Thankful and Sad and Bittersweet and Beauty

Solstice, Hannukah, Christmas, New Year's... Tis the season of warm fuzzies and chilled melancholy.

By Julie Feinstein Adams

My days are shorter, colder, crisper. The house is warm inside. I have a lump in my throat. The Internet responds with a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and a frosty glass of milk. The cookie is good, and the sadness remains.

Nothing I can write about the following posts will do them justice. Please just click the links and go read them yourself.

• Extraordinary beauty and pain: This post on Damomma.com unfurls the incredibly true story about a family of such great and simple beauty and love: a small plane crash, prayer, months of ongoing rehabilitation, life continuing.
• The sister of one of the crash survivors keeps a beautiful blog too.
• Whiskey in My Sippy Cup is usually depressed at Christmas, but not this year: I Already Have My Two Front Teeth.
• The comments section in this giveaway post will make you want to be a better person. Seriously.
• Sharon is an IRL friend who is pregnant and undergoing chemo for stage III breast cancer. She's angrier, wittier, more loving, and more unapologetic than that sentence could ever express: Things I've Learned From Cancer So Far.