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You are here: Home / About Us / The Flanders Family Christmas Letters / The 2017 Flanders Family Christmas Letter

The 2017 Flanders Family Christmas Letter

What follows is another yearly installment in our family’s complete history told via the 2017 Flanders Family Christmas Update. To see a full listing, see Our Christmas Letters. For tips on writing your own family history in this fashion, follow this link. In the meantime, enjoy!

The Flanders Family Update: 2017

December 2016 Happenings

We spent a week in Big Canoe, Georgia, last December with most of our extended family. It was a long drive, but we took lots of potty breaks (“speak now or forever hold your pee”) and stopped on the way to stretch our legs at Six Flags over Georgia (after so many hours of sitting in the van, even their famous “standup” roller coaster sounded appealing).

Six Flags over Georgia

Taking in the sights and sounds at Six Flags over Georgia

Six Flags over Georgia

Everything seems brighter when you’re with the one you love.

Matti & Noah

Matti Noah

Visiting the Peach State allowed Jon’s wife, Matti, to spend time with her side of the family—a treat since they are normally separated during the holidays.

She and Noah missed out on our “Flanders Family Flannel Photo,” but everyone else was in it, including a soon-to-be daughter-in-love, Rebekah Joy Follingstad, who stole Sam’s heart with her (to use his descriptors) “humble, efficient, and level-headed” personality.

Flanders Family Flannel Photo

We call this the “Flanders Family Flannel Photo.” (Try saying that three times fast!)

January 2017 Happenings

January found us in San Antonio celebrating Samuel and Bekah’s official engagement and enjoying the still-shining Christmas lights along the River Walk. The stash of glow-in-the-dark necklaces, glasses, and tiaras Mom found on clearance at the Dollar Store added to the festive spirit and made it easier to count heads once the sun went down, although most of our party retired before the midnight fireworks began….

2017 Happenings - Samuel & Bekah's Engagement

Two little love birds…

A few days later, Doug traveled to Austin for WORLD Magazine’s week-long mid-career journalism course. He’d applied last year (after the deadline) and didn’t get in, then forgot all about it until receiving word he’d been accepted into this year’s class. (He should’ve known an acceptance letter was forthcoming: When we ate hibachi a couple of days earlier, Doug’s fortune cookie read, “The WORLD is finally ready for your talents.” Ha!)

2017 Happenings - Doug at WORLD

Doug tries his hand with a can of spray paint at the Art Park in Austin

His first article for the news magazine was published the following week, with an obituary for a not-yet-dead celebrity to follow (although, the eulogized would hope, not anytime soon)….

2017 Happenings - Rachel & Abby on Florida Beach

Rachel and Abby enjoy a Florida sunrise (photo courtesy of Rebekah Lyn Flanders)

We returned to Florida mid-month, stopping along the way for factory tours of Mardi Gras World, Sally Corp Animatronics, the Tallahassee Museum, a Dolphin Research Center, and Sweet Pete’s Candy Shop.

2017 Happenings - Flanders Family at Mardi Gras World

We took a fascinating tour of Mardis Gras World to learn how parade floats are constructed

2017 Happenings - Flanders Family in Jacksonville

Mouthing off in Jacksonville, Florida

2017 Happenings - Dolphin Research Center

We enjoyed an up close and personal introduction at Dolphin Research Center

Flanders Family at Peterbrooke Chocolatiers

The kids got to dip their own pretzels at Peterbrooke Chocolatiers

We were at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans for Girl Scout Day. The $15 registration fee Jennifer spent to sign Abby up as a Daisy Scout a week earlier saved our family $106 at the ticket office, but the museum was well worth the admission price, even without a discount.

2017 Happenings - WWII Museum in New Orleans

Scouting out all the great exhibits at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans

We also visited six Orlando amusement parks in six days (excessive, even by Flanders standards) and made two notable discoveries:

2017 Happenings - Flanders Family at Epcot

Mary Poppins… practically perfect in every way!

