Holidays
A lot of us are watching the budget very carefully this year. What heartless elf put open enrollment for health insurance right before the holiday season? (If it's giving you pain, check out what we did.) And rich or poor, if you have a large family (like ours) you naturally look for ways to make…
When you were a child, when you thought of cranberries, did you think of round slices of red jelly? The good ol' canned cranberry sauce is like comfort food - but this relish is awe inspiring. It's delicious, it's beautiful on the table, and it's easy. You can make this in just a couple of minutes!…
One of the great joys of the holiday season is the chance to spend time with family members that you don't get to see the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that's also one of the stressful things about the holidays – extended family that you don't see the rest of the year. (more…)
The holidays are rapidly approaching, and while we all enjoy the feasts and the fun, there's so much more than that. The trick, really, is remembering why we celebrate, being sure to teach that to our kids, and somehow figuring out how to plan a big family celebration without losing sight of the One who…
Q: So what is Reformation Day and why do you celebrate it? We were delighted to find out that Christians have been celebrating Reformation Day as a holiday since at least 1567! As parents of six boys, we've loved having a holiday to remember a true Christian hero — a man who faced death and…
Readers ask us, "Do you guys celebrate Halloween?" We had a lot of discussion about this when we were first married. We went back and forth between the fun we'd had as kids and the opportunity to perhaps share the gospel with neighbors who came to the door, and our discomfort with the whole celebration…
Our podcast on Making Family Life Practical this week is our answer to our friends posting on social media that they are so worried about our country that they don't really feel like celebrating the Fourth of July. Click this link or graphic (after 10pm Monday!) to listen to the show. Keep scrolling for our…
Here's a neat resource you can download for free and share with your sons in honor of Presidents Day -- examples from the lives of great men who have led our country! Several years before he became our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt and his friend Henry Cabot Lodge wrote a collection of stories to teach…
Christmas is a big deal at our house. We grew up in Christian homes, where Christmas was celebrated in a family-oriented, Christ-honoring way. We love the holidays. I try to shop all year, watching out for deals on the things I knew our children would love. Even the times I was on pregnancy bedrest, I…
Who's in Charge Around Here? My father died when I was fourteen. Kids that age don’t think about the possibility of death, but when you lose someone you love, that innocence is gone forever. When Hal and I got married, I was so afraid he’d die that I’d wake up in the night to put…