You don’t need me to tell you that this year didn’t go as expected. Although I had a delicious and enjoyable Thanksgiving Day dinner with my immediate family, it was disappointing not to spend the day in the way I typically do with extended family members. As we approach Christmas, most of our usual gatherings and group celebrations are being put on pause while we’re already fatigued with months of significant life disruption.

It seems natural to respond to this disappointment with sadness and lament. You certainly have my permission to mourn the loss you might be experiencing this holiday season, but disruption doesn’t need to be all sorrow and sadness.

I’m reminded of a positive disruption during my childhood. For more than a decade, our family vacationed with another family at a scenic lakeside campground in Virginia. After many years of this well-established tradition, the campground was sold to a new owner who decided to change the property to a private timeshare model. That change forced our family to find another vacation location.

It certainly was sad to leave our long-standing vacation spot, but we eventually established a new family vacation tradition at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. It’s hard to say, but if we’d never been forced to find a new vacation spot, we probably would have missed out on all the fond memories of vacationing at the beach.

After you finish mourning what you’ll miss during this unusual holiday season, I encourage you to look for the positive aspects that you might take away from the experience. Perhaps you can even find a thing or two that you can build into your future holiday traditions. Who knows, maybe one of those will become a cherished tradition for years to come.

Please share with us the positive new experiences you might enjoy this holiday season.