It’s hard to believe that 2012 has flown by and we are fully immersed in the various holidays of the season – Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. In the time we will take off for the holidays, we intend to focus on being present with our families and friends and giving thanks for the many blessings we experience all the time. This is even more poignant as we collectively grieve for the tremendous loss at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. With broken hearts, it can be difficult to want to celebrate or to see where the good can be found in the midst of such darkness. However, when we choose to focus on the beauty and light around us, we realize it is actually everywhere, bringing us comfort and peace. I encourage everybody to stay in God’s Light and remember what is most important in life: family, friends and health. This is a true gift.

Another gift that we are happy to give you is this holiday edition. We’ve culled some of our best authors, who have in turn gifted us with truly inspirational and moving stories of healing, redemption and joy.

Dr. Tian Dayton understands approaching the holidays with more dread than hopeful anticipation. She has also discovered the key to not just surviving until January, but actually enjoying yourself and creating new traditions based on the celebration of all that is good, no matter how small.

In the first of two spiritually based articles, Rev. Leo Booth shares his concept of what he has termed religious codependency and how it led to his personal spiritual awakening and forever changed the way he looks at God, himself and his recovery.

The View from the Hill looks somewhat uncertain these days, as Andrew Kessler explains in his informative and thought-provoking column. His article is a good reminder to be watchful and vigilant in protecting those things most precious to us.

The craziness of the holiday season often leaves us grumpy and burned out rather than energized. A simple and effective remedy is Sheri Laine’s present to you, upon which she elaborates in her joyful living tips that can carry you well beyond the Yuletide season.

Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries can be particularly difficult during the holidays, when every friend and family member is vying for your time. This makes it all the more important to hone those boundary skills to ensure you’ll come through the season sober and happy. Larry Smith breaks down a simple and effective method way for doing so.

Robert Brickman’s personal journey through addiction and into recovery is both remarkable and inspirational. It is through these very personal accounts that we can see ourselves reflected and be reminded that we’re not all that different from each other, in both our struggles and our celebrations, evoking compassion and grace for our fellow man (and woman).

New RecoveryView.com author, Kim Trent, shares her redemption story with us as well. Her heartbreak and period of personal testing and refinement shows that even in the most devastating of beginnings, beauty can emerge.

Meredith Watkins, our RecoveryView.com editor and frequent contributor, presents a view of the original Christmas story that is infused with life-affirming – and potentially life-transforming – identity for each of us. You may never look at a nativity scene the same again.

Allen Berger leads off our December Book Club with his book, 12 Smart Things to do When the Booze and Drugs are Gone – a great resource, particularly in the season when good cheer and happy spirits are routinely synonymous with alcohol.

Judge Jim Gray’s book A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems, provides a different perspective (that from behind the bench) on many of the important issues facing our country today.

We hope you will feel blessed and encouraged by our Holiday Edition. To you and your families, we send our most heartfelt and gratitude-filled wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season.