Peace for the New Year

No signs of Christmas 2009 remain. Today Eric and I took down the tree and the decorations and we cleaned the living room. It's a bit of a relief, but as much drama and emotion that will forever surround our memories of Christmas 2009, things could have been worse. Far, far worse. We are very lucky.

As Eric said last night, nothing we went through even remotely compares to what our neighbors went through this Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we saw an ambulance at our neighbor's house. Alex and I stood outside for a long time watching. Hoping everything was ok. Alex is good friends with one of the boys that lives there. They play outside together almost every day. Running around, playing ball, having good old-fashioned outside fun. We didn't know the parents all that well. We haven't lived here that long, but I wish now that we had made more of an effort. That little boys father died on Christmas Eve. Christmas 2009 for him will forever be the year he lost his father. And that is such a very sad memory for him to have to bare.

I think we all need to focus more on the positive things in life. Let's all take this time to love our family and friends just a little bit more and just be happy and thankful for what we have. Here's to a much better 2010, for everyone.