Hi friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones and felt the warmth of the season in some way this week.

I took a little break from blogging this week to not only spend time with friends and family, but also to have a little time for myself.

In the absence of blogging, I’ve done a lot of blog reading.  And by nature of the holiday week, a lot of the posts I’ve read have been holiday recap posts.  Lots of “this is what I ate,” “these are the amazing people I spent the day with,” and “these are all the awesome gifts I got.”  Truthfully, they all started to look the same after a while.  I started wondering to myself, “Do any of these people have stressful holidays?  Are all these families perfect, with no drama whatsoever?”  It kind of annoys me, because although I have had many awesome holidays over the years, I have also had my share of some crappy ones too.  Like really bad.

I understand that not many want to share private family, relationship, or friendship issues via this public space on the world-wide web, and neither do I.  However, I do want to use this opportunity to say that if you unfortunately were going through a tough time this season, I feel for you and hope that whatever you are going through can fade and get easier by the next.

I can’t help but think to all the families of the Sandy Hook victims whose lives were ripped apart just a few weeks ago.  I think it’s pretty safe to say they probably don’t care to read about all the presents us bloggers got this year and how *perfect* that peppermint bark turned out.  Think about some of the unimaginable grief some people are going through.  Maybe it’s a divorce.  Losing someone to cancer or suicide.  A house robbery or car accident.  Maybe you live in a home where someone is suffering from alcoholism, mental illness, a drug problem, or something that prevents you from having a “normal” holiday “like everybody else.”  I think you would agree that if you were going through any of these situations, it might be hard to feel cheerful and joyous on Christmas Day.

I had no intention of writing everything I just did when I sat down to blog today.  I didn’t write to be a Debbie Downer or drag you guys down; however I do think it is extremely important to remind ourselves of those who don’t have it as easy as we might.

Sometimes you just never know what someone might be going through.

That being said, I am extremely thankful for one of the best Christmas Days I’ve had in years.  And it was one of the best not because of some of the really thoughtful gifts people gave me, but because the day just went smoothly and I didn’t feel anxious.  I think I will still recap all my holiday events over the next few days like everyone else, because I do want to remember them this year, but I am glad I wrote this post before doing so.