Abandon

The great word of Jesus to his disciples is “abandon.”–Oswald Chambers

Simplicity has become an attractive concept to me since I have begun to see simplicity not as the task of “keeping it simple, stupid” but as a discipline, as a journey that leaves fewer footprints in the sand even though this road

sometimes requires more steps. Simply put, the more cares of this world that I place upon my own shoulders, the less time, talents, and energy I have to devote to worship, repentance, reflection.

Last evening my family and I sat around the table discussing what our New Year’s Resolutions might be. I seldom make New Year’s Resolutions because I don’t like to verbally or mentally commit to any act that I don’t truly intend to carry out. Perfectionism often kills resolution, doesn’t it? While prayer feeds resolve…so perhaps my resolution should be to pray more, speak less.

Simplicity isn’t really a more-or-less kind of being, and this has come of late as a complete surprise to me. I find myself on the eve of this New Year’s Eve called to something I can only claim to barely understand. Here I am, writing about a concept which I can’t define, walking on the beach with an alluring shadow. It seems that I can only right now tell you what simplicity is not:


1. A gift which can be captured by declaring its antithesis….but here I go anyway.


2. Debt. Personal, financial, emotional or any other kind.


3. A mirror. I believe simplicity is a lamp…or perhaps a candle. We never get to the crux of anything by staring at our own faces. Or by blogging about it, for that matter.


4. Your parents’ legacy. Parents provide so much, but how often do we ponder the implications of teaching our children that in the living of this life, the immortal is seldom seen as important? I feel that I have trained my own children to learn this lesson the hard way.

5. A theology of bad shoes. Simplicity should not be mistaken for the wearing of frumpy sweaters or as an excuse not to attend to the details. Simplicity is more archeology than it is any other thing. Simplicity is not junk bonds or junk management.


6. Identity. My own preoccupation with the establishment of who I am supposed to be as opposed to the gentle acceptance of the flawed being that I am has created more dangerous clutter in my life than materialism, political persuasion, regional influence, or cultural adherence. There is truly only one way to fit in…and friends, it’s breathtakingly simple.


7. A movement. Or a color. Or the doings of Angelina Jolie.


There is so much more (ironic isn’t it?) that I want to tell you in this blog post about simplicity and my fascination with it. Right now, though, all I can tell you about simplicity without spilling all the beans and creating a logistical mess of what God intended to be a sculpting process…just His hands within my soul…is this….


Here I was trying to accomplish what I could never have accomplished on my own…the right to just be…like the tree in the meadow…to be a part of the restorative in His creation…to rid myself of my own violence and destruction at a level deeper than even the molecular…and He stepped in and paid the price for me….


I can spend the rest of my life, the rest of my New Year’s resolutions attempting to pay Him back, and if I choose that bent, my life is going to subsequently fill up with peripheral nonsense. My relationships are going to suffer. I am going to spend too much of my time knowing myself too well. I am going to build and acquire and walk right past the person who needs me the most in any given moment. I am going to stay incredibly busy and fit and numb.


Yet the thirst for this drink of Gospel, the yearning to be in the center of this great happening, will never leave me. Simplicity is the box that everything I have ever wanted, needed, attempted, failed at, succeeded at fits into perfectly, and simplicity is so much more beyond that box. This New Year, I resolve not set another goal or to ingest another concept, but simply to attempt the impossible made possible by God…the reckless abandon, the “great word,” the genuine acceptance of the gift which leaves me no more room.


Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on.–Matthew 6:25

-this post submitted by Kerri Snell

Christmas I Don't Knows

We come to the brink of another Christmas, another December 25th, another solstice upon us. We have participated with our fellow community members in carol-singing, cookie-exchanging, card-sharing, coffee-drinking at the Well. We have watched our youngsters dress as shepherds, our video cameras capturing crude re-enactments of this event that our clocks and even our own pulses seem to be ticking toward. Our Advent calendars now have smudges and bent pages. Some of the doors are missing their peppermints. We have checked off many a Christmas ” to-do,” and we are mentally beginning to forget all that we intended to do that didn’t get done again this year.

This will be my 48th Christmas. I have glued many a paper chain. I have baked decades worth of cookies, and I can sing the first, second, and fourth verses of most Christmas hymns by heart. I have stood for many seasons, the candle in my hand, the hot wax dripping as I light the candles of those next me…my children. I can put together the breakfast casserole for Christmas morning with my eyes closed. Christmas is a collage of memories for me full of unpainted junk boards, glitter, angel wings, felt and straw…full of eggs and orange juice, rump roasts, sugar-coatings, and strong coffee….full of baby dolls and little suitcases, little feet sticking out of their pajama bottoms, puzzle pieces, pets under the tree, body parts of robot toys, electronics that can’t ever seem to save us…

I am happy, oh so happy to report, though, that amid the hum-drums, amid the par-for-the-course relatives-behaving-badly, amid the airport delays, the returns without receipt….there is so much mystery alive still for me in this middle-aged Christmas, when I am too old to delight in the snow that I must shovel, when my Christmas cheer at times needs a battery replacement, there is so much about Christmas that I still do not know, that I do not understand. Writers spend most of our time coming to grips at the expense of our reading audience with those points of life we feel we have mastered, those pieces of profoundness and sometimes profanity that we feel we’ve come to the conclusion of once and for all. Our medium, our text, is black and white. We deal in specifics. We look out our windows at a robin on the branch and we attempt to capture some sort of essence or truth about what we have seen. Writers often forget that this bird flies away to a place that is unknown to us and our little truths.


Certainly it is what I don’t know about the robin and her red breast and the tree that mesmerizes me and causes me to question, and brings that image to the forefront of my mind to write about. Certainly it is the ethereal, all the elements that don’t contain carbon, the words which whisper realities, and like the robin fly in and out and through the pages of the Bible that keep me coming back to the words on the page. It’s the feelings I can’t put into words that most convict me of the depth of love I feel for my husband and my children.


