Merry Christmas to YOU!

Merry Christmas to you, my readers!  I’m listening to Christmas carols, sipping a (Timmie’s) coffee and eating the (pre-bought cookie dough) shortbread cookies I made last night and reflecting back on 2013 on the blog and the year ahead!  Of course, that means sharing my holiday big-heart-full-of-gratitude with all of you!

This year we are spending Christmas without our extended family, as my husband has to work through the holidays (we’ve been blessed to have a few Christmases with family so we’re taking our dutiful turn this year).  I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t depressing knowing we’re alone and not with family but we’re making the absolute best of it (and perhaps overcompensating some with the gifts for the kids…oh well.)

Christmas always makes us reflect and share our gratitude for what we do have rather than concentrate on what we don’t, so that’s what I’m doing this week.  2013 showed me the courage of the Allan Blair Cancer Centre staff and patients when I accompanied my dad for a chemo treatment (I wish I could say I was stoic but I broke down in tears after walking out the doors).  He’s been fighting for 3 years since an 8-way (yes 8!) heart bypass surgery and I am grateful for these years even though we’re apart more often than I’d like.  2013 also brought in my sister’s thyroid cancer diagnosis which she’s continuing to fight (so far, so good – thyroid and cancer removed in it’s entirety!)

Our little family has been blessed with health and happiness this year and it does not go by unnoticed when we’ve witnessed the struggles of those around us.  I’m so thankful that this little blog I started in 2008 has turned into the opportunity for me to continue to stay home with my kids and build a business that I would never have thought was possible.  You make that possible with your continued readership and engagement.  I appreciate your emails, Facebook posts and tweets and know that you are what makes my job possible!  Thank you for ushering away the crickets and ensuring there’s always chatter over here on Feisty Frugal & Fabulous.

I hope that over the years you’ve had the opportunity to get to know me and my family by me putting myself in front of the camera, sharing my feisty opinions and opening my family life to you.  I will continue to bring the feisty but at the core always being the frugal and let’s face it, the fabulous comes naturally. 😉

Merry Christmas to you.  Thank you for reading.

~ Tenille