Do you love Relative Race from byutv.org as much as I do? If you don’t know what Relative Race is, go read this. If you already know about it, go to the Relative Race YouTube page to relive some of the many tearjerking, heartwarming moments showing lost biological relatives being united for the first time. Oh my, these times make me so happy!
Here are a bunch of videos below featuring Den Debenham, the congenial, wonderful host of Relative Race, shown above. Dan is the Man! He is the best at acknowledging all the tender, joyful, and sometimes hard and tragic moments that these episodes reveal.
You can learn all about Dan’s story, how he came to Relative Race, and his view of the show from the driver’s seat. So many fun, juicy pieces are here!
This one below is my absolute favorite. It shows Dan Debenham with Rebecca of Season 3 Team Black at a fireside for a congregation of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Texas. Rebecca was a contestant and then became an employee to help create the show. Her story is amazing!
I hope you enjoy all of these! Remember, whoever you are, you are a part of a family on earth, and the family of God, started in heaven. I’m so grateful for this!
Whatever family you are in, you can do something to build up your family roles (daughter, son, parent, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, grandchild, grandparent, etc.) and strengthen your family bonds to increase your joy. Truly the family is of God, and is meant to be eternal. Praise Jesus for this!
Remember my Wondrous Winter Mother’s Curriculum post earlier this month? I mentioned in that post that I planned on going to a mock Caldecott Award night. This is my fourth year of going, so I now consider it a personal tradition of mine, as part of making January jolly. I love that it fits with what I had already decided as a fabulous theme for January, that of books, reading, and reading aloud.
This all started when I heard a fellow homeschooling mom, Shauna Bird Dunn, say at a homeschooling conference that she has a personal tradition of reading The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease every January.
“What a great idea!” I remember thinking at the time.
The more I’ve thought of that as a personal tradition for a homeschooling mama the more I love it.
It fits right along with hygge, that of being cozy in winter with books, family, and friends. This hygge reading theme for January makes me look forward every year to a new year and January after the excitement of December is over. It also fits in with doing two Christmas Book Floods, aka Jolabokaflods, in January, one with my girlfriends and one with my family. (It’s just too hard to fit those into December.)
The past few years I’ve also loved going to my local public library for a mock Caldecott night. It’s such a fun night to focus on picture books and discover all the amazing new ones published in the past year.
I just love picture books! I love reading them aloud to my grandchildren and to my last child in the nest for our homeschooling Morning Basket. You are never too old for picture books! Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com says the same thing.
At the event, the other attendees and I got to look at 44 picture books published in 2025 which the organizer of the event considers as contenders for the award. Some of those books are shown in this post.
The one above is one of my favorites from the night. I just adore picture book biographies. This one is about Clara Driscoll, who made Tiffany lamps. (See a whole list of them here.)
The book above is my pick for 2026! It’s Cat Nap by Brian Lies.
The reason I picked it is because the illustrations are the most distinguished illustrations of what I saw of the books that night. In this book, the illustrator/author totally pushes the boundaries of illustrations of a picture book. The story involves a cat-and-mouse chase through an art museum. The illustrations of the animals changes according to what piece of art is in the background. So when they are chasing across a bas-relief piece of art from ancient Egyptian times, the cat looks 3-Dish. Then when the chase is across a stained-glass window, the cat blends in with the stained glass figures. I just love this! If you want to read an amazon review of this book and see how many rave reviews it has, go here.
Here’s another picture book biography! A pioneering female photographer, Imogen Cunningham.
Then here’s another picture book biography, about a man who was Peru’s potato expert.
Go here to see what the Caldecott Award committee members are looking for when they award the book.
After the participants of the event got to see the books, we voted for our top three. Whatever book didn’t get more than one vote from the around 20 people there that night, got kicked out.
Then we talked about why we voted for the ones that were still in the running, and we voted again, narrowing down the selection. After 4-5 rounds of this, these books below were the top three.
Nunu and the Sea was first, then Cat Nap, then Moon Song. I voted for all three at some point during the rounds.
I was thrilled that my original first pick was still in the top three. This happened last year as well.
Guess what? You can watch the Caldecott Award ceremony this coming Monday January 26 at 11 AM ET. It’s part of the Youth Media Awards of the American Library Association. It will be live-streamed over here. I’m excited to watch this and see which book wins!!!
What book do you think will win? Or should have won? if you are reading this after the award is given. Please comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Now you have a bunch of titles to go put on hold at your local public library. Happy picture book reading! As Sarah Mackenize says, reading a beautiful picture book is like going to an art museum in your lap. Enjoy!
I just love learning all about Eve from the Old Testament. For the Come Follow Christ study this current week, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are studying the Fall of Adam and Eve. I prefer to call the Fall “the Leap.” That’s because it was a leap of faith/knowledge on Adam and Eve’s part. They were not being sucked blind into deceit by the enemy. This leap of faith was to partake of the “forbidden fruit.” That act changed their life from being immortal to mortal, so that they could then have children and start the chain of the human race being born.
Eve gets such a bad rap! The mainstream Christian culture thinks of her as being duped and dumb. She is despised and shamed for bringing about fallen life. This shaming is interwoven in Western Christian culture such to the point of causing some men to look down on women and treat them scornfully. The subconsciously have inherited this incorrect belief that Eve is responsible for the mortal mess of a world we live in. But guess what? Eve is to be celebrated, not scorned or shamed.
I firmly believe that Eve studied her situation and talked to God about what was going on. After all, in the Garden of Eden she and Adam could walk and talk with God. Then she decided that her best choice was to eat the fruit. She knew as a consequence of this she would die, meaning leave God’s presence in the Garden of Eden, and eventually physically die. On the other hand, she knew that by partaking of the fruit, she would be able to have children and move the plan of salvation forward, in other words, have joy, and receive knowledge of good and evil, so that she could ultimately choose to act righteously and receive all that the Father has to give her and Adam.
First, go here if you haven’t already and read my Part I about Eve. In that post, you will read the truths about why Adam and Eve couldn’t have children while in the Garden of Eden. You will also learn about two words in the Genesis account of the Eve/Adam and the forbidden fruit story. The Hebrew meanings behind these two words, command, and beguile, show that Eve was not duped by satan. By contrast, she was an agent who acted in the best way for all humans.
Then this video below features Jared Lambert, who is completing a PhD in linguistics. He has seven degrees and speaks eight languages. This video is so amazing! If you don’t watch this, you will be missing out on crucial knowledge about Eve and Adam! It will blow your socks off and open your mind! Please watch it! The video harmonizes with what Sister Campbell says. Brother Lambert says the word “beguile” comes from a proto-Hebrew word that comes from an accounting term that basically means weighing the pros and cons of the choices. Weighing all your choices can definitely cause one to have an “intense multilevel experience which evokes great emotional, psychological and/or spiritual trauma.” That’s the meaning of “beguile” in the words of the Hebrew scholar who Sister Campbell quotes in her book, Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, mentioned in my Part I, over here.
So that’s one concept to put Eve in a positive light. Ready for more? Here we go:
In the video below, Jared Lambert also explains that in the Hebrew language that Genesis was translated from, the words that “helpmeet” comes from is “ezer kenegdo,” He says that ezer means “helper” on the level of “savior,” not just a “little helper” and “kenegdo” means “equal.” Adam was in a static situation, and Eve decided it was time for a change. So she ate the fruit and saved Adam from a static neutral life that allowed for no joy. So she is/was his savior in that way.