It is the resurrective qualities of Christmas that keep me holding on to the traditions that bring me closest to what I cannot adequately express and can only know from a depth that does not write or speak. The resurrective qualities of Christmas place the book of Isaiah smack in the middle of the Gospels. We can never memorize all the scripture that God has orchestrated for us to learn, that is all around us all the time. This week it was for me a little scrap-lumber manger and the hands of a little girl placing her blue leftover material across the front of the highest board, which was less than a foot high had the cradle been placed on the ground. Next Christmas, for me, there will be another image that I will not forget. It might be marshmallows floating in hot cocoa or my kids all sharing a blanket that isn’t big enough to keep one of them warm. It might be the hands of an old woman or the disjunct phone speech of my 90 year-old grandmother talking to me about projects she intends to complete in the coming year, not realizing that at her age she IS the project.


Look around with intention. God will bring His words alive and He will link your thoughts, your words, your experiences to Him, and there is really no word, no picture for this, except what He creates.


This Christmas may your hearts be filled with pictures of God’s Love.
Submitted by Kerri Snell
 
 
Come visit The Well this Christmas season! We will be open 7am to 10pm through Thursday, Dec 23rd. On Christmas Eve, we'll be open from 7am-5pm for those that think the day was made for the entirety of your Christmas shopping or those that want to spend a lazy day sipping hot drinks and enjoying the company of friends. We'll be closed Christmas day, but will open again at 7am on the 27th.

A Woman Fit for the Foot of the Cross

Nothing makes me appreciate all that mothers do in the scope of everything that is anything more than my own inertia when I have the flu. On good days, I float through my life, as most of the tasks I must accomplish are tasks I have been successfully carrying out for going on three decades now. More than any of the family members around me, I take the clean and pressed clothes in my son’s drawer (and my contribution to that reality) for granted. I don’t fret over recipes anymore…I seek out challenging ones or I put my brain on auto-pilot and cook completely sans recipe the family favorites we all settled upon years ago. Most elements of my life as a mother entered the realm of “tried and true” years ago.

As I reflect upon Mary and her vast inexperience and youth as she prepared herself on that first Advent for new motherhood, I must admit I sometimes miss the terror of the unknown, the need for a faith when I hear a newborn baby’s cry, the wonder at my own abilities to calm that cry. Yet, I am eternally in awe of all that this experience teaches me on the other side of a season of life. How much peace there is to know that I could easily care for that baby in the manger, at least in the attention to his physical and human needs.

But am I ready to be a mother at the cross? To watch a child of mine endure not needless but essential suffering? Am I prepared for this place where competition is a useless mechanism because first and last and rich and poor and best and worst just got toppled like so many heads? There is not a recipe for, not a birth order to lost, to life that must pass through death in order to flourish.


By Week Three of Advent we are sick of shopping. We are all wishing the presents would wrap themselves. Star-studded sugar cookies make us react with full knowledge of the come-down from the sugar high. Winter is getting colder and the journey is getting old. We’re like children in the back seat of the Ford Fairlane who want to cry at the notion of another round of the license-plate game. With increasing frequency we clamor for bathroom stops along the way, for snacks and water and elbow room. We really feel, deep down, that all of the mess has to be someone else’s fault. We are starting to tune out Christmas music and we are losing the ability to notice lights and Nativity scenes.


Runners know that the most difficult part of any race is the mile before the runner completely gives over to the race itself, that mile when the runner is still trying to keep time and pace by legitimizing the distance, part time-keeper, part god. For a mother, the most difficult moments of mothering are those in which we linger within the reach of the hemline of our own perfection because we, as human beings, can only hope to control that which, without the providence of God, we can create. Let’s face it, that is very little. There is very little in that which would have prepared the Baby Jesus for the cross. There is very little in that which prepares a woman for the real seasons of her own life.


There is very little about time which can be applied to timelessness…the absolute beauty of the run that doesn’t measure. The true Advent journey cannot be sequentially ordered, and perhaps this reality seeks attention in Week Three more than at any other time, when the “word of the day” from all the pulpits is supposed to be Joy. The cross and the manger have surprised me this week by becoming for me in my devotional time the same place. The same way when I held my firstborn son for the very first time, his entire life passed before my eyes and I could see what I really could not see. When I realized there were not enough drops of moments in the eye-dropper of my own skills and gifts as a woman to adequately fill up and prepare this little child. Not without supernatural forces. Not without prayer. Not without acceptance of the gift of the process, which was, in a miraculous way, also preparing me.


There is joy this week in Advent, in the face of all that I cannot do.

-submitted by Kerri Snell

Prayer for Second Week of Advent

May the coming of our Lord never be expected without anticipation. Prepare our hearts, Lord, to celebrate this singular act which changes everything for every one of us. We give thanks for the goodwill among us– for the coats given away, for the money that digs wells, for all the restorative acts of Christmas–for the miles that vanish in our hearts, for the barriers that lie down like sheep in the bed of straw that is grace.

May we take one step closer to Your Vision for our lives, and as Advent moves so musically toward us, may we run like the young boys tending their flocks toward that Star. Let Eternity start today for us in our minds as we conceive You and Your Story. Let meditation be our stillness and let unbounded enthusiasm for service to those who need us keep us joyfully exhausted, our hands busy and our hearts full.


Show us the reality of human futility, how the best of our good cannot ever save us, and how You looked upon us as new creation and wrestled with this fact. The conception of our salvation was molded by Your Hands into our faces even as You were chiseling the nothing that would become this beautiful yet dying world. Show us how the easiest of loves, the greatest of loves is only possible because of Love which came before us, then came among us, and will come again as a triumphant manifestation of any and everything that we know as Love.

Our Advent prayers are scribbles in the dark–inadequate representations of what we might say given what You have already done for us.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man.” Rev. 21:3.
-Submitted by Kerri Snell

Don't forget that Saturday (December 11) is Second Saturdays for kids K-6th. Bring your kids at 9:30am for 1 1/2 hours of exploring Sweden!

Steps

No matter the direction of my journey this season, I am bound for a meeting at a manger. This is the humble event of Advent. All the lingering birds of late Autumn are singing this eventuality. All pointers are pointing toward this. Old Scripture predicts with clarity this coming that I am instinctively taking my steps toward. All music oozes with the belief; all paintings drip with cracks of this light. Eventually…Adventually….I will arrive in the deep,purple presence of a birth that recreates me…It happens season after season after season.


A green Shoot will sprout from Jesse’s stump, from his roots a budding Branch. The life-giving Spirit will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, the Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God. Isaiah 11: 1-2 (The Message).


