Since we are now approaching the second Sabbath in Advent, I wanted to give you a good resource to link to that explains the candles, the colors, and the symbolism of it all. This one looks just great. We use white instead of the colored candles at our house, but I do like the […]

Have you noticed how Christmas is becoming more and more intimidating to unbelievers? Most magazines refer to the “holidays,” afraid to mention Christmas by name. This is not because the world thinks Christmas is irrelevant, but its power and potency scares them. That’s why they keep moving away from saying “Merry Christmas” to saying […]

Once Advent has started, we celebrate a little more rambunctiously at our Sabbath table. For starters, we have an Advent silver wreath-shaped candle holder that sits in the middle of the table. Lots of people make an an Advent wreath from fresh greens. Either way, whichever you have, it’s a great tradition. Each week during […]

Things are quiet at my house! My son’s family is visiting my daughter’s family at Oxford, and that makes a grand total of nine children and five adults all under one roof (my niece Brooke is visiting the Merkles as well). They will be celebrating Thanksgiving together and have invited a family from Australia to […]

Gearing up for the Sabbath feast is vital if you are going to pull if off. By gearing up, I mean figuring out what’s cookin’ sometime during the week, and then gathering all your ingredients and safely tucking them into your house before Saturday morning.  Saturday morning, as we all know,  is going to fill […]

We have quite a few baptisms in our church, and families celebrate the occasion in different ways. I’ve been to a few of these gatherings, and I’ve been very impressed at the way some families make it a real occasion. Some extend an invitation to the church at large and ask everyone to bring something, […]