Jared also explains that it was after the Fall that God asked Adam what Eve’s name is. Her name isn’t mentioned before that. It was because of Adam’s eyes being opened after the Fall that Adam recognized that her name is Eve. The name “Eve” means she is the mother of all living. She couldn’t have that name before the Fall because she wasn’t in a position to have children yet. He recognized by calling her Eve that she was now truly the mother of all living, which is a most noble, magnificent position for her to choose and now fulfill with him as her husband and equal partner as parents of the whole human race.
He also explains that when it says that Lucifer came to Eve in the form of a serpent, it doesn’t mean that he was a literal snake, crawling on the floor. Go watch at the 50:30 minute mark to find out what Jared says. If you want a brief synopsis, watch below.
This is all so life-changing! Please watch all these videos with Brother Jared and share the good news as to why we are to look upon our first parents “with joy and not with sorrow,” as it says in Jacob 4:3 of the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
In this verse, Jacob is writing about why he and his forefathers have been writing records/their journals/inspiration from God + keeping the scriptures they got from Laban (same stories as the Genesis stories in the Bible) on plates and passing down the records to their posterity. He says it’s because he wants his posterity to do the following with the records:
“that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.”
“Their first parents” are Adam and Eve. May we all know the truth about Adam and Eve and look upon them with joy and not with sorrow. Amen!
During 2026, my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is studying the Old Testament. For last week and this week we have been studying the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis, as well as in the Pearl of Great Price.
The Fall used to be one of those things that totally confused me as a teen. Why did God give Adam and Eve two different competing commandments? That didn’t seem fair, according to my pubescent brain that still only thought in black and white. Why did Adam and Eve have to disobey a commandment in order for the plan of salvation to move forward? Isn’t that saying it’s OK to disobey as long as you get the end result you want?
The answers have slowly come as I’ve grown up. Some of the parts of the answer comes from the Book of Mormon, for 2 Nephi 2:22-26 says:
22 And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
Another piece of the answer to the puzzle came from this talk given by Beverly Campbell, linked over here. She later developed this talk into a whole book. If you haven’t read it, please go read the talk as a Cliffs Notes summary of the book. It should be required reading for anyone studying Western civilization, not just Christianity.
I love that she points out that Eve’s choice to eat of the fruit was a courageous choice. Eve gave up her comfort of living in a paradise, in order to ultimately be more free, to be liberated of her static, perfect, yet boring state, so that she, and all of us, could receive all that Heavenly Father has in store for us, to become like Him. We have to have a body, knowledge of good and evil, and family, to become like God. We couldn’t have all of that unless they partook of the fruit.
I wrote the following in my book, Tree of Life Mothering Vol. 1. This is a book I wrote over 12 years ago and have yet to publish.
“…much of the domination of women and the resulting need for the feminist movement came from the historical misunderstanding of Eve’s choice to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Many, many people have ‘blamed’ her for the condition of the world, the perceived mess involved in this imperfect mortal world, and transferred this blame to all women. On the contrary, she is not to be blamed, for without her, we would not even be born. She is to be praised. She was the first stateswoman, as she desired to improve the state of the future human race, and, remarkably, a tree is involved in her dramatic act.”
The book pictured above is by Melinda Wheelwright Brown, aka, “Mindy,” the guest in the interview in the video below with Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner.
I have a friend who recently said, “I used to think the feminists were a bunch of angry women. Then I got married and had children. Now I understand what they were talking about!”
I know, right?!
There’s nothing like being a mom to finally understand the universal plight of women and to see why some women felt a need for “women’s liberation.” I had read in a college textbook B.C. (before children) that women all over the world and throughout time have done most of the world’s menial work, without pay or recognition. This wasn’t even a “Women’s Studies” textbook. I think it was a textbook about the environment. Anyway, it wasn’t until after I had children that I resonated with that statement. Suddenly I was thrust into a world where no adults recognized what I did, at all hours of the day and night, except for once a year in May, which is hardly commensurate for all my work. All of you moms reading this know what I’m talking about.
Anyhoo, here is more from my book:
The original tree of life is the Tree of Life that grew in the Garden of Eden. We read in Genesis 2:9, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
The Bible also tells us in Genesis 2:17 that God told Adam and Eve, “Of all the trees in the Garden of Eden, thou mayest freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So they were told they could freely eat of all the trees, except for the Tree of Knowledge. If they ate fruit from that tree, they would surely die.
Adam and Eve had also been commanded to be fruitful and multiply (in Genesis 1:28), in other words, to have children. There was a glitch, though. They could not have children in this paradisiacal state. The Bible does not tell us why. It is not because sex is unclean and therefore could not happen in the Garden of Eden. Sex is part of God’s plan for the purpose of uniting husband and wife and creating offspring, and therefore is clean and wholesome when performed in the bonds of marriage. It is not because Adam and Eve were not married, for Joseph Smith told us that Adam and Eve were married in the Garden of Eden. In 1835 his exact words were “marriage was an institution of heaven, instituted in the Garden of Eden.”9 Joseph Fielding Smith corroborated this statement. He said, “The transgression of Adam did not involve sex sin as some falsely believe and teach. Adam and Eve were married by the Lord while they were yet immortal beings in the Garden of Eden and before death entered the world.”10
So the Bible does not tell us exactly why Adam and Eve could not have children in the Garden of Eden. We know they were married and therefore could have children and be morally clean. The Book of Mormon contains this statement by Father Lehi about Adam and Eve.
(I shared these verses above but I’m sharing them again because they are are part of this excerpt from my book)
22 And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
So, for some reason, procreation could not happen in this static, immortal condition of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve therefore faced two choices:
1. Not eat the fruit, and therefore remain forever in the garden, and not have children, or
2. To eat the fruit, and therefore die (be evicted from the garden/God’s presence, which is spiritual death, and also be subject to physical death). But, there was some good news. The good news was that they could then have children, and ultimately have the opportunity to become as God is because they would have knowledge of good and evil.12
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “The Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain as he was in the garden, then he was not to eat the fruit, but if he desired to eat it and partake of death he was at liberty to do so.”13 This concept is not widely understood. It adds a key element to the story of the Garden of Eden, to the comprehension of why the Fall was a good thing and actually a necessary thing. Another way of looking at it is to say that God told Adam and Eve that if they wanted to stay in the garden, they were not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
The flip side of this statement by President Smith is that if they wanted to leave the garden, then eating of the fruit was necessary. I believe that Eve wanted to further the plan of salvation for Heavenly Father’s children. As Joseph Fielding Smith also explained, “This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin in the strict sense, for it was some thing that Adam and Eve had to do!”14
(The video above mentions the book Eve and the Choice Made In Eden. Brother Jared Halverson, however, does not mention the commentary in that book from Dr. Aschkenasy about the word “beguile.” If he mentioned that, his interpretation of the book would be complete. He says beguile means “tricked,” so I’m wondering if he forgot that part from Dr. A in the book. I do love how he explains in the video the difference between “sin” and “transgression.”)
