Happy New Years
Hey Friends —
Happy almost New Year’s from our home to yours!
Can I just tell you—I love New Years Eve!
For many years, our family got together with two other families—the Brown’s & the Morton’s—and we loved it!
Sally Brown, me, Jill Morton
But then Jill and her family moved to Minnesota. Big tears. 🙁
This year we are trying a new “family-friendly” tradition. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes ~ but I’m REALLY looking forward to it, and I’ll probably be wearing these Celebration glasses.
I’m also looking forward to New Years Day when we can celebrate with our special New Years Day family tradition.
I’ll bring out markers and paper, and then each family member draws two pictures.
The first picture is a note reflecting on things for which we want to say “Thank You” to God.
For example, here is my picture from 2002—
That year, I was thankful for John, my two boys (the girls weren’t born yet), Harbor Clubs (a ministry at my church), the opportunity to serve in Africa, and growing as a disciple of Jesus.
Here’s a fun example from my son Jake (shared with his permission).
Jake is now 17, but here’s his Thank You for 2002…. 🙂
For our New Years Day tradition, after we share our “Thank You” page, we take a new piece of paper. On this paper, we write out/draw specific prayer requests for the coming year.
It is always so fun to see what the kids come up. It’s also a blessing for me and John to put our requests on paper, and then watch how God works over the year.
When I pulled out John’s paper (I keep them all in a special New Years tub) — I gasped out loud.
God answered every single item on his list. And they were big prayers!
For my New Years Day prayers last year, it included prayers for my Red Hot Bible study. My exact words, “retreat, book, ministry, open huge doors, ministry opportunities, spread Truth around the world.”
I cannot wait to share with you how God is answering these prayers. Want a hint? I’ll be flying this March to film my Bible study on location in a different country. ONLY GOD!
So that’s our family’s favorite New Years Day tradition! What about for you? Do you have a special New Years tradition? Share with us please!! I’d love to hear from you!
Happy New Year, sweet friend! May this new year be filled with much joy, peace, health, and God’s richest blessings!
Those are all great traditions! We have a low key NY Eve at home with board games, movies and the kids favorite snacks {each child gets to pick one favorite homemade snack food}. Sometimes we have friends join us, sometimes not. This year, we will have two families with us and we are super excited about that {although we may be a little pressed for space}. My hubby and I always take a few hours away on NY day to prayerfully make our family goals for the upcoming year and to turn the year over to God. That is one of my favorite times of the year with him!Can not wait to learn more about your Bible study adventure!!
I love that! May have to start that this year!
Such great traditions.
Hi Cindy! We started a tradition in 2006 – I purchased a table cloth and some sharpees and each year we have a "formal" dinner and each write what we are thankful for! So fun to see what everyone writes each year and to look back. We even have Grandpa and Grandmas handwriting on it and they passed away in 2008.
Cindy…I read this post and decided to do this as a family this year and it was so neat!!! Our entire family enjoyed doing it. Our overall highlight this year was our son getting saved. I was curious if he'd write/draw that for his "thankful for in 2011" and it was….unprompted. We all shared our pictures and want to continue this tradition. Thanks for sharing my friend!