New Years Eve a few years ago…
Hey Friends ~
Happy almost New Year’s from our home to yours!
True confession: I love celebrating the New Year!
For many years, our family got together on New Years Eve with two other families – the Brown’s & the Morton’s – and we loved it! (Pic below – Sally Brown, me with NY tattoo, and Jill Morton) But then Jill and her family moved to Minnesota. Big tears. 🙁
Then we tried a new “family-friendly” tradition. We had a blast! We spent 3 days as a family (minus my eldest son Jake – boo) at the Double J Resort in Rothbury, Michigan. Here are a few photo highlights…
Our Log Home
Snow Tubing
Locking our kids in jail 🙂
Cold but fun!
We also celebrate with our special New Years Day family tradition.
I 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 18, but here’s his Thank You for 2002…. 🙂
Or here is Benj’s from a few years ago…
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.
For example, this is Benj’s paper for 2009….
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 in 2012, 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.”
As you know, Red Hot Faith was released in 2013! Yay 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!
Happy New Year Cindy! Looks like you had fun snow tubing and you look good too 🙂 We stayed up on New Year’s Eve and watched the ball drop on TV and then New Year’s Day we went to my Mom’s for our annual Chinese food dinner 🙂