We'll Be Your Family
Coffee + Crumbs Podcast
Ashlee Gadd
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When it comes to hospitality, for author, yoga teacher, and C+C writer Melanie Dale, it's a family affair. Join Ashlee and Katie as they talk with Melanie about one of her essays in YIGC, "We'll Be Your Family on Christmas Eve," and get the scoop on her annual Christmas Eve party. From what her parents taught her to what she's passed on to her kids, Melanie shares her tips for leaving a legacy of hospitality. Find out which ingredient in her chili recipe is straight out of a horror movie, her worst dinner party ever (oof, the smell!), and how she pivoted from Christian nonfiction to middle grade paranormal fantasy with her new book, GIRL OF LORE!
This show is brought to you ad-free by our generous Substack community. If you'd like to support the work we do for as little as $3/month, head to coffeeandcrumbs.substack.com to join us (and get bonus episodes!). For show notes, go to coffeeandcrumbs.net/podcast.
Melanie Dale has written a handful of books; listen to this bonus episode to find out our Favorite Books of 2025.
For more encouragement in your motherhood journey, check out the stories at Coffee + Crumbs.
Show notes:
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Pre-order You're In Good Company
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Pre-order Girl of Lore by Melanie Dale
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Chelsea's bacon crackers (add red pepper flakes for a little heat!)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We believe motherhood is a gift, an art, not a science. |
| 0:07.2 | We believe it takes a village to raise our kids and that motherhood is better when we stick together. |
| 0:12.7 | Most of all, we believe motherhood is holy work. |
| 0:16.9 | At the core of our show, we want you to feel safe, known, encouraged, and loved. |
| 0:22.4 | This is the Coffee and Crumbs podcast. |
| 0:28.7 | Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Coffee and Crumbs podcast. |
| 0:33.4 | I'm here with Ashley. |
| 0:34.5 | Hi, Ash. |
| 0:35.3 | Hey, friends. |
| 0:36.7 | And the one and the only, Melanie Dale. Melanie, hi, friend. |
| 0:43.9 | Hi, aren't you guys glad there's just one of me? My gosh. I can imagine. There is nobody quite like Melanie. You've heard her before on the Coffee and Crumbs podcast, probably more than once. But we love Melanie for so many reasons, you guys. She is amazing. Let me read you her bio here so you can get to know a little bit more about her if Melanie Dale is new to you. But before embracing |
| 1:11.0 | her love of monsters and sneaking into the fictional world of Girl of Lore, which her first novels |
| 1:17.3 | out, April 21st, woo-hoo! Melanie Dale published a bunch of nonfiction books, shambled around |
| 1:24.3 | as a zombie on TV. This is, that's, that is true. is true. That's a fact, you guys. Yes. And she is also a |
| 1:32.1 | brave cancer survivor. She's written episodes for the anthology horror television series, |
| 1:37.5 | Creep show, and over a decade of essays for coffee and crumbs, which those two things are not like |
| 1:43.2 | each other. And while, she's won no awards for |
| 1:50.1 | literature, which she made me say that, you guys. One time she won a Halloween costume contest and |
| 1:55.5 | still feels pretty stoked about that. So, real quick, I actually have now won a second Halloween |
| 2:00.6 | costume contest since I |
| 2:02.0 | wrote that bio. Of course you have. First of all, are we going to get photos to put in the show |
| 2:06.6 | notes? That feels imperative to play up front because I for one definitely need to see a picture of that. |
... |
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