Flanders Family at Disney World

With a smile and a song, life is just a bright sunny day, your cares fade away and your heart is young…

Gabriel on the roller coasterFirst, we found out Gabriel has no sense of shame. When one mid-coaster camera captured a shot of him with his finger up his nose, we thought it was an ill-timed accident, but when every single photo on every subsequent ride showed him in exactly the same position, we realized he was staging the pose on purpose!

Second, we learned Daniel suffers from a crippling fear of elevators—a fact that became embarrassingly apparent when at last we made it to the front of the line for the Tower of Terror and, upon realizing the entire ride takes place in what appears to be a malfunctioning elevator shaft, Daniel went into total freak-out mode. Wailing and gripping the railing with white-knuckled fists, he refused to board until Dad shot him a look that said, “Stop making a scene” and ordered Mom to pry his fingers lose and help him to his seat.

While we don’t normally recommend dealing with children’s fears in such a callous way, in the case of our nearly-12-year-old Dan, this proved to be the right move. The ride ended up being his absolute favorite (he even made us wait in an hour-long line for a second go at it) and—after surviving those 39 mph drops—he can now ride regular elevators without batting an eye (and to think that all this time, we assumed he was taking the stairs because he wanted the exercise)!

2017 Happenings - Isaac and Daniel enjoying the outdoor Tallahassee Museum

Isaac and Daniel enjoying the great outdoors at the Tallahassee Museum

2017 Happenings - Rachel leads the way on the ropes course at TreeUmph!

Rachel leads the way on the ropes course at TreeUmph!

February 2017 Happenings

In February, Mom got her first pressure cooker (our family has since eaten a metric ton of lentil soup), Daniel fell off the monkey bars and snapped both bones in his right arm (he needed surgery to reduce the fracture)…

Daniel right after surgery

Right after surgery… and feeling much better

… we found a new church home (when our old congregation moved out to Bullard, we started looking for something closer, ultimately landing in Grace Community’s 8 AM service), and Isaac (who at 6’ 3½” has now passed his Dad in height) attended TeenPact for the first time.

2017 Happenings - Isaac Passes Up Dad

Here’s the proof: As of this year, Isaac is officially taller than Dad!

Rebekah staffed this year and had to be there early, so Doug drove Isaac and Rachel to Austin and stayed a few days to lobby on behalf of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists.

2017 Happenings - TeenPact

Rebekah with the other TeenPact staffers

2017 Happenings - TeenPact

Three of our kids at the State Capitol building with all their fellow TeenPacters

March 2017 Happenings

March brought an easy transition to spring: We pulled weeds. Jennifer hung photos in the stairwell. Isaac read the entire Hunger Games trilogy aloud to the family. The girls attended a high musical tea with our new neighbors.

A High Musical Tea

We had a lovely afternoon with lots of tea and finger sandwiches

2017 Happenings - A High Musical Tea

And we hosted Nana’s Sunday school class for their annual tour of the Azalea Trail, which was resplendent in its early blooms. As usual, Doug chauffeured the ladies around town and provided a running commentary on all the beautiful homes and the people who’ve owned them. Oral tradition has long been Doug’s forte. After 30 years of parenting, he has learned that when he prefaces remarks with, “I probably shouldn’t tell this story, but…”, the children immediately prick up their ears to hear whatever it was he wanted to say. (This is so much more effective than, “Listen up, kids, I have something important to tell you.”)

Fun with Sidewalk Chalk

You can talk till you’re blue in the face, but it does no good if your kids aren’t listening!

Evidently, the same trick works with grown women, as well, for the good doctor kept us in stitches with his outlandish tales and Tyler trivia. If laughter were medicine, we would have overdosed!

April 2017 Happenings

By April it was obvious the lawn our builder put in last fall was in serious trouble. Jennifer hoped a little patience, patching, and fertilizer might see it through, but Doug was convinced we needed to rip the whole thing out and start over.

