Are You Ready For Advent? (Plus What I’m Reading)

Every year, Peter and I pull out our very favorite Advent book: God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. (Here’s what I wrote last year, when I recommended it.) If you’d like the opportunity to prepare your heart to celebrate the incarnation, this book is for you.

And if you want something for your kids that involves more than candy and chocolate, I also recommend this simple sticker-Advent calendar.

Just read The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain and loved it. Not a happy book, but a beautiful one about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. As for articles, here are a few you might enjoy over the long weekend:

Disability-related:

Um, @nytimes you’ve got some explaining to do on behalf of your ethicist: bit.ly/HVDCmh #downsyndrome #spreadtheword

“Should Able-Bodied People Ever Use a#Handicapped Bathroom Stall?” @EllenPDollar http://ow.ly/rdyZO #Disability#Accessibility

“So-called #PatientsInWaiting have genes for#disease but no symptoms” #GeneticTesting ow.ly/r4x7t @AmyDMarcus @WSJ

Man in Supposed 23-Year-Long Coma Speaks, Says He Was Always Consciousow.ly/r9gDL #Bioethics #ProLife@StevenErtelt

Family-related:

Need a good #laugh? Check out these recreated childhood #photos> ow.ly/qXjLE@EliteDaily #EnjoyingLife

A modern image of the typical#AmericanFamily far from Norman Rockwell’s#Thanksgiving portrait http://ow.ly/rdxEB #Diversity @angier58

“The church is filled with difficult #marriages—and we need to stop hiding it” @Leadership_Jnl #Sincerity #RealTruth http://ow.ly/rdyDX

Young survivors show signs of #Hope after#TyphoonHaiyan ow.ly/r4uPQ @nytimes@austinramzy #Philippines

Why do French children not need meds to control their #behavior but US children do?ow.ly/r4xoU #ADHD #Parenting@marilynWedge

And all the other stuff that seems interesting/important/humorous to me:

#Refugee Reveals the Horrors of#CommunistChina..State Workers Whose ‘Only Job’ is to ‘Capture Women’#ForcedAbortion ow.ly/qXl64 (and check in on Monday for my interview with Bob Fu)

“Stop #Juicing! It’s not healthy, not virtuous, just expensive” #JuiceCleanse #Diet ow.ly/r4vZb @xwaldie @Slate

Are #ChristianConferences racially exclusive? ow.ly/r9fpf @JonathanMerritt@RNS #Ethnicity

19 signs you’re seriously overdue for a smartphone sabbatical huff.to/1c0o7oH

In other news, I’m going to enjoy a long weekend with my family, so please check back in on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving!