If you need someone to wish you a Merry Christmas

Years ago I began this annual Christmas letter with just a piece of paper and a pen, a 23-year old college graduate now but a 12-year-old little girl back then.

And much has changed and happened, for I have outgrown that little girl, I’ve seen and done and loved and learned, I’ve stepped more into the world.

My first letter was in the early 2000’s, a time before reality TV shows and crazy fast internet connection, a time before GPS and the much loved Iphone invention.

When I wrote my first Christmas letter, I was struggling in math with long division, now as I write this, I am juggling how to fulfill my dreams I envision.

And we are all at different parts in our lives now, not just from each other, but from ourselves, because we all grow up eventually, we never stay twelve.

But wherever you are in your life, I ask you now to embrace that place and be thankful for wherever that may be, whether it is becoming a first time parent, retiring or finally earning that college degree.

Embrace your place and love your life, and be thankful for each day when you lay down each night.

And recognize that just as much as we have changed, certain parts of us will remain unchanged, because a decade may change technology but a heart can never change.

I hope throughout the years my Christmas letters have found way into your heart and maybe even one has even left you smitten, because not one that you have received was not thought of you all when it was written.

This letter I decided against my usual theme, I decided against my annual Christmas advice, I don’t need to tell anyone how to spend their Christmas, it’s their way and that makes it right.

Christmas is not about trying to be something or trying not to be, it has never been about Santa or gifts under the tree.

Christmas is about this letter, about us, about the people we love and hold dear, so I will not tell you how to spend your Christmas this year.

Instead I just extend my love to you all, and I scream it and I shout, Because after all, that is all Christmas is about.

Telling people you love them, showing them how much you care, spending time with your loved ones and being happy you are there.

We never needed snow or giant Christmas trees, and I know you all know that that has never mattered, the only things we have ever needed are each other, love and laughter.

When I was 12 years old my mom suggested I write a Christmas letter and over a decade has passed and it has not failed, right before the holidays you get my letter in the mail.

For years I have written in these letters that presents are not important, but some are, and here it is. If I have given any of you joy, love, or laughter throughout the years, then this present is important to give.

And as much as I wanted to stray away from advice, I have one little thing to note, writing these letters these past years to you all was the best thing I ever wrote.

So however YOU can express your love this Christmas do it, maybe even start your own letter, because when you give your best it always is your better.

I now pass you the pen and the paper, and I encourage you all to find what is inside you and may that be your gift, because Christmas is about what you give and that’s all it ever is.

Times have changed and we each have grown and I am not that little girl I once was, but no passing of time could ever change each letter I sent with love.

So if you toss these aside, or if you keep them in your Christmas card box to save, please know giving you all love throughout these years was the best gift I ever gave.

Christmas is about touching lives, loving people and helping others by offering the love you have in yourself, so I choose to wish the same meaningful Merry Christmas, the same one since I was 12.

If you lost someone you loved...

I am not going to stand up here and say what a great man my grandpa was, for we already know his greatness because he shared it with each of us.

A man of his caliber cannot be given justice in words, and neither can words give justice to the pain in our heart that hurts.

Now to me he was grandpa but to you he may have been something different, but to each its’ own, we all simply will miss him.

And although sadness is unavoidable, we must find happiness in the time, the time we had with him so celebration we can find.

And we have much to celebrate, so let us start his celebration of life, because even though he is absent in body, his soul is alive.

And it is alive in each of us, it is embedded in the stories he told us that we will go on to tell, embedded in the memories we have of him that we have come to know so well.

He lives on through the lives of us, the people here today, so even though he is absent in body, he in our hearts will stay.

And we should all be rest assured that he is now in the company of the divine, telling God the same stories we wish we could hear just one more time.

As people we often overlook the little things, the moments that at the time seem so small, but when we no longer have the luxury of reliving them, we realize how much they mattered after all.

As this is a celebration of life, may those moments be thought of now and embraced, and may they like my grandpa, never be replaced.

As we continue on, we take him with us wherever we are, because absence is irrelevant when it comes to what is in our heart.

We did not lose a person, we simply gained an angel and that is worth celebration, and he would want us to remember him with love and elation.

So wherever we go, we take him with, and every memory we will miss.

As our guardian angel, we embrace his new life up above, and we gathered here today to tell him how much he is loved.

For 88 years my grandpa lived in body but through soul he never dies, living on in his loved ones like my dad who has his eyes.

We cannot be angry with God because he needed him in heaven for reasons of his own, and grandpa is resting in peace, he has finally been called home.

May we not dismiss our grief, but not let it overshadow the luck we had, to be graced with a presence we will miss so very bad.

In the end, he will never be forgotten as long as we remember, and so we celebrate his life in us forever.

Our new angel, look over us, and live inside our heart, so even when we miss you, it’s not because we are apart.