Celine Dion will honour her late husband by going skiing this Christmas.
The ‘Think Twice’ hitmaker and her late spouse René Angélil – who died of cancer in January – used to visit the slopes of Montana every festive season until he felt too ill last year, and so later this month, she and sons René-Charles, 15, and six-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy will be making the trip once more.
And Celine admits she feels closer to her husband when she goes skiing.
She said: "He put some something magic into that snow, into those mountains, and every time we go down, I go down with him.
"My children go down thinking about him. Every time I take the lift to go up, I feel closer to him."
The family will be joined by a few friends on Christmas Day (25.12.16) and will spend the day on the slopes, sitting by the fire and drinking hot chocolate.
She said: "For me the trip is not to party. It’s to try and mediate, find balance and be at peace with myself and my children and to eat, to play games, whether it’s Monopoly or the telephone game."
But the 48-year-old singer admits the approaching holiday is "bittersweet" and her one wish for Christmas is that time slows down because she is "not ready" for the anniversary of René’s passing.
She told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column: "I can’t believe it’s going to be a year that my husband passed.
"I don’t know when Santa Claus is coming, but if I had a wish to make this year, can you just tell him to take his time? I’m not ready! It’s kind of a bittersweet moment and at the same time we need to really make the holidays really happy.
"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."
Celine – whose brother Daniel also passed away earlier this year – said she and her family are taking things one day at a time in the wake of their tragic losses.
She said: "We are healing each day. My kids are doing really well and eventually you have to just move on. Yesterday is over, tomorrow is not here yet, so today is today."
Celine Dion prepares for Christmas without husband