It didn’t take much digging to vindicate his decision. Judging by all the concrete, sheet metal, bricks, wire, and paint lids we found buried just below the surface of the old sod, Doug was right: our yard would never have flourished apart from our taking such drastic measures.

We hauled away three industrial dumpsters full of dead grass and debris, installed a couple of French drains, then leveled and graded the entire yard. And by we, I mean our trusty yard man, Anthony Bendy, and the crew of laborers he hired to help him.

View this post on Instagram

These guys took our yard from looking like a lake every time it rained to being lush and level, without a puddle in sight — even in the middle of a downpour. So grateful for all the good work done by our sweet friend, Anthony Bendy. #thanksbro #lookingood

A post shared by Jennifer Flanders (@flanders_family) on Apr 30, 2017 at 5:57pm PDT

They did all the hard work while our family headed to Missouri for a week of R&R that included blogger visits to Branson’s Famous Baldknobbers, the Butterfly Palace, and Talking Rocks Caverns.

Touring the Butterfly Palace in Branson

We made it back home in time to help lay the new grass—30 full pallets of lush St. Augustine sod.

laying grass on Doug's 50th birthday

We celebrated Doug’s 50th birthday by getting up early and laying 2 1/2 pallets of grass before breakfast.

Three of us had birthdays this month: Doug celebrated the big 5-0, Jennifer hit 52, and Abigail (sans her central incisors) turned seven.

I can't believe my baby turned 7 this year!

I can hardly believe my baby turned 7 this year!

May 2017 Happenings

Sam and Bekah Joy tied the knot in May, exchanging vows on Mother’s Day. Interestingly, Samuel has only known his beautiful bride (who grew up in Kenya, the daughter of Wycliffe Bible translators) a little more than a year. His sister Bethany introduced them last April, opening with, “Bekah, I’d like you to meet the brother you’re going to marry. I hope you don’t mind.”

Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Flanders

Dr. & Mrs. Samuel Flanders

It was a beautiful wedding.

Four days after the wedding, Samuel graduated from McGovern Medical School in Houston, and Doug had the honor of hooding him during the ceremony (exactly 25 years after earning his own MD).

Samuel graduated from medical school four days after his wedding.

From Houston, the original Rebekah Flanders drove Rachel and Isaac (who turned 14 on the road) to Tennessee for TeenPact National Convention while Dad, Mom, Nana, Joseph, Daniel, Gabbers, and Abby boarded the Carnival Freedom for an 8-day cruise to Belize. We offered to take the newlyweds along, too, but they declined, preferring to honeymoon on their own instead. This, despite the fact we promised not to ask them to babysit more than an hour or two a day. Go figure!

Cruising to Belize

Soaking up the sun

June 2017 Happenings

Dad and Mom were invited to speak at FEAST’s annual homeschool conference in June, but when early ads for the event billed us as Doug and Jennifer Flowers, we thought maybe they’d contacted the wrong couple. “Thanks to Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers probably has better name recognition at this point,” Mom told them, “so you might draw a bigger crowd if you leave it as is, but we wouldn’t want folks to be disappointed if they show up to hear salacious celebrity gossip and get a mild-mannered homemaker instead!” The conference organizers assured us the error was a typo and corrected it immediately.

The view from our booth at the FEAST convention

Bex took charge of her younger siblings while Mom and Dad gave their talks. The six of them had a blast exploring quirky, offbeat corners of San Antonio and trying as many vegan restaurants as they could find.

The fun never ends

We used to call these Dreamsicles, but I don’t know what kids today call them. Don’t they look yummy?

Rachel turned 16 on the 16th, but a decoy celebration ensured her surprise party was a genuine surprise. She loves reading, crafting (she won the top competitor award at the East Texas State Fair this fall), and staying up late to finish her schoolwork or to stealthily attend, like a cobbler’s elf, to the neglected chores of her unsuspecting family.

Bekah loves taking glamour shots of her sister.

