I want to share with you how happy I am tonight. For the first time in a long time, I am full-to-bursting with happiness. Tonight, I get to be myself. We are celebrating Yule as a family, for the first time ever. It has been a long road in the past year. We have moved houses, from my mother's house into our rental house - the first house I've lived in that has been in my name. My husband and I have been together for ten years now, married for a year and a half. My oldest son has moved out and is working and lives with a roommate and has a girlfriend that he is bringing home for Yule dinner. My younger son has a girlfriend and is a junior in high school - can you believe he's fixing to start applying for colleges? My daughter, the light of our house, is the very embodiment of the holiday spirit - she has been the one responsible for cooking today - though, I heated up the ham! - and she has done all the decorating this season. We have a little potted live tree that we plan to use for the next five-to-seven years. Our house, our life, is not perfect, but it's ours. I am so blessed behind/beyond measure.

I hope there's a happy Yule/Christmas/holiday season for you. I wish you all the happinesses in the world.