This understanding is supported by two insights from Beverly Campbell in the book Eve and the Choice Made in Eden. Campbell spoke to a scholar of the Hebrew language, Dr. Nehama Aschkenasy. Her conversations revealed that the full meanings of two words in the Bible, command, and beguile, have been lost in the translation process of the Old Testament from its original Hebrew language. By understanding the full meaning of these two words, we gain enormous light to better understand the partaking of the fruit as a noble step taken by Eve and Adam, not a sin.
Aschkenasy explained to Campbell that the translation of the word command as used in the Creation story was from a “different verb form, whose usage connotes a strong, severe warning, perhaps a statement of law, that was possibly temporary in nature, so that at some future, unspecified time it might not apply.”15 To help us understand this idea, Campbell gives the example of parents telling a child not to touch a hot stove or cross a street alone. When parents tell their children not to do these things, are they telling the child never, ever to do these things for the child’s whole life? No, of course not. The prohibition holds until the child is ready with full understanding and maturity to deal with hot stoves or watching for traffic.
The same holds true for the commandment to Adam and Eve about not eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There would be a time when, with greater light of the consequences of their actions, the choice to partake of the fruit would be a good thing. Not just a casual “good thing,” as Martha Stewart says, but really, the best, most important thing that they could do, for it furthered the plan of salvation for the all of the spirit sons and daughters of our Heavenly Parents by allowing these spirits to gain mortal bodies and be tested. The ramifications were so great, however, that this choice had to be a choice deliberately made by Adam and Eve. This is why in Moses we read that Heavenly Father told Adam and Eve, “nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself.”16
Aschkenasy also examined the original meaning in Hebrew of the word that has been translated to beguile in the English King James Bible. It does not mean “to deceive,” but instead “it indicates an intense multilevel experience which evokes great emotional, psychological and/or spiritual trauma.”17
Satan’s offer to Eve to eat of the fruit did not result in him tricking her, and in him thwarting Heavenly Father’s Plan. Rather, Satan acted as an unwitting catalyst in furthering the Plan. He offered the fruit to her, hoping she would partake because he wanted her to die or be separated from God. Of course, this was not according to the lie he told her. He told her, “Ye shall not die, but shall be as the gods, knowing good from evil.” Here is the half-truth. She could become as the gods, by knowing good from evil, but he did not mention all the pain, suffering, and time it would take, not to mention the fact that she would die and be separated from God for a time. Nevertheless, she knew it was the best choice.
I believe that she partook because she had studied the situation and was fully aware of the consequences. I am guessing that she must have done this by communication with God. Perhaps you can think of some deal offered to you that you accepted, not because of what some other guy was telling you, which might not be true, but because you knew for yourself after much study and prayer what you were going to get out of it. For example, you didn’t buy the used car because of the shifty salesman’s hype, but because you read Consumer Reports and recognized the good deal.
This is akin to Eve’s story. She wanted to courageously further the plan of salvation by ushering in mortality, so that all of God’s spirit children could have joy, so they could be “free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. . .”18 Most stunningly, Eve was the very first human rights activist and advocate for women’s liberation, as well as men’s! Her name should be praised forever more. She was the first stateswoman, as she took the first step to improve the state or condition of all mankind, with eternal consequences.
As explained earlier, this bringing forth of children could not have happened in the Garden of Eden. President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “He (Adam) partook of that fruit for one good reason, and that was to open the door to bring you and me and everyone else into this world, for Adam and Eve could have remained in the Garden of Eden; they could have been there to this day, if Eve hadn’t done something.”19
Eve demonstrated public virtue, a willingness to do what was best for everyone involved, not just herself, by sacrificing her own personal comfort if she selfishly stayed complacently in paradise. She gave up her own contentment for the joy of all the human race. As Robert L. Millet said, “Because the Fall (like the Creation and the Atonement) is one of the three pillars of eternity, and because mortality, death, human experience, sin, and thus the need for redemption grow out of the Fall, we look upon what Adam and Eve did with great appreciation rather than with disdain.”20
Millet quotes two other authors as saying, “The fall had a twofold direction—downward, yet forward. It brought man into the world and set his feet upon progression’s highway.”21 As Enoch declared, “Because that Adam fell, we are.”22 No wonder Eve is glorious and exalted. She has a rightful place in the Celestial Kingdom. According to Doctrine and Covenants 137:5, Adam has attained the glory of the Celestial Kingdom. Eve would have to be there also, since one can only go there sealed in marriage to a husband or wife.23
After Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, their bodies became mortal, subject to death and sin, and they were separated from God. This is the Fall of Adam. At this point, it would not have been a good thing to follow the invitation to eat of the Tree of Life, because then they would have lived forever in their fallen state, separated from God eternally. Therefore, God placed cherubim and a flaming sword before the Tree of Life to keep them from eating of the fruit.24
Adam and Eve were sent from the garden into a world full of weeds and were told to work for fruit, both the fruit of the earth, and the fruit of the womb. In latter-day scripture we learn that they were taught that a savior would come, Jesus Christ, to redeem them and allow them to return to Heavenly Father’s presence. “And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.”25 Thus Adam and Eve found a new, symbolic Tree of Life from which they could partake. This is the personal, metaphoric Tree of Life which each of us, sometimes unknowingly, is searching for; the only source of eternal life and joy.
So let’s celebrate Eve!!! She truly is the first women’s libber!
This is what she said after she partook of the fruit. We get this juicy bit of her celebration of the fortunate fall thanks to Joseph Smith receiving it as a revelation from God as he translated the Bible. It’s from the Pearl of Great Price, in Moses 5: 11-12:
“11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.”
I had so much fun with my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum in December that I decided to give what I study in January a fun name as well and share it here on the blog.
So…here goes…drumroll, please…
I present to you dear blog reader my Wondrous Winter Mother’s Curriculum, below. I anticipate that it will spill into February. Then in March I will make a Splendid Spring Mother’s Curriculum. June, July and August will be my Sizzling Summer Mother’s Curriculum. Then September, October and November will be Feasting on Fall. Then back to Christmas. Yay!! So many fabulous things to learn all year round! This will be so fun!
In December I picked things that were all Christmas-themed. Do January and February have a theme? Yes, a few! All these things I’ve listed below for January and February have to do with winter, snow, wonder, self-improvement, the Old Testament, family, health, and hygge, with a little residue of Christmas. (If you don’t know what hygge means, go here to learn more about it.)
Books
I’ll be listening to and/or reading the following books.
After reading this book, last year in January, I decided that I want to read it every January. I have already found three copies at thrift stores the past two days to give away to friends and my mom to talk about it with them! It totally helps the reader put into perspective what is important about life: Jesus relationships, and service. It’s about a man who died, went to heaven, watched his family from heaven, and came back. He was allowed to live with his family for a few more years with that perspective of going to heaven and back. It’s soooo good!
This is another book that I read last year and want to read every January. It inspires me! It’s important to revisit all the principles and stories the author shares about the importance of vision.
At the Weston A. Price Foundation Conference last fall (my recap is here) one of the presenters, Dr. Andrew Kaufman MD, said that his whole presentation was based on the book above. I want to dig into this and apply it to my own health.
This one is for pure fun. A friend whose book taste I trust recommended it to me. It combines all of Jane Austen’s characters into one novel, where they come together for a vacation in a mansion. Because of a huge storm and the ensuing mud, they are stuck living with the villainous Mr. Wickham for the trip. He is then murdered, and the whodunit search is afoot! I’ve tried JA fan fiction before and was sorely disappointed. I’m hoping this one delivers!
