It’s the most wonderful time of the year? This holiday season was a glimmer of hope all of us were looking forward too, even more so than previous years. We were watching Christmas movies before Halloween, and we were gearing up for the year to end on a happy, light and familiar note.

The optimism this year has been strong while also fading fast — and I was hoping the optimism during this holiday season would come back strong, but I can’t say that it is. The pressures of family, the expectations, the let downs from family and the overall crave for a little bit of normal from all of us — is different depending on who you ask. This whole year we have all scarified a lot, whether it’s been emotionally, physically, financially, mentally — but that some how gets forgotten with those expectations and pressures. No one can win this year, and no one has.

With all of that, the picture above of B and I was from one of those strong moments of optimism, of hope, of happiness and a tiny bit of forgetting. We were trying to snap a selfie, surrounded in the snow in Jackson Hole, Wyoming — and it was so bright! Neither of us had sunglasses, and we laughed as we struggled to keep our eyes open, and just embraced the moment, which became a series of shots, that we used for our Christmas cards this year. That is a feeling, I’m going to try and hold on to as we get through the rest of this year and these next few days.

So without being too much of a downer, I hope for a few moments, hours or even a few days — we can hold on to a moment we’ve had this year of happiness, hope, and pure optimism. And that we can embrace whatever kind of things we’re faced with this holiday season, even if we don’t like it 😬 (& yes, that may or may not be specifically for me).

Merry Christmas from B, Moz & I!