We all have our different ideas of what makes a good Christmas. Mine is having Aiden say, “This is the best Christmas ever,” and then giving me a big hug. I don’t know how it gets any better than that. I spent a good part of the day (and I mean “good”) going back and forth between Aiden and Kylie, putting new toys together and helping find tiny pieces of whatever project they were working on at the moment.

Whatever this holiday is supposed to be, how it turns out depends on what we put into it. When the family gets together, it’s not hard to feel the years melt away. That can be good and bad at the same time. The history we share is colored by the events of the year just ending, the people who have entered and left our lives since this time last year. Our lives are always being reinvented in one way or another, and this is a good time of year to figure out how we’ve changed, and how we propose to move on from here.

On the whole, the future looks brighter than the past. We mourn our losses, and we cherish the prospect of a new year to come, full of promise. The children give us hope, but we also find within ourselves and with each other ways to make our way through the world a better journey for everyone. The best wish we can have is that next year will be better, and next Christmas the best ever.