Rachel Joy Flanders

Our sweet Rachel Joy sure lives up to her namesake: She brings us bundles of it. (photo by Bekah)

We got another grandson this month when Ben’s wife, Mikayla, gave birth to a chunk of lead named James Michael. He has the same chipmunk cheeks his dad had as a baby and, by four months, outweighed his 2-year-old cousin.

The proud parents

The proud parents

Grandma gets another baby to hold!

Grandma gets another baby to hold!

A few weeks later, David’s wife, Bonnie, gave us our first granddaughter, Gwendolyn Duchane. She is sweet and petite with delicate features and a shock of dark hair.

Isn’t she a sweetheart?

Shortly after Gwen’s birth, Jon and Matti announced they have a new baby on the way, too (due next March). According to a recent sonogram, this one’s going to be a girl, but after that streak of six sons, we’ll believe it when we see it!

It's a Girl

July 2017 Happenings

Except for a day trip to Van Alstyne for the Cowan Clan reunion and another to Longview for the 40th Annual Great Balloon Race, we stayed in Tyler for the entire month of July. This gave us time to work on a few home improvement projects. Jennifer refinished Rebekah’s bedroom furniture painted 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the arched wall over our kitchen (“Whether then you eat or drink… do all to the glory of God.”)…

Wall Painting

“Whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”

…and made serious headway on emptying the rest of our moving boxes. Doug oversaw construction of several new garden beds, which the kids helped us plant with two Japanese maples, two crepe myrtles, dozens of azaleas, hostas, and hydrangeas, plus as many annuals off Lowe’s bargain rack (AKA: the stuff they forgot to water) as Jennifer thought we could nurse back to health. All those previously neglected plants pulled through and proliferated profusely, by the way, proving that a little TLC can work wonders.

Garden bed

We nursed these annuals back to health.

We also installed a top-of-the-line basketball goal and even painted a key on the driveway, so the kids would know where to stand to practice their three-pointers. That was fun while it lasted, until our home owners association informed us we would have to take it down. Although basketball goals aren’t expressly forbidden in the bylaws, the permanent nature of the one we erected fell under “new construction” and required prior written approval, which—the fine people on our HOA board assured us—would not have been granted had we bothered to ask. Since maintaining a good name in the neighborhood is more important to us than shooting hoops at home, we donated the equipment to some friends who live far enough out in the country that nobody will complain about an in-ground goal, but we were all sad to see it go. Mikayla captured the prevailing mood perfectly by fashioning a small wooden cross out of sticks and hammering it in the ground where the goal once stood.

Knockout

We sure have missed our basketball goal.

August 2017 Happenings

August brought a 7-member production team to our house to record part of a documentary the BBC will be airing in January about faith in America. They were here for three days of filming. The star of the show is a 76-year-old powerhouse by the name of Miriam Margolyes, considered a National Treasure by adoring fans in England, but better known in the States as Professor Sprout of Harry Potter fame.

Miriam didn’t know until the day she arrived she’d be interviewing a family with 12 kids; yet, despite her protests that she neither likes children nor knows how to talk to them, she made fast friends with ours, seeming at times even to prefer their company to that of the adults. She helped prepare their meals, fold their laundry, hold sleeping grandbabies, comfort cranky ones, and — with a little coaching from Jennifer — even gave Gabriel a haircut.

Gabriel's new haircut

There isn’t another person on earth who can say Miriam Margolyes gave him a haircut. Not bad for a first attempt!

She also read them stories, moving us to tears with a favorite passage from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The only thing we weren’t able to talk her into was playing a game of four-square or giving her heart to Jesus, but she was a real trooper in every other respect, and we’ve devoted that second matter to fervent and continued prayer. In fact, we’re praying for the entire crew, who were lovely people all, though not a believer among them.

We fell in love with the entire crew and are praying God will draw them to Himself.

David and Bonnie came to town mid-month for one last visit before moving to Germany for the next three years. This was our first time to meet Gwen, already a month old and even more adorable in person than she looks in photos.

