Happy (early) #Epiphany, which is Monday but many churches celebrate today. We’re at #Clarkston United #Methodist today with family to hear my daughter the Rev Megan Walther preach.

While enjoying a rare week with family—adult "kids" and, now, three grandkids—I just enjoyed using a little family downtime to wrap up my 2024 #Goodreads goal of 104 #reviews . Don't know how many of you are "on" Goodreads, but feel free to connect with me there if you feel so moved.

My wife Amy and I are so pleased to be Grandparents of our newest grandchild: Leo, which was the name of Amy's late father, the dairy farmer up in Genesee County. This brings a whole new meaning to #Advent this year. I personally see a budding journalist in Leo's piercing gaze at his new world.

A\ friend asked me if my wife and I still bring out our #Christmas display of Bedford Falls miniatures from "It's a Wonderful Life." And, indeed, we do. It's so "long" that I decided to just share a detail of 2 buildings and Ernie's taxi. (You'll recall "Bert and Ernie" names came from this film.)

I was moved on Sunday to hear my daughter, the Rev. Megan Walther, read the late Ann Weems' "The World Still Knows." Since then, I've discovered that Weems' prophetic #poetry (particularly this one) is equipping people in many places for 2025. I'm thankful for ministries of Megan and Ann.

I've been sharing posts on some of our favorite #Advent calendars this year. This photo shows what eventually will be the #holiday mosaic laid out on our #JigsawPuzzle table by Christmas when all 24 of our little daily boxes of pieces are assembled. We enjoy different puzzles every year.

I've been featuring our #Advent calendars and, now, I'm showing one that has #healthy snacks rather than chocolates or other sweet treats—a nice option. One door, which we opened this morning, revealed was a packet of pepitas in a style that reminded me of some I enjoyed years ago at Ghost Ranch.

Our #Advent calendars include reminders of scripture and of daily prayers, but we love tastes of the season, too, including #Christmas food calendars. This is one of our favorites, the annual #BonneMaman set of 24 little jams, jellies and foods. Today's was a blend of yuzu and grapefruit. Delicious!

During #Advent, we enrich our daily #spiritual reflection with Gospel readings and extra prayers for this season. But we also love "fun" calendars and a favorite is this "popcorn" calendar. This is only a 12-day #food experience, so you could still order one via Amazon under "Amish Country Popcorn."

#Advent begins for Western #Christians — a couple billion of us waiting for #Christmas. We began today with 2 Sunday worship services, but we also have lots of secular fun with Advent, including: We're huge Wizard of Oz fans so naturally we are opening the new #Wicked Advent calendar this month!

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE ADVENT PRAYER CHAIN: Remember construction paper chains from elementary school? Well, this time each year, my wife Amy makes 25-ring red-and-green construction paper "chains" as part of our Advent preparation. I'll put the steps in the comments.