The national bestselling author of The Sister Season shares a new novel about a woman who discovers the spirit of the season is truly in the giving.... With the holidays around the corner, empty-nester Bren Epperson realizes that for the first time in decades, she has no large family to cook for, no celebration to create. So she starts teaching a holiday cooking class, and it’s a hit—until Virginia Mash, the old lady upstairs, bursts in complaining. Rather than retaliate, Bren suggests that the class shower Virginia with kindness—and give her one hundred gifts. So they embark on the plan to lift a heart. Along the way, amidst the knitting and the making and the baking, they’ll discover the best gifts can’t be bought and family celebrations can be reborn. CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

"With the holidays around the corner, empty nester Bren Epperson realizes that for the first time in decades, she has no large family to cook for and no celebration to create. Her daughter has moved to Thailand, her son has ditched college to backpack around the world, and her husband has disappeared into the basement to indulge his midlife crisis. So Bren starts teaching a holiday cooking class, and it's a hit--until Virginia Mash, the old lady living upstairs, bursts in, complaining of the noise, the smells, and the mess. Rather than retaliate, Bren suggests that the class shower Virginia with kindness--that they give her one hundred gifts. So they embark on a plan to lift a heart. Along the way, amid knitting and making and baking, they'll discover that family celebrations can be reborn and that the very best gifts can't be bought--they're from the heart"--

Sometimes coming home for the holidays isn't as easy as it seems.... It's December 21, and the Yancey sisters have been called home. When the girls were young, holidays at their family farm meant a tinsel-garnished tree, the scent of simmering food, and laughter ringing through the house. But as the years unfolded, family bonds fractured, and the three sisters scattered and settled into separate lives. Until now. The Yancey sisters are coming to spend the holidays with their mother. They're also coming to bury their father. Claire, the youngest, a free spirit who journeyed to California, returns first. Then comes Julia, the eldest, a college professor with a teenage son of her own. And finally there's Maya, the middle child, who works so hard to be the perfect mother and wife. During the sisters' week together, old conflicts surface, new secrets emerge, and the limits and definitions of family are tested. And as the longest night of the year slips by and brightening days beckon, the sisters will have to answer one question: When you're a sister, aren't you a sister forever? CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

Brimming with ideas from the pretty to the practical, Gifts from the Garden contains more than 100 projects that use the gardener's bounty throughout the seasons. Divided into Flowers and Herbs, and Fruit and Vegetables, Debora includes gifts that are edible, for your home and for your wellbeing. There are potted bulbs in teacups and decorated personal seed packets, a lavender, rose and chamomile bubble bath, flower and fruit lip balms, a tisane planter and a pizza herb window box, as well as festive wreaths and ideas for using flowers and foliage when wrapping presents. And of course delicious ideas like toffee apples, herbal teas, spice rubs, chilli jams, courgette muffins and quince vodka to name a few! So whether you want to give something practical for the home, indulgent to enjoy at bath time, or to complement a delicious dinner, there is a present that will suit everyone.

In this beautiful edition of Ann Voskamp's New York Times bestseller, One Thousand Gifts, Voskamp invites you into her grace-bathed life of farming, parenting, and writing. Here you will discover a way of seeing ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings deep, lasting joy.

Cooking.

Gifts in Open Hands contains a wealth of multicultural liturgies, prayers, affirmations, blessings, and poetry by people from the global community. These beautifully written pieces can be used in worship and celebration of sacraments, sacred seasons, and all other occasions in the life of the church.