the turtle on top of the tree

Our Advent calendar helps us count days until Christmas. My grandparents created a beautiful Advent calendar out of wood. They cut out and painted 25 ornaments to be hung on the wooden tree, and one ornament is put up for each day. When my brother and I were little, we would get to pick odd or even numbers and put up ornaments on those corresponding days, and we have continued this same tradition in our family. As we got closer to December 25, the tree had more and more ornaments helping to build anticipation for Christmas. For some reason or another, my grandfather would always put the turtle on the top of the tree as a joke instead of the sweet angel that my grandmother most likely intended to go on top. Through the years, it has been fun to continue that tradition and make sure that the turtle keeps his place on top of the tree. Through the years, it's the little traditions like this that bring joy and help us remember and celebrate our family tree.

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Taylor's Crossing

Our boy is turning 13 this month so we've been intentional about trying to create something that would fit his personality and that would speak to his heart to help mark this "crossing" year. We did a more elaborate version of this for his sister, Anna, but he made it very clear that he did not want the same kind of pageantry.
As we thought about how to tweak some of our ideas that we'd put in place before, we still had some of the same goals that we'd had for Anna. The ultimate message that we wanted him to hear and remember was that he is loved. One small thing we did in preparation to drive this home was that we had him memorize Psalm 139 over a period of a few months as this passage is a beautiful reminder of God's love for us and His presence with us.
We also wanted Taylor to know that as he turned from 12 to 13 into the realm of being a teenager that he was not doing this alone. We wanted him to know that he has a team of people who are with him, ch…

Gumdrop Tree

In my family growing up, my grandmother had a gumdrop tree. My mother had a gumdrop tree. And when I got married, I was given a gumdrop tree at a Christmas wedding shower. The first one I had was a chintzy see-through plastic tree that was in a box that said "money tree". I guess some people tied money to the branches as a way to give cash as a gift. But in our family, this small plastic object was pulled out each year and gumdrops were stuck to the ends of the branches. The bottom tray held a bunch of gumdrops under the tree for the extras that would not fit on the branches. I loved my daily ritual in December of passing by the gumdrop tree that was placed in the hallway outside the kitchen and of snatching a few gumdrops. (Note to anyone who tries this: You can always conceal your snacking by restocking the empty branches with gumdrops from the tray. Your real challenge comes when the tray is empty. Good luck on that one.)
Here's the description I found on Ama…

Rite of Passage

This text above deserves some background....
When Anna was in 6th grade or so, we went a fabulous talk that Julie Metzgar gave at Children's Hospital about puberty. The talk was presented under a program called "Great Conversations" and is tagged as one that is for "helping preteens and their families in conversations about body changes, sex and other growing-up stuff."
During one of the talks about girls getting their periods, Julie Metzgar showed slides of girls in villages around the world where the girls are honored and highly esteemed when they get their first periods. This rite of passage is celebrated as girls are preparing for their roles as women. In some cultures, these celebrations are as lavish as weddings and they are significant markers for the young women and their families.
Rather than whisper about this behind closed doors and pretend that nothing has happened, Julie encouraged us to talk to our daughters about something we could do to mark…

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