Dear Cousins: I decided to write about new traditions. I am very excited about beginning new traditions this very Christmas. You see, I was divorced eleven years ago, and I spent many a lonely Christmas wishing I had someone to spend the holidays with. Of course, I had my son, and my parents and siblings, but I was lonely and the holidays always seemed to make that worse. I would be horribly depressed, closing the drapes, turning otu the lights, sitting in the dark. But a couple of years ago at a business convention, I met a wonderful man from Atlanta, GA. He was worth the long wait. :) We were married this past February and this will be our first Christmas together as husband and wife. He has two daughters from his first marriage (18 and 13) and I have my son (14). Last year I picked up my entire life in Arkansas and moved to Atlanta to be with him. This Christmas, he and I went to one of those Christmas tree lots and bought the first real live tree I've decorated since I was 14. I've bought presents for my two new stepdaughters (and of course my son). I have a whole new set of in-laws that I've come to love very much and shopping for them was a new treat, too. We're planning a special dinner tomorrow night for our new family (divorced and blended families have to juggle which days to celebrate, but that's okay, too) and we will open our presents. Saturday, we will go to a Christmas brunch with some of my husbands oldest and my newest friends. Sunday, we are going to visit some older relatives of my husbands. Monday, he is taking me to see The Nutcracker, and Tuesday we're taking the kids to see A Christmas Carol. Christmas Eve will be spent with my new in-laws and friends who drop in on them every year. And Christmas day we will leave for Arkansas to see my family. Although I've had wonderful Christmases with family and loved ones, I've never had a Christmas like this, this full and warm and wonderful, to share with someone I love so much. This is just my first Christmas in a whole new life of new traditions and I am so grateful for it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Rita Davis