The Sounds of Christmas

The Sounds of Christmas

When I think about the beauty of Christmas, one of the first things that comes to mind is the music.

I still remember every word and note of the Christmas album my parents played every year once the tree was up and decorated. As an adult, I was thrilled to find an old recording of the album...

One Way to Add More Meaning to Christmas

One Way to Add More Meaning to Christmas

Several years ago, my husband and I asked ourselves this question: how could we make our family’s Christmas season more meaningful? We didn’t want to just give each other and our daughter a pile of presents. We wanted to simplify the gift-giving part of our celebration and also tie it into the story of Christ’s birth.

He started doing a little research and shared an idea with me. Why not use the model of the wise men’s three gifts as our own?

The Fragrance of the Holidays

The Fragrance of the Holidays

The holiday season is filled with beauty. Everywhere I look, there it is. I’ll be writing about different types of beauty throughout this month, but I wanted to start with fragrance in today’s post.

We don’t typically think of the sense of smell as a way of experiencing beauty. But what a gift it is! And it heightens the beauty of the Christmas season for me.

The Moon

The Moon

On Tuesday of this week, I had to report to jury duty in the city. In order to be on time, I left the house very early to get ahead of the traffic. As I drove through the neighborhood just at sunrise, I caught glimpses of the moon through the trees. 

I looked for it eagerly, because I'd somehow missed the opportunity the night before to see the supermoon, the biggest and brightest full moon since 1948.

Singer, Songwriter, and Storyteller Kate Campbell

Singer, Songwriter, and Storyteller Kate Campbell

My husband “discovered” singer-songwriter Kate Campbell in 1997 after listening to a Southern Music CD included in Oxford American magazine. He bought her CD, Moonpie Dreams, and went to her concert two weeks later. He met her afterward, and that’s when he really became a life-long fan.

Through the years, he introduced her music to other friends and, when I came along, to me as well.