I am reminded by this passage today how the spreading of this Hope has never been overt, only the futile attempts at squelching this Hope have been. So we may not have manger scenes in our public schools anymore and we may not have our Bible-thumping fingers on the pulse of our worldly leaders at the moment. We may never get moved to the head table close to the microphone of what is considered relevant culture. We may never obliterate the tendency of some to abbreviate the spelling of Christmas by replacing “Christ” with a scribbled cross mark tipped on its side. “Happy Holiday” as the lowest common denominator wish may be the only words we ever hear in our parking lots on our way to the mall.


I am reminded how Hope was born into such a world as this in a very quiet and nondescript way under the radar in a humble setting that made and still makes absolutely no sense to a senseless world.


Our politics will never possess the inclusiveness to bind this Hope. Our symbols will never capture the entirety of what this means. I walk toward this manger with nothing but my own inadequacies, the bread crumbs of my life discarded along the way, my personal testimony full of holes. It all falls short, doesn’t it? Even words fail, and at the point where music takes over, the praise still isn’t enough. Not the purest harmony of a choir. Not a wreath placed in honor of a soldier. Not the mass of red velvet draped across the belly of Santa. Not a deer versus sky accident. Not the crispest of silver boughs. Not even a Billy Graham prayer. We can’t wrap enough lights around the exteriors of our houses to capture the glimmer in that star.


We cannot put into power that which we have no power over.


The first step toward the manger is the recognition that there is no room in the hopelessness of man for Hope to come. I must arrive empty and agenda-less at the manger. I will miss the manger altogether if I seek another place or if I seek to make this place different.

Submitted by Kerri Snell

Children's Author Featured at The Well

Award- winning children's author, Jane Kurtz, will be the feature speaker at a special holiday event at The Well on Saturday, December 4th from 5:30-7:00pm. Kurtz was selected by American Girl to write books for the 2010 Girl of the Year, Lanie. Raffle tickets will be available to win gift baskets and a Lanie doll by American Girl.

Kurtz is also the cofounder of Ethiopia Reads, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing literacy to Ethiopian children. The organization has opened 46 school libraries in Ethiopia and operates 5 donkey mobile libraries. The event is a benefit to raise money for the next shipment of books. You can learn more about Ethiopia reads at http://www.ethiopiareads.org/.  Other books by Jane Kurtz will also be availble for purchase and autographing. Girls, mothers and doll-lovers are invited!

Seasons (Ecc. 3:1)

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven….


There is a time to read to my children, to swoop them into my still lap and point their fingers to the letters of the alphabet, to count the ten giraffes on the page.


There is a time to sip champagne and to celebrate the romance in my life that sustains me when the trees have shed their party dresses and darkness comes early.


There is a time to fasten my knees to a stiff, cold pew and listen to the words of others.


There is a time to cook the best food I can find, to mull over the right platters, to pick the most comfortable cups.


There is a time to be a good friend, to listen, to bear others’ burdens. There is a time to speak my own problems as well.

There is a time to stand in a light and proclaim unyielding devotion, and there is a time to quietly go on my way just knowing.

There is a tiny amount of time to discover what is wrong with the world or how it could be better, and there is an expanse the size of an ocean of time to praise the Creator for this incredible world just as it is.


There is a time to learn and to cherish my favorite color, and there is a time to see no color at all.


There is a time for families to gather and to bring in their suitcases their own conflicted ideas to the place that has so carefully whittled them, a time to figure more things out over board games.


There is a time to seek warmth and there is a time to make oneself into that needed comfort.

There is a time to run as far and as fast as I can, and there is a time for walking in the shadows of a passing season.

There is a time to text, and there is a time for text.

There is a time for more food and more friends. Thankfully, almost every moment of a life can become this.

There is a time for everything, and this means there is time for everything. When the time comes for me to say that I have done everything that I can do, I know this will be a season of peace.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.


--submitted by Kerri Snell
We at The Well want to wish each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving. We will be open our regular hours Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, but will close Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with our families.

Keep it Simple

The Lord is revealing to me that He can be a God of few words. How enticing is the difference between the Word and words… How the one just seems to encompass the others in silence, as if to say I am enough. I am all. I am.

God is explaining to me a gratitude that leaves me speechless…. A Thanksgiving meal that is more than a menu…. A gospel that is shared like breath…no rehearsal needed….. A knowing that He has a place set for me at His table, an assurance that sticks like warm, brown gravy to the ribs.

There is nothing that doesn’t dance to this music, and with this music, there isn’t a room that needs another thing.


Giving thanks is not a piling high of reasons, it’s more a letting go of the need to know those reasons in the first place. The more simply that I can experience gratitude, the lighter I will feel airborne on the flight of my life. Giving thanks is not at all the same thing as accepting the gift of gratitude. One plots the journey by tacking rote lists to the bulletin board of Heaven with sharp pins; the other breathes in the presence of God with eyes closed and arms open for what will simply come.


God is telling me to pack my suitcase lightly on my way to joy, to surround myself with less to clutter my sight. To intentionally place a precious, few objects in the curio cabinet of my soul. Whatever I need I can buy when I get there. To lessen my Thanksgiving inventory, to live more like a poem, with sparse words compressed and chosen as carefully as a child’s name…a poem where the meaning moves freely through the music of a verse without the limits imposed by unintentional words.


Thankfulness is not a spouting of reasons I should feel thankful, although that is certainly a start. But I have been doing that for over forty years now, and it’s time for some editing. Thankfulness is, for me, a letting go of words in order to walk in closer proximity to the Word, with nothing in my hands, with nothing but my empty hands, and a few precious things which I immediately drop at his feet with much relief.


I drop the need to cook the perfect turkey at His feet. I drop what is deep within the deep-fried deliciousness of that need, the need to feel connected to my own history. Instantly…no matter how the turkey turns out, I belong.


I drop the need to protect my children from any disappointments by granting them all their holiday wishes. I drop what is deep within the dollops of decorative confetti, the need to understand my own distinction…Instantly…no matter if the sweater fits or not, I am sanctified.


I drop the need to orchestrate the perfect moment, and the vacuum deep within the choreography of that dance which can only be filled by the Creator if I leave it as it was intended to be….empty.


I am finally grasping this season the difference between accomplishing a to-do list and the ingesting of the internal rhythm of a life well-lived in the light, how the one makes no time and space for joy, and how the other is teeming with it, so that joy gives life to everything and to everything else.


I am thankful.

