Céline prepares for first Christmas sans husband

Singer Céline Dion is preparing for her first Christmas without her husband René Angélil, who died earlier this year.

“I cannot just live on like, ‘I lost my husband, my children have no father’,” she told pagesix.com.

“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.”

Dion met music manager Angélil when she was just 12 years old. After launching her into stardom and working together for years, their relationship turned romantic in 1987. They got married in 1994.

Dion feels Angélil will be watching over this Christmas as she and their children, René-Charles and twins Nelson and Eddy, go skiing in Montana, as was the family tradition until Angélil felt too ill to travel.