Countdown Tradition

-

Our friend Abby shared with me one of her favorite traditions below: 

I was so excited to add this to our collection of traditions! 

Here is the note I put in a little package I put in the mail for Miss Anna yesterday.... 

I was delighted to get to put this into practice earlier than expected this year 
as Anna is coming home for her fall break :) 


Nothing says "I can't wait to see you" quite like Oreo Rice Krispie treats 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

St. Nicholas' Day 2015

-
Image
St. Nicholas' Feast Day is December 6th, but it seems that as with holiday busyness and with a lot going on, some celebrations have to get extended or postponed.  Grace abounds this season. :)  So, we celebrated a couple days late with our annual secret St. Nicholas candy delivery. We covered little candy bars with these St. Nicholas' papers (instead of the traditional practice of baking St. Nicholas cookies) and delivered them to neighbor's doorsteps under the cover of the night.   (It's like "booing" around Halloween and dropping off May Day flowers in the spring.  We practically have one time each season to try to knock on neighbor's doors, leave a treat, and run like the wind trying not to get caught!)  There is a wonderful reflection on St. Nicholas  here  from a weekly blog that shares on art and faith.  I loved the benediction in the reflection:   "May God give us all a heart of mercy like St. Nicholas; eyes that see the needs
Read more

Taylor's Crossing

-
Image
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
Read more

Rite of Passage

-
Image
This text above deserves some background....  When Anna was in 6th grade or so, we went to 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 some
Read more