I’m going to get into the one above eventually. Maybe not till March? I started the one below and will hopefully finish it this year. I read about 10 minutes from it every Sunday night, so at that rate it will definitely take me all year to finish. A preview of the book is here.
I heard about the above book from Sister Lili de Hoyos Anderson, in one of her Come Follow Me podcas for December. “What, Elder Holland wrote a book about the names of Christ? How did I not already know about this?!” I thought. Elder Jeffery R. Holland just passed away, right after Christmas 2025. So partly to honor his memory, I am reading this book. I’m also reading it to learn more about the names of Christ as research for a new project. I want to have more truths and at least one story to go with each name the next time we use our Immanuel Wreath, which will be Easter. The project probably won’t be done by Easter now that I think about it, but hopefully by Advent time in December 2026.
By the way, two women are doing a project called @101holynames in Instagram and Facebook to showcase one name of Christ a day between Christmas and Easter, which involves 101 days. This is so wondrous! I love it!
One of my Veggie Gals, Mindy, told me about the above book. I’m listening to it in the video below. It’s fascinating!
This one above is for the Pyramid Project class I’m mentoring. Ever since I heard about it with my older children who took Pyramid I’ve been wanting to read it. I’m also studying the Creation story in the Old Testament this month so this fits with that too!
Meetings/Gatherings/Parties
Paola Brown’s Momeopath Insider Circle weekly meetings. These are every Monday night. This works because my 16 year old son will be gone every Monday night for his indoor marching band class. We’ll be doing FHE on Sunday nights because of those two things.
2. Jolabokkaflod Party. Another residual tinge of Christmas. It was hard to fit this into December so we did it in January, just this past Sunday. I learned about this three years ago from podcaster and homeschooling mom Sarah Mackenzie of readaloudrevival.com. I’m doing it to promote to posterity the idea of winter being the perfect time for cozying up with a book. We will share pizza, books, and chocolate, three of the major delights of life. (Go here if you want to learn more about Jolabokkaflod. Also read the picture book shown in the photo below.)
3. Shumway Family January Birthday Zoom Party. Three family members, including two of my children-in-law, have January birthdays so we will celebrate their birthdays together in zoom to involve the out of town people.
4. Game Night with Friends Playing Word, Social Deduction, and Trivia Games
5. Sunday Dinner with the local sister missionaries. When we lived in Arizona we were able to host the missionaries for dinner all the time. This is the first time we get to do it living in Utah. I’m grateful for all the times people have invited my four sons who have served or are serving missions for dinner. This is a small way to pay them back.
5. A Jane Austen Girls’ Night Out Party. Jane’s birthday is in December. This past December was her 250 year birthday! I’d love to celebrate her birthday every year in that month but I always feel like I can’t squeeze in one more party then. Putting this party in January or February gives me one more thing to look forward to in the bleak midwinter! I have found two Jane Austen-themed board games while thrifting and was gifted one by my son. I hope to play all three at my party.
The roll-and-move one above will be the opening game; as people arrive they can join and be on teams. It involves trivia about P&P as you move the four couples from the story along the paths to their goals.
My son gave me the one above for Christmas a few years ago. It uses cards and a die. I’ve played it a few times but only ever as a two to three player game. I’ve been so eager to play with more, and with people who are willing to inject some dramatic acting/flirting/swooning into it. It doesn’t involve any trivia, but if you are familiar with the characters of the books then that would be helpful with the acting.
I found this one thrifting last summer, which I blogged about here. Talk about thrifting gold! It is so pretty! This one involves trivia about all the Jane books.
Projects
1. Finish crocheting the scarf I started, ahem, five years ago!
2. Finish the Nativity jigsaw puzzle I started in December and never finished.
3. Start the Eric Dowdle National Parks jigsaw puzzle I got for Christmas. It’s like the one below except it’s 300 pieces.
5. Make paper snowflakes for decorating my front room, using the book I got from this thrift haul below. I also have the ones I saved from last year that will go on the front windows. The new ones will go on the side windows. Hmm…maybe I will even clean the windows… 🙂
6. I’ll also make some 3-D snowflakes to form a few new garlands like those below. These garlands will replace the ones I had made a few years ago. You can get the link for the instructions over here.
Skills I’m Working On
1, I’m doing 15 minutes of drawing a day, using this book above. I did the Drawing Textbook, for over ten years (maybe 20!? Can I just say I have been learning how to draw on “full-time-homeschooling-mom-of-7-time”? lol) and finally “graduated” from it in Fall 2025. Drawing totally gives me pure joy. I just feel so calm and into the “flow.” I just finished learning how to draw a dog’s profile using this book. Every day I refine it a bit with shading and erasing. The book on shading I get from thrifting, shown in one of the photos above, will help.
I would love to write and illustrate my own picture book after getting even more drawing skills. Hey, if Janice Kapp Perry can become a composer in her 50s I can become an illustrator.
2. Piano. Playing the piano just gives me so much joy. I want to spend at least 5 minutes a day playing a song from my voluminous piano sheet music collection. I found the book below while thrifting in December so I gave it to myself and I’ve started playing from it. I also found the RD Children’s Songbook during this past year and the RD Classical Music songbook, at thrift stores as well.
3. Organ. I got called to be one of the organists for my ward (church congregation) recently. So I have been dusting off and increasing my organ-playing skills with these webinars from the BYU Organ Dept over here. I play once or twice a month. The webinars are monthly.
Habits I’m Forming
1. 15k steps a day, 4 days a week at least, mostly done at my makeshift standing laptop desk, with some walking outside to get fresh air. Positively Providentially, after I made this goal, one of my homeschool mom friends announced she was doing an Elizabeth Bennet 90-Day Walking Challenge. Go here to get all the details so you can do it too!
2. Putting my blue light blocking glasses on around sunset every night, wearing them until I go to bed
3. Having sunlight be the first light I see in the morning
4. Strength-training exercises at least twice a week, 15 minutes each time.
Podcasts I’m Listening To
1. Old Testament Come Follow Christ podcasts/YouTube videos (Unshaken with Jared Halverson, Lili de Hoyos Anderson, Barbara Morgan Gardner, and Hank Smith and John Bytheway)
I’m taking down all my beautiful Christmas picture books that I’ve had gracing my walls, on top of my window ledges and doorways in my dining room/library/front room. As well as the evergreen boughs below the books. It’s just been so fortuitious that I discovered last summer, right before Independence Day, that I can decorate with my seasonal and holiday picture books, because of these ledges with grooves.
My picture books fit perfectly on top of the ledges, nestled right into the grooves. Now I’ll be putting up my wintry garlands: snowflakes, bright-colored pom poms, and hearts, along with my paltry collection of snowy, wintry, and Valentine picture books.
I only have a handful, which is so sad, including the ones above and below. I don’t have nearly as many of them as I do of Christmas. So these will go on the big front window ledge. I will be going to the public library to add to my collection short-term, to fill up the other ledges. I also just got the idea to add some Bible-themed books to the mix since the Come follow Me topic this year is Old Testament, and following Biblical principles leads to self-improvement.
Like I said, I’ll be getting more winter picture books from the library to display. If you want some wintry book suggestions, go here, then scroll down to see the lists under January and February.
