All is Merry and Bright.. Right?

If anyone knows me well they know how much my family and friends mean to me. So experiencing a holiday season without them was tough. Like really tough. During the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas I was most homesick I have been while being out here. The food was wrong, the weather was wrong, the company was wrong. But you know that little "silver lining" saying? Even though I wasn't able to have a warm family filled holiday season, I was able to grow closer to the people around me, and I was able to grow closer to Jesus in my faith. Stepping away from the commercialized Christmas season we see in America really forced me to create my own Christmas feeling. It was much more intimate and God focused. Which at the time seemed lonely, but looking back a month later I see the beauty of what I went through. It was hard, but life changing, well at least I can say 'perspective changing'. Needless to say there is no way I would have been able to make through with my friends here in Thailand, and my faith.