This is one that frankly spoke to me because every struggle should be an opportunity to grow. In this world, we are faced with struggles, and if anyone claims to have no struggles, I would question whether they are living. Even for Christians, we know that God said we would have struggles in this world, but we are to take […]

I don’t think I would have been able to answer this question before this year. Oh, I would have given the typical answers. “I want to be a kind, thoughtful person who lives for God.” Sure, that’s nice and all, but it doesn’t honestly explain the kind of person I want to be. I desire to be of service to […]

Back in the day, I would have said after-Christmas shopping! We used to hit the stores early and scour the shelves for all the deals. We would buy Christmas decor, gifts, clothes, and so much more! My mom did go to Walmart today, but in the end, it is just not what it used to be. My favorite thing to […]

Today I am featuring my very own Christmas acrostic! And it’s all based on gratitude. Here we go. C is for cats. I love our cats in this house. We only have six, but at one point, we had nineteen! Yes, we rescued feral cats and got them all “fixed” eventually. But it was not an easy process, but so […]

This one is not easy for me because our Christmas Eves change from year to year. I don’t think we really have traditions that remain from year-to-year. Except putting out milk and cookies for Santa! Yes, we do it every year! When my daughter was younger, it was something that she enjoyed doing. She still likes doing it for fun, […]

I have learned not to make plans for too far in the future, and when one speaks of hopes, I can only hope the person does not mean some kind of ethereal hope that is nothing but apple-pie-in-the-sky.  I have visions, dreams, and more for the future, and I have declared various things that I am convinced will happen. But […]

This is another challenging one for me because I am not the same person I have been for the past forty years or so of my life. In the past, I would have said hot chocolate, eggnog, Christmas punch, apple cider, and a whole host of other sugary Christmas drinks. But those don’t appeal to me the way they used […]

I am pleased to say that I no longer need to travel for the holidays and haven’t for many years. It is one of the perks of living with my parents. However, back in the day, I traveled almost every year for the holidays! Whether I was in school in Florida, teaching in Florida or Texas, it made no difference. […]

This is a super difficult one for me to answer! I don’t think I have a really great answer because I have become a totally different person this year than I have ever been in all my years of Christmas past. But I will do my best to answer here. For me, my favorite Christmas foods have always been bread. […]

In our household, stockings have ALWAYS been a big deal. When my mom had her own knitting machine business, she knitted stockings for the entire family(our pets, too!). Over the years, we replaced our stockings at different times. We used to have a beautiful, old fireplace in our Victorian home in Tacoma, Washington, and hanging the stockings on that mantle […]