That’s it! I’d love to hear what you as a mother are studying and working on in January and February, so if you care to, please comment below and share. Cheers!
This is so delightful! My friend Raquel is offering this PDF of a walking guide inspired by Pride and Prejudice. It’s basically a challenge to walk 125 miles in 90 days, which is the distance from Longbourn to Pemberley. Go get it here in etsy.
I’m so happy about this! I was already planning on doing a challenge of 15K steps a day for this new year. This challenge will make it so much more fun! Also, for months, I’ve also been wanting to do a girls’ night out party in January or February because Jane’s birthday was in December, and my December was crammed full with Christmas festivities. It wasn’t just any birthday, it was her 250th birthday!
So doing this challenge fits in with both those desires!
Here’s where it gets even better…you can get this 9 page PDF over here in etsy for only 50 cents, using the coupon code ELIZABETH. If you are a Jane fan, you will love it! Be sure to give it a good review in etsy so Raquel will feel motivated to make more luscious Jane Austen ephemera!
Here’s what you get in this elegant printable PDF:
-instructions for how to do the 90 day walking challenge
-a week-by-week and day-by-day guide for completing the challenge
-a tracking page for your progress
-gorgeous images of four of the residences that you will be starting from and”walking” to if you complete the challenge: Longbourne, Meryton, Netherfield, and Pemberly.
-a list of suggested viewing if you are walking on a treadmill or walking pad
-award ribbons to print and cut out to wear with honor as you complete each phase of the challenge
May I suggest a few audiobooks and videos to add to the mix?
Here we go…
-watch the 250th birthday party for Jane above, held in her hometown of Bath, England.
-you can find her books read aloud in YouTube. Look especially for P&P narrated by Jennifer Ehle, who played Lizzie in the best movie adaptation
I’m listening to the above book this month. It combines all of Jane’s characters into one book!
Above is a tour of Jane’s Home With Lucy Worsley.
This video below shows the backstory of the book above. A guidebook to all the places Jane lived and visited, it was created by three BYU students.
This video below shows the life of Jane Austen.
Then this video below shows things you might have missed in the BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice.
Watch the one below to see what Jane Austen looked like.
Here are proposal scenes from six Austen couples.
Then here’s a modern day adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, filmed in good old Provo Utah. My cousin’s daughter, who is at BYU now, says she went through a phase in her tweens when she watched this regularly. I first watched it when I was postpartum with Baby #4 while eating Cafe Rio at home. for a babymoon married date night, with all the other kiddos gone. It’s silly and fun so watch it when you want lots of laughs.
Every Jane Austen Adaptation Ranked from Worst to Best is in the video below.
The video over here shows Susannah Harker, who played Jane Bennet in the 1995 P&P.
Then there’s this new series, Lost in Austen. Episode 1 is below. I haven’t watched it all yet so can’t vouch for wholesomeness but it looks promising.
It’s a new year of study for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! For 2026 we are studying the Old Testament this year. The study guide of the Church for the OT is over here. I’m excited to increase my knowledge of this part of the Bible. So many, many beautiful stories of God’s covenantal grace abound in the Old Testament. The word “testament” means “covenant.” So when we study the Old Testament we are studying the ancient evidences of God’s covenantal love and grace. This helps us live to feel this love and grace more as well. I love learning about Jesus, aka, Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament/Covenant, who fulfills His promise in the New Testament/Covenant.
Here’s a great video of scholar Dr. John Hilton III introducing the Old Testament. I love the overview he gives in the images above and below.
You can access Brother Hilton’s OT masterclass here. Then you can get the free ebook about the Dead Sea Scrolls that he mentions in the video from the QR code below.
Then Brother Hilton’s aunt, Sister Lynn Hilton Wilson, has an introduction to the OT in the video below.
As Sister Wilson says in the video above, the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Christ is one of the best commentaries on the Old Testament. She also says that the OT has more references to women than any other book of scripture.
Speaking of women, I encourage you to get the book below by Heather Farrell to learn more about women in the Old Testament. I believe it is a compilation of what she has in her blog over here. (I was so blessed to find this book when thrifting this past year. I saved it to give to my daughter as one my Christmas gifts.)
How about some music to connect to the Old Testament stories? I raised my children on Scriptures Scouts music. The Old Testament music is here to buy and over here in Spotify.
Then there’s the beautiful music by Shawna Belt Edwards. The video below shows clips from her OT songs. The whole playlist is here.
Today in Sunday School in our intro to the OT lesson the teacher mentioned Dr. Ross Baron. I thought, “Hey, I know him! He was the favorite professor of two of my children at BYUI.” I don’t know him personally, but I feel like I do after listening to so many of his speeches. He is amazing! Here are his thoughts below to keep in mind as you read the OT this year.
Lastly, here’s a fun intro to the OT video by Kristen Walker Smith.
I had the thought last night that when I take down my Christmas picture books that I have up for decorations in my front room, on the ledges above my windows and doorways, I can put up my few winter picture books, my few Valentine picture books, and….the books I have about the Bible. I’ve also got my heart garlands, my snowflake garlands, and my pom pom garlands. I’m excited!!!
These are the books I finished in 2025, in order of reading, as far as I can remember. I completed 40 books!!!! That averages to over three books a month. Not quite one a week which is what I aimed to do, but that’s OK. I am so pleased with myself for doing this!!! I did this on top of all my responsibilities, mostly by listening to audiobooks and reading right before bed. This is also in addition to all the podcasts I listened to, especially for my Come Follow Christ study. I am pleased with the mix of fiction and nonfiction that I finished, across a wide variety of subjects. The size of the book cover images in this post show how much I loved the books. The bigger the image, the more I liked it.
The book above I started in December and finished in January. It is so, so good!!!! The author starts the story with a Christmas vacation to Africa so in that sense it’s Christmas-y. If you want a book to inspire you about what one woman can do, especially fulfilling her pursuit of God’s will, read Kisses from Katie! It is all true and so amazing!!!
The Message is soooo good as well! This is one book I want to read every year in January. It is about a man who died, was allowed to watch his family from heaven to see what they were doing, and then God allowed him to come back to his mortal life with “the message.” It is all true!!!! So incredibly marvelous! I found it a thrift store last year and picked it up because I remembered my Veggie Gals recommending it. I just found another copy today when thrifting. I’m excited to give it to my mom and talk about it with her! I hope to find many more copies of it to give away. I love that it shows big family life, faith in God, and a view of the spirit world. It’s utterly fabulous!
The Air We Breathe is also soooo good! The author, Glen Scrivener, explains how the values of freedom, kindness, progress, and equality, which reasonable people appreciate the whole world over, all come from Jesus. Without Jesus, we wouldn’t have these values. Another way of putting it is that we can’t have these values lasting in our civilization without believing in Jesus. I want to read this one again too! Jesus has influenced our culture to the point that His values have permeated our lives to be just as unnoticeable as the “air we breathe.”
I found Angela Braniff as a YouTube influencer when I saw one of her videos about recommended Christmas gifts on amazon a year ago. This book is her story. It was fun and interesting. I admire for adopting internationally and being willing to be a mom of of so many children, following faith in God.