David and Bonnie Flanders

Photo by GraceAnne Photography

Mom, Dad, and Beth flew to Peru on Eclipse Day. Doug had mentioned several months earlier he was considering such a trip: “Bethany has always wanted to climb Machu Picchu,” he explained, “and I have a week of vacation in August, so I think I’ll ask if she wants to go together.” When Jennifer reminded him the reason he had requested that week off in the first place was to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, Doug graciously invited her to tag along, too!

We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to make it to the summit by dawn, but as Bethany wryly observed, “Watching the sunrise over Machu Picchu is soooo much more breathtaking when you’re actually there—mostly because it involves climbing a mountain, and at altitude there’s literally less oxygen in the air that you are frantically gasping to breathe.”

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was breathtaking — literally.

Full disclosure: We took a bus to the front gate and skipped ascending Huayna Picchu altogether, lest the menacingly-named “Dead Woman’s Pass” prove prophetic. The bugs ate Dad alive while we were in the mountains, but—surprisingly—left Mom and Beth completely alone. Either Peruvian mosquitos prefer darker complexions and were attracted by Doug’s nice tan or (as Samuel suggested) they assumed legs as pale as the girls’ could only belong to corpses!

Ben and Mikayla stayed with the rest of our kids while we were gone and led some grand adventures of their own, including a day trip to Waco to shop at Magnolia Market, then a stop at BSR Cable Park to try out some incredible water slides.

Magnolia Market

You can’t see the crowds in this photo, but Magnolia Market is a hoppin’ place!

Magnolia Market

It has some great photo-ops, too!

September 2017 Happenings

Three of our kids had birthdays in September: Bethany turned 28. She finished her third half-marathon this year and was in her ninth wedding (“always a bridesmaid, never a bride”). She loves her work as a pediatric dentist (especially oral surgery), but would give it up in a heartbeat if the right guy ever showed up to make her a wife and a mommy.

Beth, Bekah, and the Bridesmaids

Photo by our beautiful, brilliant, sweet, and talented daughter, Bethany — the perpetual bridesmaid. How is she not married yet???

Joseph turned 20. He lives at home, but between school, job, and girlfriend Emi, we often see him only in passing. Emi’s folks invited him to vacation with them in Cozumel in June, which helped compensate for the fact he missed so many of our family trips this year.

Cozumel

These two are muy loco about one another.

Rebekah turned 18. We see more of her than of Joe, despite the fact she also takes college classes and works two jobs (three if you count all the portrait shoots she’s done for her photography business this year).

We wouldn’t have nearly as many family photos if it weren’t for Rebekah. She never leaves home without her camera.

Intern year

He’s been running on fumes… and lots and lots of prayer.

Although Samuel and Rebekah Joy’s second-floor Houston apartment was spared any flooding, Samuel had to pedal his bike through a foot of water during Hurricane Harvey to get to and from the hospital for his shifts, which were stacked such that all his most grueling rotations came first.

Good news: he got them out of the way early. Bad news: the stress nearly killed him. Nevertheless, God has been faithful to carry him through, a fact the rest of us could see even when Sam was too sleep-deprived to recognize it.

October 2017 Happenings

We pitched our tents for Family Camp in October. It fell out of sync with Doug’s vacation schedule this year, which means he missed out on the fun of sleeping outdoors (on hard cots with icy feet, gritty linens, and fire ants) more nights than not. He did spend the first weekend with us (as did Sam and Bekah, who got a much-needed break just in time to join us for starlit evenings and shut-eye and s’mores).

Dad also made it back the following Friday in time to compete with Mom in a couples’ canoe race. We came in fourth out of six, but as we didn’t tip the boat or need to be towed back to shore, we consider our performance there a wild success.

Making memories

Never a dull moment!

Jennifer’s mother turned 80 on Saturday, so the girls struck camp early and drove to Grapevine for a birthday retreat (the brilliant brainchild of Jennifer’s thoughtful sister). Nana looks about 20 years younger than she actually is—even before the facials Bethany gave us — and is as healthy and active as ever, which makes the rest of us grateful to share her genes!

