Nutcracker Party 2025

Last week we had our annual Nutcracker Party! We'd love to attend the Nutcracker ballet each year but tickets are expensive and we have a young baby even if they weren't. We make our own fun instead and watch the DVD each year instead! 

This year we had friends over and they watched with us so we went all out! You can watch a little YouTube short here. 

Favorite Nutcracker books: board book // Mary Engelbreit picture book // Jan Brett picture book

Favorite Nutcracker resources: DVD // The Nutcracker Comes to America // Inquisikids podcast episode // sweaters // Isabelle DVD 

I also saw an adorable Nutcracker themed display in a Hallmark Store window this month and thought I'd share! 

Christmas Bucket List

We're already making great progress on our Christmas season bucket list. It's te most wonderful time of the year! (Except for when it isn't, in which case I'm very sorry for what you are going through. There's no shame in feeling less than merry during a painful season. I just prayed for peace to wash over you and I really hope it does 💙)

We completed everything on our autumn bucket list except for the Christmas graphic novel for my kids. I just couldn't seem to make time for it! 

I did attempt to complete my silly autumn book bingo but I'm doubtful that I actually caught every mention. I found it to be an overall nuisance and I won't do it again! 

Scarecrow:

Blanket:

Hot chocolate:

Coffee: The Second Story Bookshop: Gray made coffee at halftime. "It was a noisy affair with the loud grinding of beans and low hiss of steaming cream."

Pumpkin flavored anything:

Gloves:

Pumpkin patch:

Scarf:

Pinecone:

Cinnamon:

Soup: Briony's new thing is lobster bisque in The Perfect Rom-Com

Crisp or chilly air: All That We Carried... The air is always chilly in this October hike!

Tea:

Baking:

Trees: The Second Story Bookshop... Shelby admires maple trees lining the street.

Fog:

Apple orchard:

Harvest festival:

Wind:

Football: The Second Story Bookshop: Shelby's family cheered about a Cowboys touchdown after their Thanksgiving meal.

Fireplace: The Second Story Bookshop: Gray stacked logs in the fireplace and nursed the flame until it caught.

Boots: All That We Carried... they may be hiking boots, but they're boots!

Rain: Second Story Bookshop: Shelby follows Gray in her car as he walks in the rain

Leaves: A chipmunk ran across some leaves in All That We Carried

Sweater: 

Bookish links- December 2025

Current Christmas reads: Unwrapping the Names of Jesus with my book club // The Gift of Christmas Present with my mom // The Angel Tree and a Christmas hymn study  with my kids 

New Christmas Christian fiction 

Love these Grinch pajamas! This grown-up version, too. 

Advent reads to prepare your heart for Christmas 

Bible tabs I ordered for the Bible study binder I'm now keeping for myself after reading How to Study the Bible Intentionally 

Book-themed Nintendo Switch game I secretly want to try, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book! 

When we have our annual Nutcracker viewing party this year, I'll set out a copy of The Nutcracker + a charcuterie board and call it good. I don't want to spend a bunch of money on extra items but I do enjoy the online equivalent of window shopping. Examples: this painting // this mug // this snowglobe // this (organic cotton) dress // this sweatshirt // this fabric 

Tyndale's Christmas book advent calendar 

Old Christmas posts- Christmas fiction by location // Holiday picture books about GIVING gifts // our favorite Christmas leveled readers (How is that it?! More to come!) 

This was a fascinating watch- When did reading become a performance? 

I am still enjoying creating short videos as a creative endeavor and have a few fun Christmas videos planned for my little YouTube channel this month! 

Kindle Unlimited readers, you can now read Tessa Afshar Biblical fiction for free! 

Everyday Reading's new printable advent reading calendar is quite cute and she has so many great items on her bookish gift guide for this year 

5 small books that make great stocking stuffers 

I recently spotted this poetry book teapot and promptly Googled it. So cute!  

