Good morning! Here are today’s temperatures:

⛅ 26 – 45° Logan | ⛅ 35 – 53° Salt Lake

⛅ 24 – 49° Manti | ⛅ 28 – 50° Moab

⛅ 29 – 56° Cedar City | ⛅ 36 – 61° St. George

It’s Christmas Eve, and for many, it’s normally a time to gather with your family. I personally will join about 30 of my aunts, uncles and cousins to eat as many rolls as I can and listen to the Luke 2 story. However, I have spent two Christmases away from home, and it was hard to be far from family during the holidays.

My colleague Mariya Manzhos knows this all too well: she has spent many Christmases far from her home in Ukraine, first as a student in Utah and now in Boston with her husband and children.

“For many, the holidays are about joy, abundance and togetherness,” she writes. “But for those separated from their family — or missing some of its members — the holiday season can make that void feel especially stark. I am still unsure how to make sense of the dissonance of celebrating the holidays in the U.S. while my family navigates the season in war-torn Ukraine. The void is accompanied by an unrelenting worry that has become the background to everyday life.”

Read more about how to navigate the holidays when your family is far away.

Also on our minds:

🗓️ Events Calendar

We put together a calendar list of events and activities going on around the state of Utah the next month. Check it out and let us know if we are missing anything!

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Thanks for reading!

— Ariel