Okay, so I know we’re older now and we don’t get as excited about Santa coming down the chimney to deliver the present of our dreams. I mean we get clothes now, which is pretty cool, but we cannot deny that Christmas doesn’t have its same child-like appeal.

But here’s the thing, we so often forget that we should be grateful that we have the luxury for Christmas to lose its appeal. We should all be thankful for something so simple: our lives. I know you’ve heard it all before. I mean how many times has someone told you, “ You’re not starving, the kids in Africa are.” Which is true, most of us cannot even begin to fathom what hungry may even begin to feel like.

So we all do our part, volunteer at local soup kitchens once or twice a year and leave each time feeling like we have done our duty to the community. I’m not trying to discourage community service by any means, but my point is at the end of the day we all get to return to our own little realities, fantasy worlds so to speak.

However, some people don’t have that luxury. People in Aleppo and Syria don’t get to escape to their own little worlds, because they're reminded every day by the bombings and countless deaths of their dangerous reality.

But why should we care, right? We have our own problems here in the US. To each their own, as some may say.

Stop and take a moment to think, though. What if you lost a close family member during the holidays? Or already have? Imagine that pain, every last bit of it, and imagine that being part of your everyday life. Struck by loss, fear, and grief as soon as you wake up in the morning until you go you sleep, saying your dreams let you escape it.

Yes, they are not Americans, but they are people. They're somebody’s son, mother, sister, or husband. We may be two different cultures, but we all feel loss and pain the same. And for those in the Middle East, they feel the pain all too real.

With that being said, I encourage you all to hold your families a little closer during the holidays. Be grateful that you are able to get mad your parents for not getting you the iPhone 7, or that you’re able to lose your child-like wonder as your belief in Santa Claus fades.

Be grateful that you are not one of the many volunteer “white hats” in Syria, facing death every day by simply trying to save and help civilians who have been hit by the bombings. You do not have to wake up each and every day fearing for your families life, or attempt to dig your two-day-old baby out of the rubble before he suffocates.

We have an opportunity here in America to escape all the awful things happening in our country. For some places like Aleppo and Syria, reality comes knocking at their door every waking moment.

So hug whoever you are blessed to have this holiday season, because lucky for us, we know a bomb might not take their life the next day.