I heard about the above book from Marcie Holladay over at singlemomonafarm.com. She used what she learned in this book to get her dream, which is a farm with lots of acreage in Virginia. I enjoyed it! It’s another one to read/listen to every January. I love all the stories the author tells of people achieving their dreams, from famous people like Tim Allen to ordinary people. It’s an exciting book! If these people can achieve their dreams so can you and I!
We did the above book for our December Morning Basket 2024 but then it took us until about February 2025 to finish it. The illustrations are just so sumptuous! A lovely book!
My son and I listened to a few Gordon Korman books while I drove him to his different classes that he participated in as part of his homeschool education in winter, spring and fall of 2025. These are all fun books for tweens and teens. Mr. Korman is a gifted writer for coming up with captivating plots and witty dialogue.
The one above was for Sisters’ Book Club. It was fun but frustrating. The mom in the story annoyed me because she was such a micromanager. It paints stay-at-home moms in a bad light.
This one is such a great book! It’s a graphic novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian, family man, and spy. He was part of the plot to kill Hitler. Such an amazing, true story!!!! So grand! If you don’t read it, you are missing out!!! I show how to make timeline cards for it as an educational aid for teaching history over here.
The 13th Gift was another item for our December Morning Basket which spilled into January and February. It is a true story of a widowed mom of three who had someone give her family gifts for a “Twelve Days of Christmas” project. Such a fun, inspiring, heartwarming story! Put it on your TBR books for your Mother’s Merry Christmas curriculum for next year!
Another Sisters’ Book Club pick. It was delightful!!!! I listened to it in everand.
Linked is a great story as an introduction to Jewish life and culture. It’s also a great story of community and forgiveness.
Speaking of Jewish life, this next one also relates to that. The above book is another amazing book! Go here to read my full review! It’s about a young man, Jason Olson, who was born to a Lutheran father and Jewish mother. He converted to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a teen after reading/studying The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Another true story of God working in someone’s life to bring truth to someone who earnestly sought to know God better. I absolutely loved it!!!!
I heard about this book from Sarah Mackenzie as one of her books she recommends to moms. It was fun but there’s nothing morally outstanding about it. It’s OK if you miss it. I picked it for Sisters’ Book Club in June, and hadn’t read it previously. From now on I will only pick books that I have already read so I know whether or not I can give it a hearty recommendation.
The above book was another Sisters’ Book Club pick. It was horrible! I don’t recommend it. I wasted 6 hours or so of my life listening to it. A fictional book, it shows a woman cheating on her fiance with no repercussions. I didn’t appreciate the open door bedroom scene which I quickly skipped over. Come to think of it, there may have been more, which I also skipped over. I kept thinking it was going to get better and it never did. So take it from me and avoid this book! Notice the image is really small to show how much I hated it. I have it just big enough so you can read the title and the author so you know to avoid it. My sister-in-law picked it not having read it. I hope she only picks books she has read before as I have vowed to do from now on.
I love Patti Callahan Henry’s books. She is a great storyteller! Another Sisters’ Book Club read.
In what was definitely a serendipitous/positively Providential/God wink discovery, I found the book just above and the one just below at the Orem Savers maybe three years ago? and finally read them to help me in writing my novels. One is to come out this winter of 2026. So watch for it!
I somehow stumbled across a YouTube video of the author above. So then I did some sleuthing and found her blog and her publishing company of books for homeschoolers. She is so wonderfully delightful! Sarah Janisse Brown, in this memoir above, shows the power of a godly young woman who dedicates her life to God, following His will as to who she will marry and how many children to give birth to as well as to adopt. Her story is so fun to read, so inspiring, and best of all, it’s all true! I envy anybody who hasn’t read this book yet and gets to read it for the first time. This is just such a huge meaty treat of a book!!! It’s steak and ice cream for the mind all at once! I admire Sarah so much. She resonates a lot with me as a home birthing, homeschooling mom of many. You can see more of her here.
A friend was raving about this book above. It sounded so fun I had to read it myself. It’s by one of the co-authors of The Burning Book, James Goldberg. It’s a totally delightful story about a Latter-day Saint young man falling in love with a Sikh young woman. It’s entertaining, educating, and thought-provoking! A wonderful book!
OK, this one above is a must-read. It is written by a woman who lived a lifestyle totally opposite to my life. As an atheist, she was a professor of English at Syracuse University and set out to prove the Bible wrong. Imagine her surprise when she came to know the Bible as true! She is now the wife of a pastor and homeschooling mom and grandma! She makes a case for including all people, not matter their background, as part of a mother’s hospitality, to “make strangers into friends and friends into family.” Her stories are fun to read, heartwarming, and instructive of how to have a hospitality culture in your home. Just don’t compare yourself with what she does. I believe there is a season when a mom has many children and/or other responsibilities to focus on her own and not feel guilty for not doing more.
I stumbled across this one when I was researching for and writing my blog post over here about musical big families. It is the true story of a woman growing up black with only sisters. Her dad was determined that his daughters would be more successful than he was. A big key to success, he was told, was for them to study music. So he got them playing in a family band. They traveled all up and down the East coast doing gigs, which helped pay for their college educations. I think it was all but one of the five daughters that became either a doctor or a dentist. This is a wonderful story of the power of parent mentors. So, sooo, sooo good! I love true stories like this! The author, Yvonne Thornton, became the first black woman to become board-certified in neonatology medicine after becoming an OB-BYN. Very inspiring!
My son and I read the above book for Morning Basket for spring, summer, and fall of 2025. It took us that long because I would read aloud 1-5 pages a day and we had some breaks in there. It tells the story of Helmuth Hubener from one of his closest friends, Rudi Wobbe. So, sooo, soo good!
We, my son and I, listened to Carry On Mr. Bowditch for the Pyramid class I am mentoring, that he is in. This is such a splendid book. Another must-read for everyone! I had never heard of Mr. Bowditch until I became a homeschool mom. He was a real person who revolutionized the world of navigation with his mathematical figuring. His book, The American Practical Navigator, is on sale in amazon today. Imagine writing a book that is still being sold over 200 years later.
My daughter picked the above book for Sisters’ Book Club in October. I was happy about that because I had read it before and wanted a reread. It’s a fun book that shows the power of friendship and resourcefulness. It also gets the reader more interested in WWII. Definitely a Charlotte Mason living book that can and should be used to teach WWII. My sister Emily reviews it on her blog here, scroll down to Book #6 in her list on that page.
After listening to three Gordon Korman books with my son for all our driving to classes, I felt it was time to expose him to an old classic, so we did Little Britches. I think both our minds wandered during a lot of the listening, so he hasn’t discovered its magic. It’s still a great book!
The woman/main character in the story above reminded me of my mother-in-law just a bit. Catching Christmas is a darling, Christ-centered, clean, wholesome Christmas romance story. I’m glad I listened to it! It’s another book that shows the power of what one woman can do. This book and the next bunch below were all part of my Merry Christmas Mother Curriculum. (I’m thinking of having a personal curriculum that I formerly name from now on. I’m thinking January’s will be my “Jolly January Hygge for Mother” curriculum.)
Mr. Dickens and His Carol really delivered for me! It was even better than The Man Who Invented Christmas! Both titles have the same topic: the story of how Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol. The former started out as a screenplay and became a book, the latter started out as a book and became a movie. This one is better because of all the author’s luscious, evocative descriptions of Victorian England, as well as the emotional interplay going on with the characters, which is just hard to do with a movie. That interplay caused Dickens’ great transformation, a parallel to Scrooge’s transformation. It is so good I want to listen to it every Christmas!
