Hi there,

Happy day after Thanksgiving! I’m writing this earlier in the week on Wednesday afternoon, hoping to crank out some writing here at the coffee shop before I close up my shop for the rest of the week... Once I leave here, it’s pie-making time and closed laptop until Monday. This means, naturally, that this letter is a short one—so, onward!

*The Annunciation from the start of Advent from the Chichele Breviary* #

5 Quick Things ☕️

1. My 2025 Holiday Gift Guide is now live! As always, the theme is “a gift guide for people who don’t like gift guides”—there’s no latest gadgets, trendy fashion choices, zeitgesty references, paid-for sponsors, or twaddley options that you’ll throw away by February. Featured here are the classics: books I love, curated homemade favorites, and beloved staples that please the hard to please.
2. A final friendly reminder that Advent begins this Sunday, November 30. I wrote Shadow & Light because I couldn’t find the devotional I wanted: a family-friendly, open-and-go, simple-but-rich readaloud that’d be no big deal if we missed a day (or three). Earlier this week I opened my newly-delivered latest copy of Hearth & Field, and to my delight I saw that they reprinted my piece I wrote for them about Advent. (It had good reminders that I needed to re-read.)
3. I will click play on any conversation, podcast, or video with Joe Heschmeyer—still not done with this one (clocking in at over three hours), but it’s really good so far (here it is via audio).
4. Next week’s 5QT will be only one day away from the feast day of St. Nicholas (which is on December 6), so in case you want to plan the day with something simple, I love the book Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins, by Jim Forest. It’s a great book that focuses on the real bishop of Myra, and paired with an easy tradition of leaving shoes out by the front door on December 5 so that he can leave chocolate coins in them the next morning, it’s a lovely way to teach about the beloved saint. Last year I also made Speculaas cookies for the day (I used a Springerle cookie mold), and the whole house smelled heavenly.
5. And finally, wrapping up with my November practice of listing seven things I’m grateful for: the crunch of leaves during my morning walk, breve lattes, sunny-but-chilly afternoons, the Book of John, our town’s hokey-but-delightful annual “lighting of the Square” holiday tradition, my youngest son’s current good attitude about helping around the house (I’ll take it while I can get it), and finally—the guys from our parish who are coming over in a few weekends to help Kyle replace our scrappy house’s siding. Community is just the best.

Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📻

It’s finally time for my Shadow & Light Advent playlist!

Quotable 💬

“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but he does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather, his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof. Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What’s the best thing on the Thanksgiving table? 🦃

My ordinary, non-carnivore self easily agrees with the majority: the stuffing is the best dish on the table, hands down. My now-carnivore self says dark-meat turkey (while secretly wishing it were brisket).

Stuffing: 34.5%
Pie: 17%
Sweet Potatoes: 12%
Potatoes: 11%
Turkey: 9%
Cranberries: 8%
Green Bean Casserole: 6%
Bread: 3%