I love the months of November through January. I was never a big fan of the cold; but it always seems a lot warmer when you’re surrounded with friends and family.

Getting those texts or phone calls from people out of town brings a certain sense of gratitude to me. How distance can only separate you so much from the people that truly matter. How the busy schedules of our daily life come to a halt when you get the opportunity to exchange laughter with these people again.

That’s the best part of the Holidays; spending them with people who matter. The ones that make you laugh and bring out the life in you. The ones that you can reminisce on shared memories with, the moments that so quickly passed us by that we wish we could’ve put in our pocket to experience again at a later date.

But they can’t, and this is the next best thing; to have a reminder of the memories, and to have the opportunity to create more. To remind the people who are still around us that we love them, that we value them. And to remember the ones that are not with us, and to live and laugh for them.

This Holiday Season, I hope you are able to find the warmth and comfort in the presence of the ones you love. I hope you are able to fill the heartache or emptiness you may feel with the laughter of the ones you can still hold, and the memories of the ones you’ve lost.

I hope that you are able to smile, to be happy, and give a piece of kindness to someone who may need it a little bit more. I hope you are able to see past the differences that separate us, and instead come together for the things we share.

I hope that you allow yourself to take the time to lend a helping hand, or to fill a stranger with the warmth of a smile. I hope that you spend time hearing the shared laughter between the people you love and I hope that you can hear the ones you miss laughing amongst them. And most of all, I hope you take the time to be happy this Holiday Season. To find the happiness in places you may not think it exists, and to create it where it lacks.