Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner

It has been both a wonderful and difficult year for us. Some years stand out among our memories and others more than them all, save maybe one or two and it may well depend on how you are feeling or what your are thinking about at the time of reflection. Along the we way there are new loves and marriages and too the joy of birth and sadly to soon also death.

Candace lost her father in October after a long illness. This loss shows up everyday. She struggles with it, as does her whole family. I don't think loss is something you get over, more like it, it is something you learn to live with. But it is hard, I've seen this first hand and it is sad. But I also know her father wouldn't won't her sad, so I gently remind her of this, and once again hope that, if it helps her, I am grateful, as I know her father would be too.

Our daughter Amelia feels this loss too, we all do. Still, she goes back to her studies in Savannah starting the second week in January and we look forward to her continuing to grow into the beautiful person she has come to be. She is learning new skills in school and in her life.

We are a total of our experiences; both good and bad both happy and sad. These things shape us all and make us who we are and it is something we all will share in some way if given enough time. In the end it seems we are never given enough time, so we acknowledge our love of life and its loss.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope you and your families will spend some time together, this is a precious thing. Count your blessings and we will count ours too.