Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la! It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

This is my favorite time of the year. I love getting together with family and friends (even if it looks a little different this year), shopping for and wrapping Christmas gifts, baking holiday goodies to share, listening to Christmas music, and watching Christmas movies. I love the joy people seem to genuinely feel this time of year, as we’re reminded of all the good we have in our lives.

This Christmas season has been exceptionally wonderful as I have an almost three-year-old son. Anyone with a child knows what a great age this is for Christmas. He is so happy, and so excited for Santa. To see his eyes light up when he looks at the Christmas tree, or checks out the twinkling lights hanging from houses as we drive around, makes my eyes well-up (I’m sentimental and emotional, it happens). He is so excited to unwrap and read a new Christmas book each night (a tradition we started last year), and he can’t stop talking about leaving cookies and milk for Santa. I’m glad that this seems to be the year he’ll start unwrapping his own gifts.

And right on the heels of Christmas is the New Year. A new year means a clean slate, a fresh calendar/planner, new beginnings. I personally love the “restart” the new year offers. I’m a big fan of resolutions and really took some time to think about what I wanted to achieve in 2021. Unfortunately, 2020 didn’t go exactly as planned, but you know make plans, God laughs. Luckily, the new year (and beyond) can be anything we want it to be. The truth is, we can all make our lives be whatever we want them to be, if we can only find the courage. I, for one, am choosing courage.

- Stephanie Kohl, Marketing

Best Christmas movies ever

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“Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.” - Zuzu Bailey, It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie of all time (the black and white version; not a fan of the digitally-restored one in color). It’s the one movie I looked forward to on cable every year (I was well into adulthood before it dawned on me to purchase the DVD), and as my dad’s favorite Christmas movie, too, we’d watch it together. It was our thing. The first year I didn’t live with my parents for Christmas, my dad called me to let me know what night it was slated for cable so I didn’t miss it.

As a kid, my parents made the nights Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, and Frosty the Snowman family movie nights. As a slightly older kid, we enjoyed The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2 (we never did get in to The Santa Clause 3). Home Alone was another family favorite.

As I got older, I found an appreciation for Miracle on 34th Street, and loved Love Actually (controversial opinion, I know). Christmas Vacation and Elf are great for the laughs, and A Charlie Brown Christmas is a mainstay.

Currently, I am loving the made for TV Christmas movies (think Lifetime & Hallmark). They are so cheesy and happy and just wonderful for the holiday season. They may all have (roughly) the same plot, but it’s a formula that works. At the end of the day, I just want to put my toddler to bed, make a mug of hot chocolate, and wrap Christmas gifts while a city girl returns to her small hometown and finds love during the holidays.

What about you? What are some of your favorite Christmas movies? What are you watching to get you in the spirit of the season?

- Stephanie Kohl, Marketing

With gratitude on Thanksgiving

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In the spirit of keeping it real - 2020 was an extremely difficult year. Looking at the bigger picture of things everyone experienced - there was COVID-19 (not just the illness, but also the guidelines and cancellations/closures that came along with it), rioting and looting in some areas, record unemployment, a shaky stock market, and it was an election year on top of all that. It was rough, but here we are nearing the end of the year and somehow we survived.

It is important to keep in mind that we do still have so much to be grateful for. For me, I am grateful for the health of my family. We had some scares in 2020, but we are all still here. I have a wonderful son who will turn three in a few months who constantly keeps me on my toes. And there is nothing better than hearing him say: “I love you mommy.” My family is always there for me, and have guided me through an extremely tough year. And I have a wonderful group of friends, some of which I have been friends with for 20 years, who made me laugh in 2020.

I feel grateful to work for a company that has managed to navigate this strange year so well, keeping our team safe and working. I was blessed with the ability to work from home during the statewide stay-at-home orders, and blessed to return to work once orders were lifted. And I am so grateful for those that couldn’t work from home and showed up every day to provide for not only their own family, but ensure that their teammates can provide for their families, too.

I’ve spent the second half of 2020 on a personal journey of discovering who I am again, and who I want to be. Turns out, it’s simple. I just want to be happy and I want my son to be happy. We are, and we will continue to make decisions that keep us that way.

What do you have to be grateful for this year?

- Stephanie Kohl, Marketing