Cranberry-Pistachio Rugelach

How do you deal with it when someone is gone from your life… someone who you weren’t expecting to have to say goodbye to any time soon?

No, no one has died, but a member of my family is now no longer a member of my family. It’s a little bit strange… here is someone I was certain to see at all major holidays, who, through good or bad, was part of my life. And now I will probably never see him again. I don’t necessarily feel sad, just a little bit pensive. It makes me wonder how many other people I will see for the last time without ever knowing it’s the last time. How many times will I say “See you later,” and have that “later” not exist at all?

It’s a hard thing to think about, and something that I’ve been pushing to the back of my mind for a few days, but then, as I was going through my photo archives, I found these pictures.

I found these Cranberry-Pistachio Rugelach at Alpine Berry and made them for Christmas. He loved them… he even ate all the rejects. I won’t say that we had a lot of memories together… that would be a lie. I will say that I will miss him, and I don’t know if I’ll ever make these cookies again without thinking of him.