The Christmas Chronicles! This is such a lovely, lovely backstory of Santa Claus. I listened to this book in podcast form, over here. It’s just so fun, so magical, so lovely, and fabulous. I love that it incorporates the Christ Child, St. Nicholas, Dasher and the other reindeer, Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Santa’s workshop, and the elves into one beautiful amazing story. It rivals C.S. Lewis in Christian storytelling! So, soo, soo good!
I read maybe 80- 90% of this for our family and Church’s Come Follow Christ study for 2025. So I’m counting it! So many beautiful truths are in this book! If you haven’t read it, read it here or in the LDS Gospel Library app on your phone.
I listened to the above book, from a YouTube video, during an afternoon while multi-tasking. The American Girls books and dolls came out when I was a teen so I didn’t really get into them, or even when I was raising my daughters, even though I did get one of them the Felicity doll and some of the books. I decided that the Christmas stories would be fun to listen to during the Advent season. This book is short and delightful and shows family love. I enjoyed it! Next Christmas I’ll do some of the others involving Samantha, Molly, Addy, etc.
A Christmas Dream is kind of like a child’s version of A Christmas Carol. I also listened to this in YouTube while working. It’s a beautiful redemptive story!
The books above and below are collections of true short stories from LDS authors. They were fun and heartwarming! I liked the one above better than the one below.
I finished the one above after finding it when thrifting in 2024. I learned that the seven traditions listed are to be done as part of Advent, but not every day the week before Christmas, but starting the Sunday, before Thanksgiving so that you do one a Sunday and then one on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I didn’t plan ahead well enough with this because I finished reading this so close to Christmas. So I adapted this book to go through all of it in an hour for our family Christmas Eve program. We talked about each Nativity figure, what it symbolizes according to Emily, read the scripture, sang the song, and discussed the discussion question. It was lovely!
This one was great! A wonderful follow-up after watching the movie of the author’s journey to finding Christ, called A Case for Christ. I review the movie here.
At the request of one of my children, I read/listened to the one above. The whole concept of the autism spectrum fascinates me. I’ll be delving into this subject more in 2026.
Elder Jeffery R. Holland’s daughter wrote the book above. I found it thrifting. It’s short and sweet. Perfect for reading in one sitting.
We as a family used the study guide above for our study of Christ and His words in the Doctrine and Covenants for 2025. I enjoyed using this study guide. Sometimes I used the discussion questions as journal writing prompts which caused me to have some reflection for which I’m grateful for. 2026 involves the Old Testament part of the Bible which I’m excited about.
That’s my 2025 in books! I’d love to hear what you read, so if you’d like, please share in the comments below.
Home Alone, the blockbuster movie which became an instant Christmas classic, came out when I was in college. I remember loving the plot line. It was just so original. And the opening scene? It combined two of my loves: large family life and pizza! That hooked me from the very beginning. I remember laughing out loud with my husband at several scenes. Then when children came along and we showed it with him, it was so fun to see them laugh out loud too. Then too, as the children came along, and I became a mother of 5 boys, I related so much more to the mom and son dynamic. Then there’s the epic music, composed by John Williams. It really gets to my heart. I noticed as I got older that I liked the burglar traps less and less. My old age opened my eyes to how they border on sadism.
Anyway, for some reason yesterday when I was nursing a cold I got on a Home Alone jag and went down a rabbit hole of research. Here are some fun facts about the movie…
1. It’s been 35 years since the movie premiered 16 November 1990.
2. The movie joined the National Film Registry list in 2023. This means it is a movie of cultural and historical significance for the United States.
3. The movie was filmed in February to May of 1990.
4. The neighborhood where it was filmed didn’t really have snow, so the movie crew used white cotton batting and potato flakes to simulate it.
5. The home shown in the movie is a real home: 671 Lincoln Ave Winnetka Illinois. This is 16 miles north of downtown Chicago.
6. The only parts of the movie filmed inside the actual home were the foyer, the stairway, and the attic.
7. Most of the interior home shots were filmed on sets built inside an old high school gym, New Trier Township High School West Campus in Winnetka, to replicate the interior of the actual home.
8. The home has attracted tourists ever since the film debuted. The constant stream caused the owners to erect a fence to keep people off their property.
9. The treehouse in the movie behind the home was built especially for the movie and then taken down afterwards.
10. The original owners of the home John Abendshein and Cynthia Demps, sold the home in 2012. The listed price was over $1.5 million.
11. When the movie was being filmed the owners and residents of the home remained living inside. Their daughter, Lauren, describes the situation in the video below. She was 6 at the time of the filming.
12. During filming, the cast and crew caught wind that one of the elderly neighbors was celebrating a birthday so they came to her doorstep to wish her a happy birthday. This is just so incredibly sweet! This moment was captured by neighbors who lived across the street from the home. They captured a little bit of the filming every day on a home video camera. Watch below.
13. Sometime after it was sold in 2012, the home was made it into an Airbnb, where people could stay and relive moments from the movie.
14. As of this writing, it was last sold for over $5 million in January 2025, according to zillow.com.
15. At some point along the way it was remodeled to look “modern.” This is so sad! Currently, modern means sterile which borders on soul-less, I’m afraid. It’s utterly tragic! I’m not the only one who thinks so, watch the video below.
16. Happily, it is being restored to its original Home Alone movie beauty charm and splendor.
17. Macaulay Culkin, the star who played Kevin, lets his children watch the movie but hasn’t told them that he is the star. He’s waiting for the moment when they figure it out and ask him about it.
18. Macaulay received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame a few years ago. The woman who played his mom in the movie, Catherine O’Hara, got to speak at the ceremony. She said that Macaulay is what made the movie a success.
19. Some people have read Christian symbolism into the movie. I don’t know if the writer, John Hughes, and the producer, Chris Columbus, intended this symbolism or not. Watch the video below and read here to see some interpretations.
20. The movie has a huge cult following in Poland where it is always shown on national TV on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
21. John Abendshein has written a memoir about his Home Alone home and its fame, called Home But Alone No More.
Image Credit: amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I disclose that any qualifying purchases made through any amazon links on this page earn me a commission.
22. Daniel Stern, who played Marv, one of the Wet Bandits, has written a memoir called Home and Alone. He is now a sculptor who also runs a farm with his wife.
24. Home Alone is one of the few movies mentioned in a General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thomas S. Monson mentioned it in April 1991, in a talk entitled “Never Alone.” You can read it here or watch it below.
In the talk, after seeing the scene of reconciliation of the old man neighbor, Marley, and his son, President Monson describes his feelings of leaving the movie theater in his typical third-person style.
“One emerges from the theater with moist eyes. As the brightness of day envelops the silent throng, perhaps there are those whose thoughts turn to that man of miracles, that teacher of truth—even the Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. I know my thoughts did.”
Knowing the love of Jesus Christ and acting on these feelings to reach out to others, I know that I will never be truly alone. I’m so grateful for this knowledge!
