New Years typically means a few things - glitter dresses, champagne, locating the best party, and planning who you will be kissing when the clock strikes 12.....

One thing, the most important thing, is often over looked - who it is that you're spending the New Year with.

As the ball dropped last New Years Eve, and the year turned to 2014, I took for granted the people around me. I never thought that 2014 would bring death to one of them, and that this year there would be one less smiling face with us bringing in the New Year.

The holidays this year came slow without you. The neighborhood is lit up with festive lights, our trees have all been decorated, the cookies have all been baked - but it didn't feel like Christmas at all. When you left so suddenly you took a piece of all of us with you, a piece that we have not yet been able to recover from. I know Mom and Grandma missed you complaining about the coldness of the Christmas turkey and potatoes, or how too many bottles of wine were bought ( don't worry they didn't go to waste!). Although we decorated your grave with Christmas ornaments, it was clearly evident that our home lacked Christmas spirit this year.

I know that the countdown to the New Years will not come with the sounds of champagne bottles popping this year - but with tears, as we enter our first year without you.

I ask of you for one special request this year...please grant strength to those you have left behind. Please help guide them day by day to gain the strength they need to get out of bed each morning. The strength to make it through a day without crying. The strength to accept that you are in a better place now. I know your absence hinders their happiness. Please watch over them as the clock strikes midnight for I know this next year will be hard. And for you, I will be sure to open a beer knowing that you'll be doing the same in Heaven, so cheers to us until we meet again.

And for the rest, I ask of you to appreciate those around you, because you never know when your last year together may come....