In this holiday time, even though we have had a trying year, we look forward to ending this calendar cycle with celebration. But what do these celebrations look like and what new traditions might they aspire?

I would like to begin by saying that you should celebrate yourself. Yup. Plain and simple…take time to cherish your achievements and do something that makes you happy. Perhaps treat yourself to something, eat your favorite food with abandon, stay in your PJ’s all day, open a bottle of bubbly, if that doesn’t count as a party, I don’t know what does.

In these moments of self-celebration, take time to be grateful for the life-force, your God, whatever you believe in that makes you realize there is so much more to the world than what we see. Be grateful and celebrate your faith and hope.

Celebrate those around you next. However, do so with joy and not obligation. For if there is something this year has taught us, is to live every day as if it were our last. And, even though we all have things we must do, celebrating is something that we choose to do.

Celebrate simply, celebrate deliberately, celebrate by creating moments that will linger in your heart, and in other’s hearts, as fond memories for time everlasting.