It’s that time of the year when people obnoxiously overdecorate their houses, gorge themselves with holiday treats, and whine about Christmas music because it starts playing on the radio way too early. It’s also that time of the year when people reflect on what they are grateful for, are most often more considerate and thoughtful of the ones they love, and…uh…still gorge themselves on holiday treats. I count the gorging as both a positive and a negative, depending on how you look at it. (Mmmm, mom’s home made dressing.)

I figure this would be a good time to reflect on the things I am genuinely thankful for. Granted, I could blog about this any time I want, and should be grateful for things all year round, but like most people, these things hit more when it’s the holiday season.

One thing I think about more than anything else during this season is my family. I lost my Dad to a gruesome kind of way when I was 14, and he was the glue in my family. Up until his death we were pretty tight. These days my family is distant from each other for various reasons except for my mom, who I remain close to. Even though I miss my dad pretty much every day, and it’s easy for me to start feeling bitter about his loss, I am still grateful for having him in my life for the time I did. Loss of any kind is difficult, whether through means of death, break up, falling out, abandonment; it’s one of the hardest things to deal with. But there definitely came a time when I was done mourning the death of my father, and I instead started celebrating the fact that he inspired me so much, and I was proud to be his daughter, even if only for a short time. I feel when he was alive, I probably took him for granted and didn’t appreciate him enough until after his passing. That seems to be how it goes most of the time. I’ve always been grateful for having friendships and meaningful relationships in my life, but as time goes on we become complacent with people. We disregard phone calls, text messages, and emails, telling ourselves we’ll eventually get back to them, but most likely do not. I’m guilty of this very frequently. My best friend and I have become so comfortable, that we ignore each others messages through out the day, thinking this is acceptable because it’s no big deal, we will just see each other later. One of my friends was in a very serious car crash a couple weeks ago, and it was then that I realized we should never just become complacent with our friends. We should appreciate the fact that we have them, because even though we all know that anything could take us away at any given point of the day, it only really sticks when it becomes real, and you almost do lose someone. People are the most important thing in the world. Much more important than anything on the internet, more important than making videos, or tweeting about mundane bullshit you do throughout the day (which I am also very guilty of). Do not disregard your family members and friends simply because you can get back to them later.

No one can be a perfect friend, or a perfect daughter or son, but I do think it’s important to take a step back once in awhile, and think about the people you do have in your life. It is incredibly easy to forget about the important people and get swept up in yourself. We’re all pretty selfish when it comes down to it. So I’d like to take this moment to say I am grateful for my friends and family, despite whether we are close, or have separated in some way. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and I hope everyone gets a chance to stuff themselves with dressing almost as good as my moms. (But it won’t be as good, trust me. Hers is the best.)

Happy Holidays!