I had to call my mom for this recipe this morning, because there’s no way my kids were going to wait the hour or so between mixing the dough and rolling out the cookies without driving me absolutely insane. We whipped these up this morning, and they were in the oven before the 4-year-old could even begin to whine that she hadn’t gotten to use the star shaped cutter. They’re already out of the oven and frosted (we dip them in royal icing... Read more

I’m spending today and tomorrow baking for Christmas. (We have to do it close to Christmas or everything gets eaten.) Because I love seeing what other people are baking and what their traditions are, I’ll be sharing ours with you. My mother started making Black Bottoms for Christmas back when I was a tiny little girl and we were living in the Philippines. The freedom of having live-in help allowed her the time to experiment with an amazing array of... Read more

I went with a friend to a Christmas Extravaganza! (I don’t think you can write Extravaganza! without an exclamation point, can you?) It was a fund-raiser to help evacuate Christians in the way of ISIS. While the beginning was alternately touching and hilarious, the end had me breathless. There was nothing on stage but a door. I don’t know if it was a prop that had been manufactured in a tech shop for the event, or if it had once been the front... Read more

There once was a world-famous musician, a woman people spend a lot of money and stand in line for hours to see. She went and played for the public for free in the New York subways…and nobody noticed. She poured her heart out into the air around her…and nobody listened. They had a treasure in their midst…and they were too distracted by the phones in their hands to even notice what was right in front of them. Thanks to modern... Read more

  We saw the chiropractor today for a “tune-up” for Ella. (If you’ll remember, he was the only medical person who was helpful and took this seriously for the first few months.) Sitting all the time and the crazy things she does at the skate park tend to knock her out of alignment. He twisted and cracked her back into place, and checked out what the latest was with her legs. He felt her shrunken calves, and looked at her... Read more

Four years ago, our youngest daughter was born with her hands and feet in front of her face, effectively doubling the circumference of her head. (If you’re thinking ‘OUCH!’, you’re right.) The damage that kind of thing does to a girl’s body is pretty ugly – stuff was torn and falling and collapsing/prolapsing. I’ve been limping it all along for the past four years, knowing that I needed surgery, but not able to have it because of the time off from... Read more

I often feel like we miss out on the story of Zechariah in our rush to get to the birth of Christ. He was an important figure in the community in which he lived, and yet he is overshadowed in history by the figures around him. An elderly man, faithful enough to be chosen to enter the sanctuary, Zechariah is not a heroic figure, but a completely human one. When faced with a prophetic angel, he doesn’t laugh like Sarah or... Read more

My husband told be about The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep. He was thinking it would make a funny Christmas present for our eldest, a perpetually sleep-deprived college student. I laughed at the idea that a book could put a child to sleep. I laughed. And then today, when my four year old was fighting a nap with all the vehemence that a sick sleep-resistant pre-schooler can muster, I broke down and bought it on Kindle. It was a... Read more

Two Chinese students joined our family for the week of Thanksgiving. The dorms were closed for maintenance, and the school sent out a plea for homes for the students unable to travel to their homes for the holiday, and so we took in two young men from China. Our bustling household filled with children was a shock to them. Raised in a world of only children, they were initially overwhelmed by the reality of the six we still have at... Read more

Suddenly, it’s Advent.  Where has the year gone in such a hurry? Every year we make a New Year’s Resolution to slow down, and each year we break it in a flurry of work,  children’s activities, and a wishful impression of a social life. The days seem to rise and whirl faster and faster until we reach the blur that is the Christmas season only to collapse, exhausted, on December 26th. We remain motionless and near comatose until New Year’s... Read more