-submitted by Kerri Snell
Come in through Thanksgiving, mention this blog and receive 25% off any fall decoration excluding Colonial Candles.

The trance of possibility

Some of us are drawn to the blank page. The possibility that an open prairie places before us when there are no mountains, no tall trees to impede the scope of vision. The freshly painted room with floor cloths still stretched across the floor…no furniture yet..no frames on the walls…the relationship when more is unknown than known. The silence in the mind just after a person has received a gift, before questions come. For some of us, beginnings are a place of peace. In Forrest Gump-ian terms, it’s the box of chocolates before the first piece of candy is removed for a taste.

If I had to stand before a tribunal somewhere to defend my faith, to stand before a jury not of my peers to “give the reason for the hope that is within me with meekness and fear,” I’d like to think my skills at debate (better known to my own mother as the propensity to argue with a stone) would elevate my status in the eyes of those in power of my immediate destiny so that if my life were in question, my life would be spared to debate another day. I’d like to think I know my Bible well enough to accurately conjugate the how-to’s of salvation, the miracles of Jesus, the main points of the Sermon on the Mount. I hope that I have prayed enough publicly that I would feel comfortable praying for my enemies and would be able to turn those beatitudes into “DO-attidudes” should push come to shove.

But, in my own life, in my own personal walk, the most poignant pointer to the fact of the resurrection which is the source of all hope in this world is the newness found in each new day, the same-ness of that newness and yet, the surprise tucked within the coating of each and every 24-hour period that causes one man to smile, another to laugh, another to cry, another to work, another to run, another to pray as though for a first time.

There’s such a comfort in knowing that at 7 a.m., I am pouring coffee into my mug just like everyone else. That children are turning one all over the planet to accompanying balloons. There is such conviction in the reality that hunger feels the same to every man, that imagination is not a respecter of children, that no matter how we vote, we close our eyes and we open them in the very same way.

 

Yet, give 100 people a blank piece of paper and a pencil and not one of us will draw the exact same picture. Not one of us will write the same poem or even remember the same points of humor in the same funny story. With God, all things are possible, before they are limited by expedience. My soul is drawn to the magnitude of that possibility. I am thirsty each day for the water that renews itself, for history that re-writes itself, for civilizations that re-build always around a premise that is as close to us as our own blood. If tomorrow becomes today, she will be brand new even though she has come to you millions of times before as a prevenient grace.

Within each day, within the sufficiency of each 24-hour period, exists the potential to know God.

-submitted by Kerri Snell

Go Ahead…Unplug the Christmas Machine…

I am the new, updated cordless version of the Christmas Machine. I run on a hidden battery the size of plankton which stores more information on it than Santa’s scroll and has the capacity to power a small country for many a Christmas future. Go ahead…try to shut me off.

When I told my husband recently that my Tuesday morning bookclub (which meets at the Well) is discussing the very timely book titled “Unplug the Christmas Machine,” he looked at me over his bifocals, shook his head like he does when his football team is behind 40 to nothing and mumbled, “It’s hopeless, honey, that will never work.” Those were his exact words except for the honey part, but we’ve been married for 27 years, so I have permission from Mrs. Clause to embellish this time of year. Did I mention that I have direct permission to embellish from Mrs. Clause?

Somewhere there is a twelve-step program for those of us who just can’t get enough of Christmas. Those of us who, when asked to list our favorite Christmas tradition need more time than it takes for a men’s chorus to sing “Twelve Days of Christmas” in a round while foraging the woods for the perfect pine tree singing into walkie talkies. Eyes glaze over as I describe buying ornaments for the kids each year, putting books away for my future grandchildren, setting up my Nativity set collection all over the house, making so much fudge the weight of the sugared fancies causes the foundation of my house to second guess itself. I exaggerate as well as embellish…not sure I have permission from anyone important to do this. I just do, especially this time of year. There’s the annual Christmas light tour, the must-have beef stew and cornbread we eat every Christmas Eve, the Christmas pajamas, the candles, the white lights and the way I get so preachy about such a silly thing, the sweaters…I secretly LOVE tacky Christmas sweaters and snowman earrings and puff paint…okay, maybe it isn’t a secret. It most definitely SHOULD be. I attend every live Nativity scene within a 100 miles radius (hello…road trip with fudge!). I cry every year when the little girl in the movie finds Prancer in her barn. I listen to Christmas music constantly from October through March (the season just doesn’t last long enough). My kids buy me the same Jim Brickman Christmas CD every year because I wear one out every season. I hear them snickering in the breakfast nook about their plans to play this at my funeral.

If ever a woman needed to read the book “Unplug the Christmas Machine,” it’s probably me, except for reasons I hope to continue to explore I don’t ever approach this season with dread or a stressed out longing for an experience that is different from the one that I (along with my husband, Clark Griswold) get to enjoy each season with our family. Perhaps my machine just needs a tune-up.


My favorite Christmas tradition is the church service on Christmas Eve. When we pass the candles and sing “Silent Night”….that seems to permeate everything for me, including the beef stew waiting for us at home after service. Including the presents and the busyness. As I listen to the younger moms in my bookclub I am inspired at the questions they ask of themselves, of their quest to intentionally create holidays which are glistening with the grace of Christ. We teach much this season to the little ones in our midst as we shape cookies and make room on our hearths and in our hearts for joy. There is much “Mary-ness” to the “Martha-ness” of this special season that is ONLY SIXTY DAYS AWAY!

One lesson I have learned over the years….Christmas has taught me this…the less I compartmentalize Christ, the less I compartmentalize Christmas, the less activities in my life don’t fall into the category of religious pursuit. I am not really a “religious” person for the sake of picking and choosing this or that as “celebrates the birth of Christ” or “doesn’t celebrate the birth of Christ appropriately.” I more or less believe that I bring my faith to whatever task I am choosing to undertake for a given day because the promise of the Spirit’s dwelling within me means there is something sacred as well as super-sweet in that fudge I am stirring. The more Christmases I celebrate, the more awe and worship I see in the simplest of things, in the materials of life, if not in the materialism.


After all, the stuff of life, even the human stuff, these were created by God for us to use, and use is sacred. I hope this book helps me to distinguish between use and misuse. It seems to me that defining activities in black and white when we all know Christmas colors are much closer to each other than that…reds, greens, gold…and with the proper touch blues and silvers and plum…this is perhaps the guilt-inducing pressure point that sends Christmas machines everywhere into overdrive and makes us eat too much fudge. We bring some incredibly complicated theologies into our Christmases, don’t we?