Nana's 80th Birthday

Nana’s 80th Birthday

November 2017 Happenings

By November, Doug had wrapped up or resigned from all administrative responsibilities. He finished out his term as Chief of Anesthesia at UT, chaired his last meeting as head of the Peer Review Committee at ETMC, rotated off the Board of Directors at Magdalene Home (but still served time in the dunking booth at the Caring for Kids festival this month), and declined requests for any additional leadership roles, citing the fact that our kids are growing up fast and he can’t afford to miss these formative years. His increased involvement at home will hopefully include some triathlon training (he has just the truck for toting the bikes).

New Bikes

Dad bought Mom and Abby matching bikes

It has been over a decade since the last time our family backpacked Europe, but we finally saved enough frequent flyer miles to get eight more free tickets, so by the time you get this letter, Mom, Dad, and the Super Six should be landing in London, the first stop on a circuitous route to Rome.

Backpacking Europe

Setting a course for adventure… off we go!

We’ll be back home in time for Christmas. We pray the season is packed with meaning and memories for you, too. Let us hear from you soon!

Let us hear from you soon!

The famous Flanders family annual Christmas card assembly line

With love from the Flanders family:
Doug & Jennifer,
Jon & Matti (and kids), Beth, David & Bonnie (and Gwen), Samuel & Bekah Joy,
Ben & Mikayla (and James), Joseph, Rebekah, Rachel, Isaac, Daniel, Gabriel, and Abigail

It's a Wonderful Life

Life is a wonderful gift. May we all live it to the glory of God!

<< last year                                                    next year >>


Do you prefer to do your reading offline? You’ll find more of our family’s embarrassing moments, hard learned lessons, and hilarious family antics all in Glad Tidings, a compilation of our first 25 years of Christmas letters. It also includes a few favorite recipes, seasonal quotes, time-saving tips, and fun family traditions. Volume 1 is on sale now (we’re hoping to release Volume 2 in the year 2037).

Glad Tidings - The First 25 Years of Flanders Family Christmas Letters

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meet the parents

Doug & Jennifer Flanders - www.flandersfamily.info

We love Jesus, love each other, love our 12 children, and love the life God's given us. We started this blog as a way to share resources with others who want strong marriages, happy families, & healthy homes.

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our favorite Christmas traditions

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Our Christmas Letters

Christmas 1987:
Our honeymoon Christmas

Christmas 1988:
Proud new parents of Baby #1

Christmas 1989:
Baby #2 has colic & curls

Christmas 1990:
Diapers & diabetes

Christmas 1991:
Doug's clinical year at Southwestern

Christmas 1992:
Baby #3 is born hand-first - ouch!

Christmas 1993:
Baby #4 - don't we know what causes that?

Christmas 1994:
David gets lost at a garage sale

Christmas 1995:
Baby #5 arrives!

