Christmasness.

This Christmas I was determined to celebrate.  Celebrate being alive.  Celebrate all that I have been given.

2010 was the hardest year of my life thus far.  I'm not going to give you a long, pathos-filled post about why, but it was.  So I look now at this season, and I realize, I have SO much to celebrate.  My body, though not perfect and still getting me down, is healing.  I'm madly in love with someone wonderful who loves me back.  I believe in a God who continues to provide for me and speak to me in exactly the right moments and ways.  I have perceptive, caring, and fun friends of all ages.  I have a family who puts up with me in the crappiest of times and has been there for my every need.

I am SO incredibly blessed.  [I'm sorry if this is going to sound cliche, but trust me that I have learned for myself.]  I decided that this Christmas, no matter what is going on around you, the spirit of the season really is inside of you.  Christmas is the decision to give.  To love.  To rejoice.  To persevere.

Merry Christmas.  <3