I am not a night person and I have never really been one for staying up until midnight on New Year's (unless we're in Lordsburg and I get to shoot a rifle at midnight...). But I love celebrations and I do feel that the start of a new year is momentous - a fresh start for all of those goals and hopes. I envision the new year bursting with potential, all of those days and weeks and months untouched and ready for anything. Anything. How wonderful it is to dream big!
For our family celebration on New Year's Eve, each of the kids helped me with part of the planning. (And we kept it super simple. I was not up for anything hard that soon after Christmas!) Jacob and I blew up balloons and then put little notes on each one for things to do every half hour from 6:30 to 8:30. (My memory is a little fuzzy on the exact details...but this is close.)
6:30 - Photo scavenger hunt (by Bekah)
7:00 - Snack bar and dance party!
7:30 - Play Beau's game of "Midnight"
8:00 - Finding Tender Mercies (Mom's deep thoughts) and Milkshakes
8:30 - Sparkling apple cider and a toast for the New Year!
Bekah came up with a photo scavenger hunt that had pictures from each month of 2015. The kids had to find the pictures and then put them in order. It was hard to remember when we did certain things!
We went to a wedding reception earlier that afternoon where there was so much food we didn't have to eat dinner...So some of our food themed ideas like the snack bar and milkshakes weren't met with as much enthusiasm as I anticipated, but that was okay.
Also earlier in the day, Bekah and I went to Marshall's to find new journals for each member of our family. I was working on a lesson for church that week that talked about seeing the hand of God daily in our lives and recognizing the tender mercies of the Lord. Elder Eyring had shared in a talk that he had kept a journal about seeing the hand of God in his life every day for years and years, and that he was blessed to be able to see more how Heavenly Father loved him and cared for him in small and simple ways. I want to be more grateful everyday to my Heavenly Father, so I have set a goal to write in my journal everyday how I see the hand of God bless me or my family.
I shared that story with my kids and then challenged them to write down their thoughts, feelings, and tender mercies that they observed in their journals. I told them that journals are SUPER personal, and no one could ever, ever read someone else's journal, so they could write anything they wanted. And then we all sat for the remaining 20 minutes and wrote in our journals! They took right to it and were easily occupied the whole time - I was pleasantly surprised, and I considered that to be a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father.
Rus added one thing to our night that the kids all loved - they got to stay up and watch one of the Star Wars movies (#4, or the first of the original series). He is making sure they have a solid Star Wars-ucation.
Before bed we opened our bottle of "bubbly" and gave a toast to the New Year!
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