Christmas 1996:
A not-quite second honeymoon

Christmas 1997:
New job, new home & new son - Baby #6

Christmas 1998:
Extreme sports & broken bones

Christmas 1999:
Baby #7 - Beth finally got a sister

Christmas 2000:
Coast-to-coast tour of US

Christmas 2001:
Baby #8 arrives two weeks early

Christmas 2002:
Our first cruise & our first marathon

Christmas 2003:
House building, army duty & Baby #9

Christmas 2004:
Backpacking Europe with all nine kids

Christmas 2005:
Home church & Baby #10

Christmas 2006:
Our firstborn leaves the nest

Christmas 2007:
Another coast-to-coast tour & Baby #11

Christmas 2008:
Our second-born leaves for A&M

Christmas 2009:
Doug & Jennifer write their first books

Christmas 2010:
Baby #12, Grandson #3 & four in college

Christmas 2011:
Mission trips, moving, broken bones, & diabetes

Christmas 2012:
Dental school, MCATs, & State Championships

Christmas 2013:
Beaches, Babies, Surprise Parties & Medical School

Christmas 2014:
Baby squirrels and book awards

Christmas 2015:
Daughter-in-Law #2, Grandson #6, Books, Braces & BlueGreen

Christmas 2016:
A marriage, a move & 2 new dentists

Christmas 2017:
2 new grandbabies & a BBC special

Christmas 2018:
World travel, summer conferences & Grandbaby #9

Christmas 2019:
Roadtrips, a wedding, and 2 more grandbabies

Christmas 2020:
Overseas vacations and Covid lockdowns

Christmas 2021:
Weddings, grandbabies, and a trip to Hawaii

Christmas 2022:
Four new grandbabies plus a big move

Etsy

Free Printable Party Games

"Getting to Know You" Ice Breaker

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Ice Breaker Bingo

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Christmas Word Scramble

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Party Preparedness Pop Quiz

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Who Gets What? Matching Game

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Christmas Charades

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Christmas by the Numbers Quiz

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Put the Baby in the Manger

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12 Days of Christmas Sing-a-Long

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Who Wore It Best? Matching Game

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Who Said What? Trivia Quiz

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What Child Is This? Christmas Quiz

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Name That Line Chirstmas Movie Quiz

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Christmas Travel Bingo

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How Well Do You Know Your Christmas Carols?

For Unto Us a Child is Born Quiz

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Elf Trivia Quiz

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While You Were Sleeping Trivia Quiz