Here's my ever-growing list of Christian Christmas fiction by location 

Look at this beautiful storybook library 

Christmas school... Bedtime History Podcast holiday episodes // Inquisikids did some great episodes on Christmas in various countries in 2023 

If you're in the market for a new Christmas picture book, consider The Golden Hour. I am so happy with this Christmas picture book set at Westminster Abbey. The illustrations are simply lovely that makes this a nice one to set out and display, but the story plays with historical fiction in a way that of course delights me. It's a bit long for my youngest this year and probably best for the older picture book crowd but I shared it with my seven-year-old and look forward to sharing it with my youngest for many Christmas seasons to come! I enjoyed the writing and look forward to trying Carrie Brownell's other children's book, too. *I received a free copy from Bookmonkey but these honest opinions are my own. 

Christmas School 2025

We don't take much of a summer break over here but we always take December off from our normal school routine. We still do independent reading which everyone does every day/night here, occasional math lessons, and occasional handwriting pages but mostly we focus on memory-making holiday activities together. Here are our 2025 Christmas school plans:

👨‍🍳 Baking holiday treats (mostly from Sweet Indulgence)
🎨 Christmas decoration and gift art projects
📖 Read-aloud of The Angel Tree (plus our Christmas picture books we've been re-collecting after losing every book we owned)
🎶 Hymn Bible study by Not Consumed
✍️ Journaling about holiday fun
🎧 Sonlight's Christmas podcasts

Plus lots of free time to play, watch movies, play games, hang out as a family, pursue non-Christmas activities, etc.

We're all very excited. 

Creston, British Columbia

Over the weekend my family and I made our first international trip! We've done so much USA traveling (long-time readers likely came here back when we were full-time RVers) but this was a whole new experience for us.

I'm detailing it all below but you can also just watch a quick YouTube short if you're interested but not that interested. 

First, passports. We first started this process in 2013. We got our passport photos taken and started filling out applications, then moved further from the Canadian border and stopped pursuing it all. We kept having babies and then even when we moved up north again we never pursued it because of the cost for each new child.

But!

A few months ago we learned two very helpful tidbits
1- A passport card, good only for driving and not for flying, is much cheaper than a full passport that allows you to fly
2- Children under 14 can accompany their passport wielding parents for FREE using only a birth certificate

That changed everything! 

We had passport photos taken (Hubby used Walgreens and had to have his remade because they sized it wrong, I used Staples with no problems) and we took those + our applications to a post office to complete the process. FYI, they do take your original birth certificate (+ marriage license,  in my case) and mail that in. The paperwork said 6-8 weeks but we both got our passport cards + documents in 3 weeks.

After carefully triple-checking checking the website for what's allowed to cross borders, we packed lunches and hit the road! 

For this first trip we stopped in Creston,  British Columbia. It was a cute small town and a perfect place to practice international travel. It was very similar to the US with only minor adjustments (kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour, for example) that I am sure will gradually be more profound as we travel up the country/across provinces in the future. 

Saddest story: Creston has not one but two bookstores and we missed both of them, not realizing they closed at 4pm! :(
Epilogue: I announced before we left that I hoped to find a Canada fridge magnet or Christmas tree ornament, a 100% cotton touristy sweatshirt, and maybe a mug. I came home with none of the above. 

Fun things:
- Customs was super easy both ways, 10-15 minutes with no problems
- We didn't stay for the show but we walked past a band setting up for their show- an ACDC cover band called BCDC!
- We recognized about 10-50% of the brands represented in each grocery story aisle, and quite a few of the brands we did recognize had different labels! (Many with French subtitles)
- Overall the processed food seems slightly "healthier" in Canada... better oils, fewer additives, etc
- I saw a Canadian version of a redneck and I'd love to know what they're called! He was essentially a USA redneck (dirty pants, work boots, inappropriate joke to the cashier, belly poking out of shirt) but his shirt had a Canadian flag instead of a US flag.
- Bathrooms are called washrooms.
- Only our border patrol person had an accent. 

Canada books we have loved: The Adventures of Phillippe (middle grade secular) // Anne of Green Gables (middle grade, secular) // Good Morning,  Sunshine  (picture book, secular) // Juddie (middle grade, secular) // The Meeting Place (adult, Christian) // Mystery at Chilkoot Pass (middle grade, secular) // No Ocean Too Wide (adult. Christian) // Out of the Woods (picture book, secular) // Owls in the Family (middle grade, secular) // The Trumpet of the Swan (middle grade, secular)  

Have you been to Canada? What places do you recommend?