Greetings and happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza, and Merry Christmas.
The December issue, like always, is choc full of amazing gift ideas for your loved ones. Some of the most luxurious splurges available are on the pages of the extended Good Life section you’ve come to rely on, for all your last-minute gift-giving needs.
If you’re like me, this year will be different. These holidays won’t be any less special, but they will be less about presents and more about what’s important.
The Bellos were set to host our family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was the first time many of us could be together, all at the same time. We welcomed friends, who have become family, to our Christmas celebrations.
I had grand plans for everything to be perfect. Of new memories and traditions being made. Of hosting a celebration that could not be forgotten.
As my granddaughter grows in my daughter’s belly, and our first grandson experiences his first holiday season, family tradition is coursing through my veins. What will they carry on? How will BB and Abuelo be remembered? Will our holiday celebrations be something they want to mimic and carry forward?
And then “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” happened. Yes, I’m still calling them that. Giving them a name hurts my soul. Hurricanes Helene and Milton have done their best to quash my holiday spirit.
We’re no longer able to host our families. We no longer have a home in which to host, or the basic kitchen tools and appliances needed to do so. As I write this, mid-November, we still don’t know where the holidays will be celebrated for the Bellos and our cherished, and growing, families.
What I do know is this. They will be special, and memorable, because we will be together. They will be meaningful because, even when you’ve lost “everything,” what we haven’t lost is our lives, the memories living in our hearts, our resilience, our determination to keep fighting and our ferocious love for our loved ones.
What they can’t take from us is our resolve. A resolve much like you’ll read about in the legacy of the Oscar Horton story. Oscar shares that same veracity for doing the right thing, for family and for making sure what you leave behind is more than what you found when you got here, wherever “here” may be.
Every day I say I’m not going to cry, and every day I do. Today, I’m crying happy tears! On November 13th, at the Philanthropists of the Year celebration – the winners of which you’ll find online here – we did a thing. We realized we were going to have some of Tampa Bay’s most philanthropic, beautiful souls, all in one room. Where better to pivot and attempt to make a difference for our region and the nonprofits tirelessly serving the victims of the storms that ravaged us?
We decided to tap our resources and see what fabulous things we could find to raffle, in the hopes of raising money for the boots on the grounds organizations that have been so integral in Tampa Bay’s recovery. What happened was amazing! Two weeks prior, it was an awards celebration. But thanks to this amazing community and the people in it, we were able to raise $40,000 – 100% of which will be donated to Metropolitan Ministries, Feeding Tampa Bay, The Crisis Center and Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay.
While it might not sound like much, it felt monumental at the moment. It’s that time when you say to yourself and others, maybe this is the drop that will become the ripple.
Our great region will continue to shine, as I always say, it’s always darkest before dawn.
I hope you’ll remember what’s important as you gather around a table – an RV – a hotel lobby – or wherever you may end up spending your holidays, this year. It isn’t about the presents, it’s about the presence.