For this week's blog post, I wanted to share something that is in the true spirit of the season.  After doing some holiday shopping recently, I heard shop owners and employees time and time again saying how business was booming.  With that in mind, my intent was to to write a blog about giving back in some way.  Then I remembered that the video my husband's band put together last year could very easily express the sentiment much more effectively than I could.  Instead of giving you a list of suggestions, I would ask you to watch the video and do what you feel compelled to do.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Sometimes the holidays make me a little jealous of people that have big families.  I hear about people visiting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and I can't help but get a little bit sad for my kids because they don't have that.  In fact, my kids never got a chance to meet my parents or grandparents, never mind spend any holidays with them.  I also wonder how I could ever possibly make up for the fact that they don't have those type of extended family relationships.

I realize that I have to let go and know that since there's no bringing back the dead, although I know they are here in spirit, I have to accept that that's just how things are.  It is when I let myself get out of alignment with that sort of acceptance, that I start to feel out of sorts.  I find the best way to get back into the flow, and the feeling of how great things ARE for us, is to not only focus on today, but also plan for how I can make the holidays extra special for us every year.

In not so many years, the kids will be grown and will extend our family even more.  There will come a day when we look back at how simple our holidays had been!  In the meantime, I choose to focus on what we DO have.  A very close knit family of 6 that has a lot going on during the holiday season.  We will have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, like we always do, that is focused on only the most important things in life:  family and our extended "chosen family" of friends.