Christian Parenting

Let's stop Christmas.

All I want for Christmas is the weather to be below like 70 degrees.

That's the heart of a Texan right there.

But I know if you're like me, finding the perfect gift for the people you love, it should feel joyful, right? But it often feels stressful. So between the busy schedules and crowded stores, it's easy to

lose the joy of giving. And that's why Christian Parenting created the 2025 Christmas gift guide,

a one-stop collection of thoughtful, faith-filled gifts for every age and stage. And inside this guide,

you'll find meaningful ideas for kids, parents,

grandparents, and your friends, all designed to point hearts back to the true reason for the season.

Plus, we've included some of our very favorite advent resources from family activities to

devotionals just for kids so you can keep Jesus at the center of Christmas. And best of all,

it's completely free. Check out the guide today

at Christianparenting.org slash Christmas and make this Christmas your most meaningful and

least stressful.

Hey friends, welcome back to Pardon the Mess. I'm your host Courtney Defeo. Two updates. One, there was a hair in my lip gloss this morning that literally almost made me gag. I don't know how it got there.

Like, how was it wrapped fully around the thing? Like, how long was I going

with putting lip gloss on with a hair wrapped around it? It just made me almost gag. I felt like you

needed to know that. And also, I felt like you need to know that I learned something about myself in this

new season where I've got one at college is that I would have to talk to her all the time. Like, I have a new appreciation for my mother-in-law and my mom when they're like, hey, we just kind of wanted to check in. Ella is so busy and living her life that she is hardly checking in with us, which is great. You don't want the reverse. You don't want her crying and calling every day and coming home. But I've had to, like,

check my emotions and go like, I need to give her a break and not make her feel guilty. And so we had a nice, honest conversation. And she was like, Mom, I'm really sorry. I get home and I'm busy and I just want to go to bed and my roommates in there. And so we had a great open conversation. but I was like, hey, what about once a week?

I heard an episode on the Holderness family that I'll link to in these show notes. But it was about all about this just transition and what we can expect as parents that are letting go of their kids and they're in college. And she said once a week. So I'm sticking to that. I'm like, hey, if you'll just call me. I mean, she texts me all the time, but like a check-in. Like, I need to know the scoop. I need to know some details. And it's just been a growing process for me to be like, are you really letting go? Are you making her feel terrible for living her life? So I will link to that. But today's episode, I'm super We've got Stacey Thacker here. And this is the first episode of a topic that we're doing with my virtual mentor.

And if you is the first episode of a topic

...