheel in my head is at full speed. But then I can sit quietly...

“How did you decide to have four kids?,” The things you talk about at a birthday party, right?   “We wanted four. Hashtag babyfeverforever!” (My standard response.)   “I loved having babies. I’m BUILT for having babies. But,” it was an honest conversation so...

For Thanksgiving 2019 my family travelled to Thailand, a beautiful country in Southeast Asia.  A very special occasion beckoned our travel—namely, the wedding of our son, Steven, and his fiancé, Carolyn.  The wedding was very special for a number of reasons.  It was...

My sweetest memories of Christmas past are those when our children and my sister’s children were young, and our broader families would all get together at one of our homes for Christmas (which always involved a long trip, since we never lived very close to each...

Go ahead; call me biased.  But if you really want to experience Christmas, you have to spend it in the Philippines, where 105 million Filipinos inhabit about 2,000 of 7,641 islands.  There, Advent Season begins at the first “-ber” month, that is, Septem”-ber” 1, and...