The movie remains popular because it represents the universal natural desire to be with family at Christmas so as not to be home alone. It also shows chaos and forgiveness in a family setting, which we can all relate to. We are all part of family in some form. All families have chaos at some level, and all families have need of forgiveness within because offenses in family inevitably arise. It’s just lovely how this movie shows reconciliation growing and glowing like the Bethlehem star within not just one, but two families. Not only that, but the symbolism of Old Man Marley as Christ, swooping in and rescuing Kevin from the bad guys after all of Kevin’s works failed…how did I miss that? I love that too! So if you haven’t seen the movie lately, it’s time for a rewatch, during this Twelve Days of Christmas season. Enjoy and please let it point you to the ultimate Christmas gift: Jesus Christ, whose love means we are never truly alone.
December 25 is over for 2025, but Christmas Day is just the beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Growing up, I thought the Twelve Days ended on Dec. 25. As an adult, I have learned that Dec. 25 is actually the start of it. Watch the videos below to learn the history of these days.
I love Leila Marie Lawler’s ideas over here, on the blog likemotherlikedaughter.org, about celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas as a family. The following list is what she suggests on how to celebrate the Twelve Days, but of course, you as the mom and dad are in charge of your family. I certainly trust you to be flexible and do what fits your family the best. These are just suggestions, not commandments. The purpose of celebrating these Twelve Days is to spread out the Christmas festivities with wholesome recreation for your family, connecting your family to each other while celebrating the birth of the Christ child. This spreads Christmas out to be a big season into January, not just the Advent days in December.
Day 1: Christmas Day, which is over this year. I hope you all had a relaxing and merry Christmas Day with the perfect balance of relaxing and merry, which can be hard to find, I admit. It was a certainly merry day for me to the point of being overstimulating. Anyway, it’s over! Another day I’ll blog a debrief of Christmas Day like I have for other years, such as over here. So moving on…
Day 2: We usually play board games on this day, Boxing Day, December 26 and eat leftovers from Christmas Eve and Day dinners. Ms. Lawler suggests on this day for the family to make gingerbread houses. That’s never going to happen here. After the Tetris marathon of prepping for and orchestrating Christmas Day, there’s no way I’m doing gingerbread houses the next day! I like the idea of boxing up stuff to give away to make more room for all the new toys and clothes given as presents the previous day, but alas, I have never actually felt that ambitious and energetic the day after Christmas.
My nieces’ collections of Playmobil, Calico Critters, blocks and Legos.
Day 3: She suggests the family open up a whole-family present that everyone can enjoy for the day, like a board game. Or it might be an addition to a set of family toys to revive interest in an old family favorite, such as Brio railroad cars and tracks, Calico Critters, Legos, or a Playmobil collection.
Day 4: It’s good to add some outside time. Mrs. Lawler says to do an outing on this day: museum, Nutcracker, ice skating, etc. Hmmm, does any theater keep showing Nutcracker after Christmas Eve, I wonder? Regardless, I like the idea of getting out for a change of pace. She says to look for discount or free pass days.
Day 5: Have a quiet day at home doing a jigsaw puzzle together, she says. We did this puzzle above as an extended family during that week between Christmas and New Year’s at my parents’ cabin. Of course, I found the puzzle when thrifting. You can find great puzzles for just a few bucks at your local thrift store. Some people avoid getting puzzles at thrift stores for fear of missing pieces. I have only once out of all the puzzles I’ve bought at thrift stores had one with missing pieces. I love putting puzzles together because they are vehicles for conversation and relaxation while still challenging the brain. Here’s my mom and great-niece working together on it, below.
I add to this suggestion to listen to Christmas-themed audiobooks or podcasts while assembling the puzzle if conversation lulls, like The Christmas Chronicles if you didn’t already finish it for the year. Or take turns reading aloud to each other the Christmas chapter books you haven’t finished yet, like Holly Claus. It’s OK to be reading Christmas-y things after Christmas Day!
Day 6: Take your children book shopping. The Lawlers used to go to a huge bookstore and spend all day with each family member totally absorbed in browsing the books. They would let each of the 7 children bring home a book. If you don’t have a huge bookstore in your area, go to a new or used bookstore, including thrift stores. Or if you can’t afford to buy any books, go to the public library, and come home and stay home for the rest of the day, having a reading party, reading the books you just got. This could even be the day you celebrate Jolabokkaflod. That’s the Icelandic word for “Christmas book flood.”
Day 7: New Year’s Eve! She suggests having a party at your home where you have your children invite all their friends to come. Her reasons for hosting the party are here. At the party she suggests smashing the gingerbread houses you made on Boxing Day.
Day 8: New Year’s Day. Watch a family movie she says. Go to Day 8 over here to see her suggestions. I suggest watching Mully, a great documentary/movie to inspire new goals for the new year. (Warning: if you have young children, you might want to skip over some of the early war scenes and the scene where he is abandoned.) If you want to stay Christmas-y, then watch Journey to Bethlehem, The Nativity Story, Muppet Christmas Carol, or Klaus. Home Alone deserves another go-around, especially after you learn of its Christian symbolism. Go here to learn more about that. I have lots of movie suggestions for Christmas here, scroll down to the “Activities” section to see Christmas movies to watch. It’s totally OK to watch Christmas movies after Christmas.
Day 9: For this day, she says to pull out a forgotten box of candy. Then there’s nothing else she suggests. Which surprises me. Just eating a new box of candy is not enough of a family time suggestion to me. Maybe she meant for this day to be a self-directed day of play and learning for each family member, a breather between days of programmed activities.
Day 10: Take a family walk she says. I’m adding here: how about a hike or sledding? A walk isn’t that exciting for most kiddos.
Day 11: Her suggestion on this day is to have a reading day. If you didn’t have Jolabokkaflod already, maybe do it on this day. Use the books you got on the day you went shopping for books! Or have this day be a time you visit an elderly relative or work on crafts, she says.
Photo Credit: likemotherlikedaughter.org
Day 12: Epiphany Day, January 6. This is the day traditionally celebrated as when the Wise Men arrived to see the Holy Family and gave gifts to Jesus. Mrs. Lawler says to make a Christ the King Spice Crown Cake. For this day, she says to also have your family give your Christmas gifts to each other. That makes sense in honor of the Wise Men giving gifts. She says that on Christmas Day she just did one Santa gift to her children. (They are grown and out of the nest now.) She also says somewhere that if she had to do it over again with her children at home, she would do stockings on St. Nicholas Day, December 6. This is really stretching the season out! I like this idea!
Of course, none of this is set in stone. It’s one veteran homeschooling Catholic mother’s ideas of enjoying family time in the darkest time of the year when school is generally out. It helps to have some guidance with all the free time we have right now. You might already have extended family or friends that you do things with on these days which already sets your rhythm for Christmas vacation. Myself, I prefer to play board games on as many of these days as I can. I like that in the top video the narrator says that the festival of the Twelve Days of Christmas helped make winter a communal time instead of
I hope it gives you some ideas to enjoy these precious winter days! I wish I still had a houseful of children to try this schedule out. This seems like a great recipe for keeping the joy afloat for all of Christmas vacation, keeping the day after Christmas from being a huge letdown. Thank you for sharing these ideas Mrs. Lawler.
This is one of my new games I got for Christmas that I’m excited to play.
Besides playing board games with family, I’ll be finishing up my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum, while adding to it the Twelve Days of Christmas Craft Lit podcast, over here. If you haven’t already checked out those audio and print goodies, please do partake of them. Merry Twelve Days of Christmas everyone!
Tree of Life Mothering 