Merry Christmas

Season’s greetings! May the spirit of the season bring you light and love! Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy Hannukah from our home to yours.

It’s been an incredibly difficult year for our family — the toughest we’ve yet to endure. But we’re stronger than ever and grateful for this Christmas and every day we get to experience together.

May you find and enjoy peace and stillness this season. The chance to reflect on all the wonders that abound, to find magic in the hidden — and often mundane — places, to share love and warmth with any and everyone who touches your heart.

To waste time in the most beautiful — and ironically most valuable — ways. In hot chocolates by fireplaces. In frozen toes circling skating rinks. Under fleece lined blankets for your favorite holiday films. In mistletoe kisses. In cookie-baking messes.

For our Christmas cards this year we visited a park near our home — one we’d never heard of until the photographer suggested in. Within the park is an enchanted forest.

It was whimsical and … perfect. The breeze pushed the tall, skinny trees into each other making beautiful music while late afternoon sunshine angled through the branches. It felt like being transported to another time and place.

Because we loved the pictures too much to pick one, I thought I’d share a selection with you all here! I hope you enjoy!

The love and support I and my family have felt from all of you keeping up with my story — close friends, distant family, people I’ve never met, and everyone in between — and holding us in your hearts has meant so much to us this year.

I wish for you the joy and zen it took cancer (and therapy) for me to attain. The peace in letting things go. In attaining the ultimate perspective.

I wish you whatever it is you need the season to be.

I know this year has been hard for many of you as well. There’s no ruler or measuring whose experience was harder or worse. Bad is bad. When things don’t go according to the plan, when we experience a loss, when we get bad news — it’s hard. I’ve seen so many people diminish their experiences when sharing with me by saying things like “I mean, it’s not cancer.” And no, in most cases it wasn’t cancer. But that doesn’t mean it was good. That it didn’t hurt. Didn’t suck.

So I hope the suck is fading. I hope you find your merry. And I hope you know I’ll be there for you, cheering you on from afar, just as you’ve been for me.

Merry Christmas.