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We drove out to Longview yesterday to explore 80 A We drove out to Longview yesterday to explore 80 Acres Market and came away SO IMPRESSED! What a gorgeous place and a lovely community gathering place!  It was fun for the whole family. The kids loved the face painting, bounce house, paper crafts, and bottled water — all free.  The adults enjoyed the live music, complementary coffee, and unique shopping experience (the entire inventory is switched out every two weeks).  Food trucks are also available on the premises along with ample outdoor seating, some playground equipment for the kids, and even a dirt pile open for digging and exploring.  The market is open every other weekend. They’ll be closed on Easter Sunday, but open the day before for everything listed above plus a giant egg hunt. So… fun time to check it out for yourself!  #flandersfamilytravels #fieldtrip
Every spring, I pull out my little Easter journal, Every spring, I pull out my little Easter journal, read through it again, and complete a few more pages.  Packed with scripture, word studies, writing prompts, and gorgeous vintage artwork to color, it’s a great way to focus my heart and mind on the unfathomable love and unmerited grace that compelled Jesus to conquer sin, death, and the grave on behalf of all who put their trust in Him (including ME🙋‍♀️)!  If you enjoy coloring, journaling, and/or reflecting on Christ’s love, you can find BECAUSE HE LIVES — along with all of my other devotional journals — on Amazon. (Link in profile)  #flandersfamilyreads #bookstagram #devotionaljournal #becausehelives
I love leaving all our windows open to let the lig I love leaving all our windows open to let the light shine through, but the glare off this white wall blinds me whenever I’m washing dishes at our kitchen sink. So I decided to paint a mural to help absorb some of the reflected light!  Also, I figured it would be easier to keep painted shrubs and flowers alive than the real thing since we don’t have a sprinkler system and I sometimes forget to water the real stuff until it is limp and wilted — or worse!  #flandersfamilyhome #wallart #outdoorproject
I finished listening to David Epstein’s RANGE ye I finished listening to David Epstein’s RANGE yesterday. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  What an inspiring book! I told my husband, who’d read it years before, that this book really made me grateful we had chosen to homeschool.  “That’s exactly what I thought when I finished reading it!” he responded.  It’s not that one CAN’T learn to think broadly in a traditional classroom — Doug and I both attended public schools as children, earned specialized degrees in college and graduate/medical school, yet still managed to retain a healthy curiosity about a wide range of topics.  It is just that our modern educational system favors benchmarked learning and early specialization, often at the expense of making interdisciplinary connections or pursuing tangential topics.  Each teacher piles on homework in a given subject, seldom pausing to point out how the material being presented in one course relates to anything the student is learning in other classes.  Modern classrooms stress outcomes, grades, results. They have little time or patience for the kind of “mental meandering” and experimentation that is vital to innovation.  Happily for us, that hasn’t been the case with homeschooling. We teach our kids the basics, expose them to a broad range of books, people, places, and ideas, let them delve deeply into investigating topics or developing skills that interest them, and discuss with genuine enthusiasm and appreciation all the things each of us are learning — collectively and individually — and how it all fits into the framework of our Christian worldview.  As parents, I don’t think Doug and I deliberately set out to create that kind of environment for our kids when we first started teaching them at home, but by God’s grace, that is what our homeschooling experiment evolved into. And books like Range make me extra thankful that is the case. ❤️  #flandersfamilyreads #bookstagram #homeschooling #lifestyleoflearning #recommendedreading
Today was “Disney Day” at our homeschool co-op Today was “Disney Day” at our homeschool co-op.  Abby dressed as my all-time favorite Disney character, Belle. She was smart, loyal, compassionate, and loved to read. 📕  Gabriel dressed as Pongo. This tenacious Dalmatian was courageous, resourceful, and made an excellent father. 🐶  And I dressed as a Public Service Announcement: Parents, make sure you watch your children around Disney as vigilantly as you’d guard your puppies around Cruella de Vil!🚧  #homeschoolcoopthemedays
I was privileged to get a sneak peak at Hard Is No I was privileged to get a sneak peak at Hard Is Not the Same Thing as Bad, chapter by chapter, as it was being written And I absolutely loved it!  Now (at last!) it’s officially available for preorder. I ordered mine yesterday and can hardly wait to read the print copy, complete with gorgeous artwork from @paintandprose and the unique perspective Dad shares the end of each chapter!  I’m overjoyed to think how incredibly blessed families across the globe are going to be when they read the timely, encouraging, biblically-grounded message presented in this beautifully written book. ❤️  #flandersfamilyreads #bookstagram #hardisnotthesamethingasbad
On this date in 1987, my husband officially asked On this date in 1987, my husband officially asked me to marry him before slipping onto my finger an antique diamond ring his grandmother had taken off her own hand two days earlier and hand sized to fit mine.  He proposed on bended knee in the living room of his grandparents’ house in Corpus Christi, with Nanny and Poppie looking on, offering constructive criticism, and making him back up and re-do all the parts that THEY found unsatisfactory the first time. 😂😂🤣  The truth is, Doug and I had already been planning our wedding — and, even more importantly, discussing our hopes, dreams, and expectations for the life we’d share together after the ceremony — for months before his grandparents insisted he formalize things with an official proposal of marriage and a gorgeous ring I’ve worn proudly ever since. 💍  Either way — with or without a ring or a formal proposal — my answer to the question was a resounding “YES!” Agreeing to marry Doug remains one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. ❤️❤️❤️  #officiallyengaged #happilyeverafter
I recently finished Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s Becomi I recently finished Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s Becoming Free Indeed.  As relieved as I was to hear Jinger reaffirm her strong faith in God — as well as her love and respect for her parents— I still had a LOT of thoughts regarding the “disentangling” journey she shares.  You can swipe left to read a few of those thoughts. Or visit my Loving Life at Home blog (link in bio) for the unabridged version! 😂  #flandersfamilyreads #becomingfreeindeed #bookstagram #biblebeliever
Pics from our all-green-cuisine leprechaun lunch — a long standing tradition in the Flanders family!  #flandersfamilyfun #familytraditions #greenfood #leprechaunlunch
Another family tradition: Racing to see who can fi Another family tradition: Racing to see who can finish this year’s game the quickest.  You can download either of the ones pictured or one from past years for FREE on our family website (link in profile).  #saintpatricksday #freeprintable #triviagames #wordscramble

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