As we rush into the Christmas season, I invite you to pause with me. For just a moment. I wrote this post two years ago, but it is equally applicable this year as it was in 2013. So let’s pause and give our best gifts this Christmas. My Gift to Him As Christmas nears, I’ve staggering under a year that’s …
Being a supportive spouse when you’re loved one is in the active duty military is not for the faint of heart. When you’re loved one is deployed during the holidays it becomes even more challenging. I well remember the months my Dad’s National Guard unit was deployed for Desert Storm. He was called to active duty the week of Thanksgiving …
Simple Gift Giving Ideas
Simple Gift Giving Ideas by Cara Putman Have you ever felt that way about the last six weeks of the year? You wake up one morning and it’s November 20th. Blink and it’s January 2. Weeks have passed and you’d had such high hopes for a wonderful season – hopes gone in a fog of busyness. Let’s face it – most …
Three Children’s Christmas Books I Love
I know Thanksgiving is coming quickly, but I’m thinking about the Christmas books I want to read to my kids this year. It’s always fun trying to decide which ones we’ll enjoy together as a family. Here are a few of our favorites, and I want to know which ones you love, too. Christmas books…@cara_putman shares 3 of her favorites. …
The one Christmas tradition I “don’t” like
Today my friend Melissa Tagg is posting about her most un-favorite Christmas tradition: I love lots of Christmas traditions: Classic Christmas movies. (Somebody posted a comment on Facebook the other day asking if she’s missing out by never having seen It’s a Wonderful Life. It was all I could do to stop crying and pull myself together before replying.) Christmas …
In Search of Simplicity – at Christmas?
Today, my friend Courtney Walsh shares about finding Christmas simplicity — is that an oxymoron? Lately my seven-year-old, Sam has been asking me if Santa is real. It dawned on me today when he told me the Santa that visited his chapel at school was absolutely not real because he had black tape on his shoes (Impostor!), that he was at that …
Christmas Traditions: The Strange and Highly Unusual
Today my friend Katie Ganshert is sharing her Christmas traditions. When it comes to Christmas traditions, two come to mind. The first is not unique to our family, but not as well-known as I once assumed. Who has heard of the Christmas pickle? Up until very recently, I thought everybody had! Then I saw a note from one of my …
A Christmas Song
Today I’m delighted to share with you Katherine Reay’s post in our fa-la-la-la-la Christmas giveaway. This weekend I was off-line because my cousin got married. Family came to town and we celebrated an absolutely gorgeous weekend – full of love, laughter and Christmas. Both my girls decided that this was the season for a wedding – the music is amazing …
Candy Cane Traditions
I wanted to introduce you to our newest family Christmas tradition — one that grew out of writing a book. In my latest book, Where Treetops Glisten, the heroine in my novella works at a candy shop that opened in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1912. The name’s changed (today it’s McCords), but they still make the same Christmas candy canes the …
Starry, Starry Night
“Play Starry, Starry Night!” For as long as I can remember, my Dad played the acoustic guitar for his daughters. And for as far back as the sweet sound of those guitar melodies go in my mind’s ear, I can remember asking him to play Starry, Starry Night (or,Vincent). Over and over I’d ask. And again and again he would play. Fingerpicking like a …