I can’t wait to explore all of this with my inspiring and intelligent bookclub ladies on Tuesday mornings at The Well. We are wired by our Creator to celebrate this birth that is never far away from a cross. It’s impossible to separate His coming from His going and His coming again. The newness of the season invites us every time– the sparkle on the snow at a time when God’s earth is declining, and yet for that to be the most tangible promise ever of a new spring. Let there be lights if not on our houses within our eyes…because the Light of the World has come.

-Submitted by Kerri Snell
Come study Unplug the Christmas Machine with us! Join us for Morning Blend - a morning book club for moms at The Well, Tuesdays from 9am to 10am.

A Prayer Filled Fall

It has been a beautiful, picturesque fall; it has been a prayerful fall.

The Tuesday morning book club which meets at The Well just concluded our reading and discussion of Prayer Saturated Kids by Cheryl Sacks and Arlyn Lawrence.

 

I have personally felt an inner urging toward the obedience of prayer, so this book just seemed to be another part of God’s puzzle, putting me together, completing me, teaching me. The book is hands-on and practical and it discusses the importance of praying parents who pray for their children and who also pray in front of and with their children.

 

Prayer is more than a discipline, it is a relationship. Prayer is all the little things about a big thing, and prayer is that big thing about all the little things. If I could offer any encouragement to young Christian mothers out there it would be “Just do it.” Take that step from reading about prayer, from studying about prayer, from hearing sermons about prayer and spend time in prayer. Prayer Saturated Kids really challenges readers to take concrete steps toward implementing a variety of prayer methods into daily family life.

 

I have always been a person who prays, but I have not always shared those prayers with my children. There are many prayers written on the hard drive of my computer (I tend to write my prayers), but do I really want my children to only see my devotion to prayer after I am gone and someone finds the boxes and boxes of writing? The book and the book club discussions have motivated me to come out of the prayer closet and speak some perhaps linguistically inferior prayers aloud and in front of my son.

 

The prayer time at Moms in Touch (also held at the Well on first and third Thursdays) and the book club study on prayer have enriched my autumn with a harvest of answered prayers already! These answers are not always definitive miracles or desired results; most often the answer comes in the form of an incredible sense of peace no matter the circumstances of my day, my week, my month, my year, my life. Prayer has broken my pride and healed a relationship, and the beautiful truth about prayer is that when prayer breaks you, it is a very clean break. The bones of life fuse back together and there is no limp, no crimp in the wings.

 

I’d like to tell you prayer has made me perfect, but then again, not. Prayer has guided me to seek less perfectionism in myself and in others. I have learned this autumn that no matter how much head knowledge I may possess and no matter how many Bible verses I have heard thousands and thousands of sermons on in my lifetime, no matter how many good deeds I perform, no matter how wonderful my family might look (on one or two days out of a year) I am a woman who needs prayer. God doesn’t instruct us to pray because he needs to hear our thoughts verbalized or written or danced or run like a race or drawn in a beautiful picture…He instructs me to pray because I need it. I need the relationship. Prayer is the first thing. Prayer is often the last thing. God gives me words, and it’s a beautiful thing when I choose to give those back to Him. Or to take His words to me in silence. Or to laugh with Him at the same time He is laughing with me. Prayer is pouring out. Prayer is absorption. We must teach this to our children. We must.

-Submitted by guest writer, Kerri Snell

The mom's book club meets Tuesday mornings from 9:30-10:30am at The Well. The book they are getting ready to delve into is Unplug The Christmas Machine. New members are welcome!
Prayer Saturated Kids, the last book featured is available as well.

Moms in Touch meets the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month at 9:15am for a prayer meeting.  Guests are welcome.

Celebrating with Stores Across the Country

As we reflect on the blessings of one year-Yes! Can you believe it's been ONE year as The Well!?!-what more appropriate time to celebrate a national celebration put on by many Christian distributors called Christian Store Day. The 1st annual Christian Store Day is scheduled for Saturday, October 23-almost exactly a year after our big move into our new home at 101 N. Main. Is that too much of a coincidence? I don't think so! So, we're celebrating Christian Store Day, The Well's 1st year anniversary, and YOU-the customer we couldn't do without. We'll have door prizes-lots of door prizes, sales-bunches of $5 books, loads of $5 CDs by groups like Casting Crowns, Red, Third Day  and DVDs including Chonda Pierce, sale priced gift items, half price movies including this year's #1 Christian movie, To Save a Life. Also on sale: Faith Like Potatoes, Flywheel, and Fireproof, and music from Israel Houghton and Tenth Avenue North food- what celebration would be complete without food? and lots more.

Realizing that only a year ago, we were figuring out exactly at what angle the book shelves should be at or what in the world we were going to fill our gift section with, I am amazed that we made it to this point! We've learned a lot - and are still learning. We still rearrange the cupboards, still have those baked flops-that I deem not edible, but somehow coworkers rejoice in such a confectionary windfall-who says you can't have burnt cookies for lunch!?! We still wrestle with the right amount of products, and still have those moments of panic when my phone rings and I hear, "Jenny, we're out of chocolate."  I fully expect most of these experiences to continue as a way of life - except maybe the chocolate scares if I can get my head on straight. We've been blessed to be a part of the community in so many ways. We were able to host all 9 1st Disctrict Primary candidates, Representative Todd Tiahrt, Senator Sam Brownback, and Representative Jerry Moran this summer. We have hosted or helped to host several Chamber of Commerce Coffees. We have not only baked fresh cinnamon rolls every day we've been open, but we've also expanded to include fresh pies, cookies, scones, muffins, and so much more. Jerry has continued to make trips down to Old School Bagel Cafe for our legendary bagels. We have scheduled meetings, Bible studies, or book clubs most days of the week. Our goal to make this a place to find community resonates with almost every age group-from giggling Jr. High girls to college students "studying" to retired individuals coming in for a piece of pie and a card game. Our Friday night concerts have also been a highlight in our weeks. The talent in this area is great and we're so happy to showcase just a portion. Side note: we're always looking for new entertainers. Contact us if you're interested.

