Farewell 2011

When I was in First Grade, I remember my teacher telling our class that after Christmas vacation we would be back in school in a new year.  She said, "we say goodbye to 1979 forever."  Her words left me feeling very sad - the idea that we say goodbye to something forever.  New Year's Eve still conjures some of those same feelings.  I'm not sure if it's because today is a day I take a moment to reflect on the year or if it's because I finally feel confident in writing the number 2011.  Either way, I say farewell to a wonderful year and say hello to a hope-filled one, whose potential is boundless.

As I reflect on 2011, family and traveling is what stands out the most to me.  Sweet Potato made his First Communion, Monkey Toes and I renewed our wedding vows for our 10 year anniversary, we gathered for 9 days to pray and celebrate the one year anniversary of Milly's passing into new life.  We witnessed the beauty and grace of the adoption of Peanut Butter, as well as his baptism.  We camped at Higher Ground Music Festival.  We traveled to California for a reunion and I met family I had never met before.  We experienced the "magic" of Disneyland.  We traveled to Canada for my niece's wedding.  We were blessed to spend all of  the holidays with our families and round out the year of celebrating without two of our loved ones (which I believe they were celebrating with us in spirit).  Yeah, 2011 was a pretty great year. 

So far on our calendar for 2012, Honey Bunches will be making his First Communion on April 29th.  Since Higher Ground has disbanded, we have our tickets for Joyful Noise in June (Toby Mac, Go Fish and Mandisa - I may be more excited than my kids!).  We will have a Kindergartner, a 2nd grader, 3rd grader and 4th grader in the house.  There are a few other surprises on the horizon that I will share as their time draws nearer.  No major travel plans in the making, but then again, home is my favorite place.

Tonight, we will celebrate as we have the last 5 years.  We'll go to mass and come home to dinner.  We have sparkling juice chilled for the kids (they get to drink out of real champagne flutes), lots of snacks, board games, and silliness.  We all camp out in the living room with sleeping bags and try to stay awake to watch the ball drop.  It is the one night of the year that bedtime is not enforced.  We have a theme of balls tonight - cheese balls, meat balls, popcorn balls, fondue (o.k. not a ball, but we will be dipping round things into it).  It should be a fun night. 

Happy New Year to everyone.  May 2012 be a year of grateful and joyous hearts.  God's blessings to you!

The kids enjoying the snow  - finally a little snowfall in 2011