Yet again… I fell off the blogging train for a while. To be honest, it was completely intentional. I haven’t been able to bring myself to blog about business, or life in general because I haven’t had any clue what to say lately… but fear not, I finally found my words around 4am this morning, and decided that I would finally blog again.

2019 was a year of ups and downs. I had the greatest and most challenging day of my life when I gave birth to my daughter on April 1st. Becoming a Mother has been the most amazing experience of my life. It has not been without it’s challenges, as parenthood is obviously not easy… but it has been more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. In just under 9 months, she has changed so much! She has the sweetest, sassiest, most wonderful personality… and I love every minute I have with her. She is my dream come true.

What has had me tied up and unable to know what to say recently, has been the most difficult part of this year… the passing of my Uncle JR. My family is used to long goodbyes. My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s for 15 years before she died, my Aunt suffered from Dementia for 5 years before she died, and my Grandfather took his sweet time too… he died just before turning 93, lived a good LONG life, and sadly, suffered for a long time before leaving us. My uncle was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and died only two months later on December 8th. Hearing of his diagnosis was a kick in the teeth… having to say Goodbye to someone who was still coherent, and knew I was there, was really painful and vastly different from my experiences of loss. I wrote him a letter and read it to him. And though it was difficult, I am thankful that I was able to tell him what he meant to me before it was too late.

So it’s been hard to get my head in to my  business these last several weeks. I’ve been handling what has needed to be handled, but I haven’t been posting much because it just hasn’t felt right… and I’ve been consumed with family affairs as you can imagine. However, as this year comes to a close I felt like I needed to post a year end blog, but couldn’t do so without addressing the craziness that has been 2019. With this loss, and with every loss my family has faced, we always ban together… we always show up for one another, we hold onto each other, we grieve together, and we heal together. I am blessed beyond measure to have such a strong family. I have been reminded yet again, how important it is to document them, and decided to do so on my favorite day of the year. Christmas Eve.

We were missing a few cousins this year who were working, out of town, etc… we missed them, but we did our usual… we laughed, we ate, we drank, we laughed some more… and we laughed and drank and laughed and drank some more. These photos aren’t perfect, the lighting wasn’t staged – it was on camera flash, just capturing the moments I could in all of their perfect imperfections.

Cheers to the end of 2019… Cheers to healing, and progress for 2020 for the Garofalo’s, and to health, happiness, and even more love and laughter for all of us and all of you in 2020!

Family. Is. Everything.

Happy end of 2019 everyone! I wish you all the best for 2020.