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Celine Dion prepares for 'Bittersweet' first Christmas without husband

This time of year will be painful for all those facing Christmas without their loved ones.

Celine Dion has opened up about how she will spend the festive season without her late husband René Angélil, who died of cancer in January, and said she will return to a place where their family was happiest at this time of year.

René Angélil was a singer, music manager, and the husband of Céline Dion. He died of cancer on Jan. 14, just two days before his 74th birthday. (Photo: Getty Images)
René Angélil was a singer, music manager, and the husband of Céline Dion. He died of cancer on Jan. 14, just two days before his 74th birthday. (Photo: Getty Images)

The ‘Think Twice’ hitmaker will take their sons René-Charles, 15, and six-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy back to the ski slopes of Montana, where the family would spend every Christmas until René was too ill to travel last year.

Celine admits she feels closer to her husband when she goes skiing, adding: “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,” She told the New York Post newspaper’s Page Six column.

The iconic singer married her manager Rene Angélil in 1994 wearing a dramatic Mirella and Steve Gentile gown featuring long sleeves and a 20-foot train, topped off with a glittering seven-pound headpiece. [Photo: Getty/Ponopresse]
The iconic singer married her manager Rene Angélil in 1994 wearing a dramatic Mirella and Steve Gentile gown featuring long sleeves and a 20-foot train, topped off with a glittering seven-pound headpiece. [Photo: Getty/Ponopresse]

The family will be joined by a few friends on Christmas Day 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.

(Photo: Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/p/BMFC6XTA60b/?taken-by=celinedion
(Photo: Instagram)

“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.”

Highest-paid women in music in 2016
Celine Dion (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

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.”