Some particular highlights in the past year were a book signing by Deb Raney, Deborah Vogts, and Kim Vogel Sawyer, a coffee and dessert pairing by our coffee roaster, Greg Holmes of Marks Brothers Big World Coffee, the opportunity to do our first ever "real" book table at a retreat, and the release of 2 new t shirt designs (another one is in the works).

We want to thank you as the customer and the fan for a great year. We as individuals have been blessed to get to know you a little better and have enjoyed being part of your life -whether it's to supply that cup of joe in the morning or to help find that book that meets you where you are. We hope you'll celebrate with us on our holiday - National Christian Store Day - Saturday, October 23, 2010.

-submitted by Jenny for The Well

Living Water

October is a contemplative season, perhaps lost upon souls afflicted with an exclusionary strand of attention deficit disorder. We are a culture full of the present tense, of what’s happening now, of maintaining a hefty status quo whose brute force can only squelch any feeble attempt at looking upward. Or outward. Or inward.

I realize this morning as the sunlight diffuses into a few scattered clouds in a baby blue sky through my life’s window that I cannot provide through the living of my life, any generalities which sense the impending dangers to each of us within the framework of this worldwide lack of contemplation.

We live as though silence has nothing to say to us. No…I live that way. That is all that I can ever say.

It feels like putting a band-aid on a gushing, broken heart. It feels futile. What can one person do?

The silence tells me this morning that it is more impactful, more important to own the heart than to document the bleeding out of hearts in the plural, hearts in the comfort of numbers and society.

In the words of the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter of John: Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!
I am that woman at that well. Not because I have had five husbands or because I am living with a man who isn’t my husband, but because whatever the particulars of my story might be, there is a man traveling through the noise of this world who can retell and foretell them. And most importantly, can untell them.

The woman at the well wasn’t living a good life, and yet she also wasn’t falsely insulated within her own goodness. Goodness, which like the water from Jacob’s well can only serve us day-to-day in rote survival. Goodness is a water which depletes our eternal parts in order to sustain itself, to pass off as a greater good than goodness can ever hope to be. There are many people walking around living what those of us who are “churched” would consider hopeless lives while we in the church hoard and scratch like so many roosters around Jacob’s finite well, secluding the location of the well where living water flows in abundance for all.

I believed for a long time that we Christians were hoarding the contents of this living well…no, wait…that I was hoarding the contents of this well in an attempt to preserve it, to keep the water and myself pure, to ensure my own children could drink of it first and would be able, by comparing the hope of living water to the hopelessness outside the doors of whatever church I was blessing with my own body heat, to see the difference. Or that it was a lack of faith on my part, or a lack of vision, or that I needed to keep praying about this for at least another hundred years before I could hope to know why.

This is what it really is: my inability to see my own redemption, my own constant need for it, the thirst I bring to contemplation every day, the base, ugly muddy water that fills my cup if I attempt to live on my own, alone. If I don’t want to run to everyone I see and share the joy of my own redemption, then have I truly come to terms with my own sin? Living water can never be sullied into anything less. Bring anyone to this well and you will see that this holds true. First, though, I must bring myself.


Submitted by guest writer, Kerri Snell. Published from her blog with permission

OCTOBER!

As the weather gets crisper and pumpkins begin appearing on porch steps, it's time that we embrace fall and celebrate all things fall! For one, we have a new shipment of candles in and this month only, any $10 candle purchase gets you a free tea light! We're enjoying the wonderful fall scents like Pumpkin Pie and Indian Summer. The wonderful smells are also wafting from the kitchen. With home made pie Monday through Friday, fresh cinnamon rolls everyday and many other freshly baked goodies, our kitchen is sure to please.
Now that the days are getting cooler and shorter, it's a good time to get involved in "indoor" activities and do we have some for you!
Like always, we've scheduled live music every Friday night:

• *October 8-WACCC (Women and Children Combatting Cancer)Open Mic Night. 10% of drink purchases will go to WACCC (7pm)
• October 15-David Mills (7pm)
• October 22-Caleb Marsh (7pm)
• October 29-Central Christian College Songwriters (7pm)
• November 5-Central Christian Jazz Band (7pm)

Need a couple hours sans kids? Our 2nd Saturday activity is geared just towards kids in grades k-6th. This month we'll study Japan on Saturday, October 9 from 9:30-11am. No reservation or money required.

• Monday is Chess Night! Come with friends or make some new ones.
• Moms in Touch Prayer Meeting - 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 9:15a
• FOCAS (Fellowship of Christian Adult Singles) Every Tuesday and Wednesday from 6:30-9pm
•  Prayer Saturated Kids Book Study (lead by Sharla Jost) Tuesdays from 9-10:30a
• Lunchtime Reflections Bible Study (lead by Dr. Connie Clark) Thursdays at 12:10






• Our first ever monthly book club! 2nd Mondays at 12pm (lead by Sandy Weicht) Read and discuss a new book every month. Join this club and receive a special membership card with discounts on featured books.

Mark your calendars! Friday (Nov. 5), Saturday (Nov. 6), and Sunday (Nov. 7) is Christmas Open House Weekend! Our hours for that weekend our 7a-10pm, Friday and Saturday, and 1pm-5pm on Sunday. We'll have live music all weekend long and will have refreshments, door prizes and much more.

Book Signing...Today!

Stop in today and visit with Matthew Ludwick about his brand-new autobiography. The book, entitled "Can You Hear What I Hear?", tells of his journey to overcome his disablity of hearing impairment and how he succeeded above and beyond his wildest dreams. Matthew will be here from 3pm. - 5pm. to sign his book and will also be available to answer any questions you may have.

A BRAZIL-iant Kids Day!

Many people expect learning to be reserved for week days and exciting adventures to brew on the weekends. At The Well, we blend fun and education every "Second Saturday" of the month! Saturday, September 11 will be our kickoff for "Second Saturdays," an event for K-6th graders from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Led by Carmen Zeisler, kids will learn about a different country each month with books, snacks and activities.

This month it's Brazil!



