Merry Christmas. darling.

This year has been challenging for our family as we discovered my grandmother (aka Mimi) might not make it through Christmas. Mimi has stage 4 bone marrow cancer and has been a warrior throughout this trying time. She has and always will be a warrior in my eyes - and she is the reason I am writing this blog tonight. 

First, let me share a few things about our Christmas this year, the whole clan decided to celebrate Christmas early - so we packed up all of our gifts and all of the food and we headed to Mimi's house. We had our usual lasagna and salad, which we all love. However, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, the mood was very different.  It didn't feel like a "normal" Christmas to me and I could see it didn't feel normal for anyone else. We all wanted our pictures taken with Mimi and we all wanted to talk and cherish every moment with her, because holidays for us have always been about family. Yeah, we could get awesome gifts and eat amazing food - but it was always about the laughs we shared and the memories we were creating. This year was obviously different, we were trying to act cheery and excited for Christmas, but it was visibly hard for most of us. Until, "Santa" came! Let me explain, we have a three year old who is in that stage of,  "oh my gosh, it's SANTA!" (insert Will Ferrell clip from Elf),  and right when she opened the door and she saw Santa, our whole night changed. The room filled with laughter and cheer when she realized it was indeed Santa, and he had driven his sleigh all the way to Oklahoma to visit our family. 

In that moment, we remembered that Christmas was all about making new memories, creating new traditions for our family. Christmas is such an amazing holiday, and while most kids would say it's because of Santa and all the gifts - as we get older we realize it's truly about family. Family is something that no one can replace, and something that should always be cherished. This Christmas our family was put back into perspective, and reminded me what this holiday is all about. I'm forever thankful for spending this Christmas with family, and the people I love. Remember to always cherish the most important thing in life, which is your family; the people who love you, and the people you love. 

Here are a few pictures from this night: 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night,

G.

I'm dreaming of a TEAL Christmas

It's that time of the year again - my FAVORITE time of the year -  and it's not because of the gifts or shopping!  (okay, you caught me, maybe it has a little something to do with the shopping!) However, it's actually the giving of gifts this time of year that I love. I love the idea of sharing something personal with someone, or creating a new tradition with someone special. 

The month of December snuck up on me and it's such a sad thing because I love this season and this holiday, but like you, I’ve been busy.   Focusing on my senior paper and finals can be a stressful time, but to top it off I’ve also had a trip to NYC to plan and graduate school applications to finish.  Today was the first day I realized it's Christmas time, and in this realization I started figuring out that I haven't hung up the lights with my dad, I haven't set up our tree and I haven't baked, not once. So this holiday season I've decided to make a short bucket-list, this will make my December extra special - and I want to challenge each of you to create a bucket-list too!

1. Find something on Pinterest, and follow through with it. If it's a recipe, which I know some people like trying new casseroles, or a new Elf on the Shelf idea, *please look at this website for some ideas as well Elf on the Shelf ideas. TRY SOMETHING NEW.  Personally, I'll be finding an awesome craft project and succeeding in that. 

2. Pay it forward. Do something for someone else, and don't let them know. For example, buy Starbucks for the person behind you, or purchase someone’s gas.  Just do something to make an impact on someone else's life because the smallest things in life that mean the most. 

3. Try to do an unusual gift. Instead of buying something materialistic, buy something meaningful.
    For example :
Give a donation in someones name to a charity @ www.justgive.org as a gift. It's an awesome contribution to an incredible organization and you would be making a difference. 

4. Create a new tradition. Whether it's like watching a new movie on Christmas Eve, such as Home Alone or Elf. *two of my favorites*. Or, you can always try to bake/cook something new with your family. Just create a new tradition. 

On a fun note, my families tradition is throwing our ornaments on our tree. Obviously, because we are a baseball family.  It's something we've done since I was little and it's such fun tradition. 

5. Take family pictures and cherish them. It's such a wonderful gift to have photos of your family taken. 


My new tradition for this year is to decorate the tree in my room teal, which represents my cancer ribbon color. I've been dreaming of a teal christmas for the past couple of years and I finally did it.  It's a constant reminder of my ultimate gift, the ultimate gift that taught me strength, endurance and hope. In a broken world, I too lose sight of hope, however when I look at my tree it reminds me of how far I've come to be the person I am today. I plan to share hope and inspiration with my family, friends and community by sharing my story and my teal tree this holiday season. 

So this holiday season, take it in and don't lose hope of what this season is all about. 

Until next time,

-G