Posts in lagniappe
the hunger season

Have you ever heard Keb’ Mo’s song “God Trying to Get Your Attention”? It might be one of my all time favorites. And for those who don’t want me to get all religious on you, it’s cool. I don’t think anyone is going to be singing this song at their place of worship anytime soon. (But if you are, let me know. That’s a church I’d like to check out.) Anyway, I’ve had a God Trying to Get {My} Attention moment over the last couple of days and feel compelled to do something somewhat out of the ordinary on this blog. Today, I’m going to make a big old request for help.

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family holidays: pictures with santa

When I started dating my future husband, his children were seven, five, four, four, and 2 ¾. I had met each of the kids maybe once or twice when I found myself in line to see Santa at the Nordstrom flagship in downtown Seattle. Now, if you live in a city with kids, you totally know the chaos of waiting in line to see Santa at a department store. It takes forever. Forever. Like best ride at Disneyland forever. And here I was in a new relationship with a man with five children under the age of eight waiting to see Santa. It was a bit surreal.

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family holidays: book-a-day

Years ago, my friend Sharon shared several of her family Christmas traditions that I thought were just genius. My favorite was her story-a-day tradition. As she packed up Christmas decorations after the holidays, Sharon would wrap all of the kids’ Christmas books in leftover paper. The wrapped books were pulled out at the beginning of the following December and her kids opened one book per day to read together before bedtime. Brilliant. Wrapping things the kids already owned? Reading a Christmas story together at the end of the day? What’s not to like?

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