Brazil: Quick Facts
- The country houses the world’s largest remaining rain forest, the Amazon rain forest.
- A variety of tropical fruits such as mangoes, pineapples and bananas are grown in Brazil. Acai berry (a superfruit that looks much like a large blueberry) is also cultivated here.
- Brazil is also famous for its delicious coffee. (Source: buzzle.com)



Freshly brewed Brazil blend coffee will be available on September 11. This blend (a staff favorite and also available for purchase by the pound) is one of five kinds available from Mark's Brothers Big World Coffee Roasters. (Other blends are Peru, Tanzania, Dominican and Sulawesi.) The business, owned by two brothers, is "committed to not only finding the best coffee in the world, but to promote the livelihood and and well being of the producing farmers by paying at or above Fair Trade prices for all the coffee they roast and sell."
Mark's Brothers Coffee is centered around building relationships with coffee producers. Many times, these small family farmers are living in poverty and are unable to commute to the local market. They are forced to sell their produce to middle men at extremely low prices with no other options. Through direct relations with the producers, the business can avoid stipulations of Fair Trade certifications and ensure fair wages and quality standards. (Source: http://www.marksbrotherscoffee.com/about-us.html)



Annie Eskeldson will also be here at 9 a.m. to sign her book, "Ashi's Gift." Annie was inspired to write this book after countless hours of providing therapy for her Autistic daughter.
"I'd like to reach out to that Mom or Dad who is really struggling today and let them know that as an Autist, your child is wonderful and you are not alone," she said.
The book is part one of three. The sequels are anticipated to come out next year.
Source: http://www.authorannie.com/aboutme.htm
Receive a coupon for $5 off your next purchase at Daylight Donuts when you attend.

What a Concert!

I am pleased to welcome Jean Kennedy back to our stage, Friday, August 20th. Her music has been a coffee shop favorite and her talent has "wowed" staff and guests alike - no big surprise as she began performing at age 5. Her parents are career musicians making travel part of her childhood. Jean has been to 49 states and four European countries, though traveling to Italy is still in her goals. Jean is a guitar instructor at Sounds Great and often takes her breaks with us down at The Well where she predictably orders a tall dark chocolate mocha. She is also an adjunct professor at McPherson College. Though Jean spends a lot of time in McPherson, a big part of her spare time is spent with the youth at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Newton where she is the Jr. High and high school youth sponsor. Jean's music style is typically Jazz/Classical guitar with a few originals mixed in. The concert starts at 8pm with Jean sharing the evening with Chuck Vetter, own of Sounds Great, consistent refill coffee drinker and much anticipated performer. This will be a concert to remember as both these musicians have made a life out of their love of music. Come down, enjoy a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. You won't be disappointed!

New Movie Releases

We're excited to offer two much awaited movies. To Save a Life debuted in movie theaters last winter and has now come out on DVD for your home viewing pleasure. Tackling the hard issues of suicide, teen pregnancy and other issues plaguing our youth culture today, this PG13 movie is a great conversation starter either for families or small groups.
Producers of Fireproof and Facing the Giants have once again produced a family friendly film. Written about a boy struggling with cancer and inspired by a true story, Letters to God will warm your heart.
Both movies are available at The Well as well as study materials to compliment each of the movies.
What better way to spend a hot evening than watching a good movie in the air conditioning!?!

Caleb Marsh in Concert!

The Well We're glad to welcome Caleb back to The Well. His concerts have been well received and provide the atmosphere for just a good family night. We have lots of board games if you just have to keep your hands busy while you listen. Caleb's concert is at 8pm and if the last two weeks have been any indication, a nice air-conditioned place with a cold smoothie is about the perfect relief to the incessant heat.
A little about Caleb: He has been performing for four years and says that his music best appeals to mid-teens and up. His style as Acoustic Rock/Pop. He and his wife, Jillian, are both graduates of Tabor College and have an adorable little son, Newell. Eldorado, Kansas is his hometown and he says that his favorite coffee drink is anything that tastes more like hot chocolate than straight coffee. We think he'd like our smoothies!

Renee (Kaufman) Redenbugh

August 6 -- 8 pm
She is a native of the area, growing up in Elyria, the daughter of Pete and Anna Kaufman and is now residing outside of town with husband, Martin, and their 7 kids ranging in age from 2 to 13. A Berean Academy and Tabor College grad, Rene remembers starting to perform in Jr. High and has continued this passion for music, often writing her own contemporary Christian songs and performing in churches. When she is in The Well, we like serving her a nice sweet caramel mocha.


Enjoy and bring a friend!

Sales in August

All boxed cards 25% off!

Classroom decor is 10% off! Some exclusions may apply.

Donated Painting of the Well

Richard Archer donated this canvas painting, "The Well at Night."

One day, he was sitting outside the store talking with his son. He was inspired to paint a night scene, which he hadn't done for quite some time.

Come in and see it hanging on our orange wall!

Thanks Richard!

F.O.C.A.S. Single's Group

We have a singles group coming to the music section of our store at 7 p.m. on:

Wednesday nights
Every other Tuesday night
And possibly more coming soon!

2011 Calendars

There are a lot more varieties where these came from!

Buy them now while supplies last.

Aaron Lee Martin & Clarensaw

Grab your favorite cup 'o joe and listen to the musical talents of Aaron Lee Martin & Clarensaw.

Friday, July 16
7 p.m.

Successful Book Signing

We had a good turnout today for our book signing! Many readers came to meet the authors that made their favorite stories come to life.

Kim Vogel Sawyer (left)
Deborah Vogts
Deborah Raney (right)

Sizzlin' Summer Sale

It may be hot outside, but music deals are even hotter inside our store. Come in for incredible savings on some of this summer's best soundtracks for having fun in the Son. (EMI CMG)

Join our mailing list for two 25% off (any non-sale item) coupons.

Staff Book Recommendations

Feel like our store's book supply is overwhelming?

Don't know which book to read next?


We've simplified the process for you...


Check out our staff picks, located along the well counter. We've each chosen one or two books that we would recommend to anyone looking for a good read.

From self help books to cook books, we've got a variety for you.

And the best part is...they are 25% off (for a limited time!)

Drawing for Shop the Night Away

Come in and drop your name in the box! Don't miss the chance to win:






$25 gift certificate
$50 savings bond
Worlds of Fun passes
Great Wolf Lodge package
Grand prize: $500 shopping spree

The winning ticket will be drawn at 9:00 p.m. Friday, July 9 on the Downtown Plaza. Participants must be present to win. Individuals may only win once in individual business drawings, but all names must be entered in the Grand Prize drawing. Only one entry per visit, please.

Try our new Smoothie Mixes

The summer isn't getting any cooler, so beat the heat and try some of our smoothies!







