I have been waiting for this day to hit because it does every single Christmas since 2015. That’s the year that my dad passed away. I remember that first year without him felt insurmountable. The pain was huge and I convinced myself that time would heal it and the next year we would all feel “normal” again. That first Christmas, the loss of him hung over my mom, my sister and myself like a black cloud, stealing part of our joy. How is Christmas ever the same when the first man you ever loved is no longer there to spend it with? The man who loved Christmas more than me (which is A LOT) wouldn’t be there with his smirk when Santa walked in on Christmas Eve and he wouldn’t be there to spend the

Our greatest opportunity as we approach the new year is to evaluate the negativity factor in our life. The negativity factor is all the things, people, and places that expose our precious mindset to negative thoughts, words, people, actions, attitudes, and influences. To evaluate those factors we need to take 2-3 hours, sit down, and you could do so on New Year’s day, and think through each day of the week and identify the negative tangibles and intangibles such as people, places, things, and the internet that give us a bad attitude and put us in a bad mood. As we formulate our list of before during and after work negativity, or if you are a student, just insert the word school for work,