It’s Launch Week for Jack Zulu and the Waylander’s Key and we couldn’t be more excited! If you haven’t yet ordered your copy of S.D. Smith’s newest, co-written with his son, J.C. Smith, you should get on that! Grab your copy here!

Around the Web

5 New, Memory-Making Advent Traditions

If you’re looking for new ways to slow down and celebrate Christmas this year, consider some of these ideas. 

• So much of the holiday season is rushing and waiting. We rush to decorate, buy gifts, attend parties, and see family. We wait for the cookies to bake, Santa to arrive, and a comforting return to normalcy. In the midst of it all, it’s easy to forget to help our kids understand what makes this season important: spending time with loved ones and reflecting on the amazing gift of Jesus.
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How Jesus Cares for Caregivers

Marissa Bondurant reminds us that while caregiving is hard, Jesus is with us in it.

• There is a picture on my phone that is hard for me to look at. It’s of me lying on the sofa with our four-year-old daughter lying on my chest. She’s completely bundled up in a thick, furry blanket. It wasn’t a cold day, but because of how sick the cancer had made her, it was the only way she was comfortable.
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The King of Christmas by Todd R. Hains and illustrated by Natasha Kennedy

Betsy at Redeemed Reader reviews a Christmas picture book.

• The King of Christmas reminds young children where to look for Jesus, just as the wise men looked for Him at that first Christmas.
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Download: The Every Moment Holy Advent Journal

Our friends at The Rabbit Room have shared a new resource for Advent. 

• Having grown up in a non-liturgical tradition, Advent as a practice is new for me. 
  Though my mama handcrafted beautiful felt nativity-scene Advent calendars for us, we couldn’t control ourselves and always thought the calendar worked best with all the pieces at once. Rearranged. Over and over. She didn’t seem to mind. 
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Around the Warren

Teach Us To Play

Sylvia Dorham explores a forgotten art.

• I’m scrambling up the climbing wall behind my four-year-old.
  It’s Wednesday morning at 9:47 AM.  Two nannies and a clutch of coffee cup cradling moms-with-toddlers are glancing nervously at the middle-aged woman in a skirt giving full battle cry while scaling Mount Etna behind her fearsome warrior.  He reaches the top, gives a piercing ululation of victory and hurtles himself head-first through the monster’s gaping maw into its twisted throat.
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Library Heroes

A.C.S. Bird recommends some bookish books.

• For millennia the written word has held special significance among those whose faith is centered on scripture. Some ancient Jewish and Islamic traditions imposed safeguards to prevent the desecration of any piece of writing—sacred or secular—that might bear God’s name.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

Looking for Christmas card ideas? Try Potato Printmaking!

Something to Watch

Destin from Smarter Every Day is experimenting with a massive air canon.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren Team

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Carolyn Clare Givens

Carolyn Clare Givens is displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the South. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her two literary cats, Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. She's the author of The King's Messenger and Rosefire and in her free time helps run Bandersnatch Books.

You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.

Latest posts by Carolyn Clare Givens (see all)

• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 4 - February 4, 2023
• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 3 - January 28, 2023
• The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 2 - January 21, 2023