Celine Dion on Her First Christmas Without Her Late Husband: "I Have to Stand Tall"

The holidays will be bittersweet for Celine Dion and her family as she approaches the one-year anniversary of her husband René Angélil's death. During an interview with Page Six, the singer opened up about how she is preparing for her first Christmas without her late husband. "I cannot just live on like, 'I lost my husband, my children have no father,'" she told the publication. "I have to stand tall and strong because this is my way of living: stand tall, be positive, pick your battles, do the best you can and to live for today, not for tomorrow, for today, and know nothing is perfect, not everything you want will happen."

After René passed away from a long battle with cancer in January, the singer has been very candid about how the devastating loss has affected her and their three children, but this season she is honoring his memory by upholding their family tradition of skiing in Montana. "He put something magic into that snow, into those mountains, and every time we go down, I go down with him," she said of their vacations at Big Sky. "My children go down thinking about him. Every time I take the lift to go up, I feel closer to him." She continued, "I feel thankful that he doesn't suffer and he doesn't have to worry because we got him. He got us and the spirit of the holidays will get us together again . . . We're going to ski again all together and he will be there with us."