ChristmasCard

Sztanyo Christmas Greeting 2015!

May this Christmas season be your family's

most meaningful ever! From our family to yours have a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Family & Friends,

Today I have some time alone, on Thanksgiving Day in a distant hotel room, to reflect. Sometimes this kind of solitude is good for a soul. Of course I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving for all there is to be thankful about. But thinking ahead, the holiest most blessed time of the year approaches……….the Advent season and Christmas Day! If you read and see nothing else in this letter, I hope you see this……..from Barb and I we wish you and yours the most blessed and merriest of Christmas and New Year celebrations!

Allow me to share a thought that has been floating through my mind lately. What do you need to live? No, I mean really survive? Just what is it, when down to the nitty gritty, that you actually can’t live without and really need? If you take a moment to ponder this question, you may get into a survivalists mindset and think about….. air…. food…. water and shelter. Unless you are like me and watch survival shows on tv, we don’t collectively often think about these basic needs. Some would argue our culture and times have created a few more “needs” like a microwave and a cellphone. I say that tongue-in-cheek but try clawing a cellphone away from someone today and you would think you are cutting off their air.

If you thought of the big 4 then you win the prize and got it right, save one little thing that you didn’t think about. There is one more thing we need to live. In fact without it we won’t last long. It isn’t something we wear, eat or breathe. But it is something that fulfils and warms us. What is it? LOVE! We need to love and be loved. We are wired that way. We need it to live and we need it to die. Love will pull us through.

2015 has been a watermark year because our family lost our patriarch Emil “Stan” Sztanyo on Sept 24th. Now a few more thoughts about the theme above. I have always known that we need love to live. I was taught anew that we also need love to die. In my dad’s lowest moments this September, withering away, a Brook staffer pulled me aside and told me something that I was completely oblivious about. She told me my dad was waiting to pass until I did something. But what could that be? She said he was waiting for me to let him know that it will be “ok.” Reassuring him of our love for God, for him and mom and that letting go and crossing over would all be ok. Wow! A final release! After I did that, the siblings and some grandkids all expressed their similar sentiments to a weak but cognizant Emil. A brief 8 hours later after this family’s wrapped in love release, Emil climbed aboard that heaven express and his earthly body died.

We live in a time and in a world where it and people are spinning out of control. People numb themselves from reality, people are hating and killing others or killing themselves all because they do not have love. Its’ as important as air! This Christmas season realize that the greatest love of all, which comes from above, happened when Christ our Lord came to earth. Love your family and allow them to love you. Love your friends and allow them to love you. Even share expressions of love with strangers. You’ll be better. Your family will be better. And the world will be better.

We are all wired that way!

Merry Christmas from Florence!

From the Kentucky Sztanyo’s

"Heaven came down and glory fills my soul"

Until next year!

2 Sons Family's Nov 2015 - L to R - Brian & Bridgett with Bailey & Sawyer in front. Mark with Corin & Barb with Emil in front. Witni with Rafe & Eric (see below for Mike & Heather's family)