Dear Friends and Family,
This has been a truly remarkable year for Juliet and I. We sold our Italian travel company so that we could actually travel more often and I could focus on becoming a full-time writer.
We traveled to the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and spent the last 6 months in Colorado where I practiced my photography more than my writing and I have enjoyed it immensely.
This was our first year to not go to Italy in a very long time and we hope this will be the last time we have to make such a monumental sacrifice for us. We are also not at home at Christmas and we have personally assured one another this will be the last time barring an emergency we miss Christmas with our families.
Luckily for us our Italian family has joined us here and my mother, brother, step-dad and my brother's girlfriend all paid us visits here in Colorado.
I had hoped so much to be able to tell everyone today where we will be next, but alas we have not yet accepted a deal to our next destination. Clearly we are a bit disappointed but we are using this as a lesson to become more patient and accepting of each day as its own unique gift. It is good to be alive, we are fortunate to be Americans and with the means to travel, ruminate, and take stock at the amazing gifts we all have in this tiny blip of time we exist on this earth.
Juliet and I would never trade for another family, another life, or to be anyone we are not. The reason for this is love and nothing more. We are loved unconditionally by our families and we in turn feel like our decisions will best return the love we have been shown since infancy. I have gotten to know some much less fortunate people over the past few months who struggle everyday to love and be loved. Friends, this is the kind of depravity I cannot abide and I understand so much more clearly than I did in my youth just how important and really critical it is to simply have love in life.
I will leave the preaching to the professionals now and just know that I am who I am because of the love I get and the love I do my best to return.
Tonight I hope I have tinker toy dreams of my youth to see the faces and hear the voices of my dear grandparents who were so integral in the development of my compassion. I miss my family so deeply today and I cannot wait to see everyone so very soon.
Merry Christmas Blissful Adventurers!