Penny has had an aversion to, and fascination with, Santa Claus for years now. Four years, to be precise. It began with shyness, almost as if she were a baby again, cuddling against my chest. Then screams of terror. Last year, with her dad in the Santa suit, sobs. (I tried to ...

My sister-in-law and I tried to make Christmas a little simpler this year. At first, we thought we'd give family presents, but then we realized that it's awfully hard to buy gifts that make everyone from a 10-month old to a 5-year old happy. So we settle on books. They're relatively ...

Years ago, I watched a camp counselor illustrate a point. He held an empty jar, and first he filled it with pebbles. Then he tried to add three big rocks. They didn't fit. He poured out the pebbles. The three big rocks fit now, and the pebbles filled in the space around them. ...

Maybe next year I will remember ahead of time to recommend the book I use every Advent: God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. It's a beautiful set of daily readings from Scripture combined with color prints of paintings from throughout the ages that correspond ...

I have a new essay in the December issue of Christianity Today (and if you're a subscriber, be sure to read it in the magazine because it includes two adorable photos of Penny that don't appear online!) "My Perfect Child." In my dad's words, the article is a very abbreviated ...

I wanted to write a lyrical essay about our week in New Orleans for Thanksgiving. Something about the humidity and the colors on the houses and the Spanish moss and the streetcars. Something about laughter and good food and going to the zoo and family. Something about why travel ...

Bonnie Rochman has a new article at Time.com called "Are Kids With Down Syndrome on the Road to Extinction?" which features a picture of Penny and me and (on the second page) a few comments from a conversation we had a few weeks back. Although the new prenatal tests for Down ...