Each year Americans spend billions of dollars on material items at Christmas. That is a pretty strange way to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who gave up all of his riches to save the world. In 2006, three pastors had a vision to revitalize the celebration of Christmas in their churches. They found two...

Deck the Halls – Offer to decorate an assisted living home, group home or nursing/rehabilitation center in your neighborhood for the holidays. Providing festive entertainment, like a tree-trimming party or Christmas carol sing-along is sure to brighten their season. Make Treats for Non Profit...

My younger son loves being good. Of course, that doesn’t mean that he is good all the time. It’s just that he likes the idea of being good, he likes the way being good makes him feel, and he likes for other people to think of him as a good boy. Actually, the more I think about it, he’s not so...

(Excerpt) (The New Yorker) — Millions of girls have consumed Alloy Entertainment’s products, but the company’s name does not appear on the spine of its books. Rather, it packages about thirty novels a year for publishers, and also generates television shows and a growing number of ideas for...

(excerpts from Bringing Up Geeks: Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids, by MaryBeth Hicks) Rule #1: Raise a Brainiac …Just what is a brainiac, anyway? In my geek vernacular, a brainiac is a child who believes he’s smart, who loves the process of learning, and who indulges his natural curiosity...

(Yahoo News – Los Angeles) – Does the balloon boy story begin with the Heene family’s quest to appear, again, on reality TV? Given father Richard Heene’s apparent efforts to pique Hollywood interest in his family as a reality TV subject (following two appearances on ABC’s “Wife...

Forty years ago this fall, “no-fault” divorce was pioneered in the United States by the state of California when then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed into law the Family Law Act of 1969 on September 4, 1969 (effective January 1, 1970). The new law eliminated the need for couples to assert spousal...

Over the past year, Palmetto Family Council has been reaching out and connecting with families all across the state with its engaging “Palmetto Family Life” blog. With a friendly and refreshing perspective, Palmetto Family Life has covered such topics as Christian parenting, marriage, children,...

The jury is still out on whether Spike Jonze’s live-action adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is a movie you’ll want to take your little wild things to this weekend. But from the description alone, the movie may have some issues you and your family should be aware of: “The film...

October 9, 2009 Hickory Ridge has new spirit [The State, Columbia, S.C.] When the phone rang at 3 a.m. one day in June, Jesse and Evelyn Cook had no idea what was coming next. Their neighbor, Helen Amick, had fallen. A medical alert was programmed to call them, two doors down. At the hospital, the doctor...