Strawberry
Banana
Cranberry
Peach
Mango
Pina Colada
Fruit Punch
Cherry
Pomegranate
Raspberry
Lemon Lime
Citrus Combo
Margarita

Come and meet three nationally known (but Kansas grown) authors!!

Deborah Raney
Kim Vogel Sawyer
Deborah Vogts

July 10
9-11 a.m.

New books by these authors are:

Almost Forever - Raney
A Hopeful Heart - Sawyer
Seeds of summer - Vogts

Tomorrow night is game night!

Bring your favorite game or use ours. Let's get the party started!

Waterproof Bible?

June 21 was the first day of summer and the longest day of the year! If more sun means more pool time or vacation days for you, take a look at our waterproof Bibles!

It is completely waterproof, durable, dries quickly, is stronger than paper, and adapts to all extremes or reading environments.

Includes the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in the King James Version.

Summer Reading Program - Sign up Today

Make sure to sign up for our Summer Reading Program, running now until August 13!

Children are divided up into two groups: 5-9 & 10-14

Read 8 books from our reading list, complete the designated book mark, and return up to 4 cards before August 13 to receive a coupon for 50% off one in stock book.

Come into the store for more details.

Don't miss Shop the Night Away!

When: Friday, July 9
Time: 6 - 10 p.m.

- Huge sidewalk sale
- Live Entertainment
- $500 shopping spree
- Door prizes
- More!

Wizard of Oz Meet & Greet

The cast of the production Wizard of Oz had a meet and greet in our back room Saturday. Attendees sang and interacted with Dorothy, the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow while eating breakfast from The Well.

Coming This Saturday: Book Signing!

Wendy Elmquist, author of "The Family Prescription," will be in the store to sign her book on Saturday, May 1st from 10am until noon.

Here is a short synopsis found on the back of the book:

"From the Dust Bowl days to drug addiction, this fast-paced life story of author Wendy Elmquist will have you laughing and crying. As she walks through her lineage, see how she handles adversity and what life has thrown at her.

From a strong family and long line of faithful descendents, Wendy is pulled into something that no one ever saw coming. "Prescription Drugs." What started as a means to help her breathing and pain, became an obsessive addiction that nearly ruined her life.

How did she overcome her prescription nightmare? Read her story and see how Wendy finally found the right prescription, 'The Family Prescription.' "

New Book Titles!

Today is a busy day for new book releases! Come check out our shelves for Dr. Dobson's long-awaited release of "Bringing Up Girls" at a special price of $19.99 ( while supplies last. reg-$25.99). Too busy with your girls to sit down and read? Not to worry, this title is available in audio too!

Kate Gosselin also has a new one titled "I Just Want You to Know" which picks up where "Multiple Blessings" left off as well as has a personal letter to each of her children. Special pricing for this book is $19.97 (while supplies last. reg-$22.99).

For all you Ted Dekker fans, this post is for you too! "The Bride Collector" is here, come get your copy today! You can also get this one in audio - perfect for that summer roadtrip.


Also don't forget that Beverly Lewis' "The Telling" came out last week. It is the third book in her Seasons of Grace series. If you haven't gotten your copy, what are you doing still reading this? Come on down, get the book, and enjoy it here in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee or a smoothie!

Be sure to keep reading as we will keep you updated on when new titles come such as Karen Kingsbury's "Take Four" and you don't want to miss that! Also keep an eye out because we will have lots of value fiction perfect for your summer reading. We may even be giving some fiction books away this summer, so be sure to check back for more details on that later...

Yellow Means Yield and READ!

The spring sunshine hasn't been too shy in the last couple of days. And don't come through our doors thinking you will avoid it, because you will see more yellow on these signs!

______________________

Let us shed some light on some Well info you may not know...

____________________

ON THE STAGE

April 9 -- No Concert, we're helping sponsor Central Christian College's fundraising concert for Haiti @ the Warehouse

April 16 -- CCC Songwriters -- 7 pm

April 23 -- CCC Songwriters -- 7 pm

April 30 -- McPherson College Poetry Reading -- 5:45 pm

April 30 -- CCC Songwriters -- 8:30 pm

_____________________

MEETING ROOM (in the back)

Every Thursday -- Lunchtime Reflections -- Women's Bible Study -- 12:10-1:00 pm

Every Thursday -- Kiwanis --6:30 am

Friday, April 30 -- Prayer Breakfast 7 am

________________

SPECIAL DAYS

Book Club -- Mondays -- 7 pm

It's The Well's first book club! Featuring Beth Moore's newest book So Long Insecurity

Chess -- Mondays -- 7-9 pm

Bring a friend or find them here

Cream Puff Days -- April 9, 10, 30, and May 1

Sink your teeth into its gooey goodness

Meet the Author -- 10am-noon

Wendy Elmquist, author of Family Prescription, will be here signing books

Preorder: Bringing Up Girls

It's Dr. Dobson's newest book, which will be released on Tuesday, April 13. You may preorder or wait to pick it up. Suggested Retail: $25.99, Our Price: $19.99 (while supplies last)

________________

---In honor of Donate Life Month and everyone who has committed to be an organ donor, show your driver's license with the donor heart or the back signed to receive 10% off regular price items during the month of April---

Caleb Marsh

Don't forget to stop by at 7:00 pm on March 26 to see Caleb Marsh!

To listen to his music, visit http://www.myspace.com/followks

Upcoming Events

If you come into The Well, you will see bright green posters informing you of all the fun and exciting events that are coming soon! But here is the 411 for those of you who cannot make it in!


Live Music (starting at 7 pm)
March 5-- The Reading Mother & Rose Amongst Thorns
March 12-- Arts Council Choir
March 19-- Central Christian's Jazz Band
March 26-- Caleb Marsh

Things to Celebrate
March 15--Daylight Savings Monday
Add an extra shot to any drink for half price

March 19--National Caramel Chocolate Day
Add caramel to any chocolate drink for free
Come in for special desserts

March 25--Pecan Day
Come in for special pecan desserts

All Month--15% off any caramella or chocolate creme brulee coffee beans
We can grind them for you too

New Children's Gift Items

New gifts are coming in daily, and that includes our new children's gift items! Choose from ballerina dolls, elephants, centipedes, dogs, sheep, owls, frogs, ducks, alligators and more. Each one is fuzzy soft and irresistably cuddly. Get yours now, because supplies are limited!