Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year!

Some of the Christmas baking going on...

It's beginning to look and feel like Christmas!  The baking, the decorations, the over the top merriment in my house are all happening.  As the time approaches, I find myself doing the same thing I do every year...forgetting New Years Eve!  I kind of wish New Years was in a different time of the year, I just don't give it the attention it deserves.  I mean it is a celebration of the close of another year and the look ahead of the future, it deserves a little more effort from me than just the whatever celebratory energy that is left in me after Christmas...(which is not very much).

I think a lot of people are like me too, which is why New Years traditions are lackluster.  Resolutions made are usually just nice thoughts that aren't really followed through on after the month of January, there are no New Year's t.v. specials...just day long marathons of old shows and some people even use New Years as a time to take down their Christmas decorations...which I can't even think of a more depressing tradition than that.

Most years I never even think to plan anything for New Years Eve and then I find myself the day before trying to pull something together...FAIL!  One year I would like to attend or plan a super fun New Years with just a meaningful moment for families.  Not a church service and not some willy nilly gathering of people just to be together and not be alone on a holiday, not knocking either one of those but that is what I have been doing for years.  Here are some of the things I would like to implement on my ideal New Years Celebration that I never take the time out to actually make happen.

1. Of course the backdrop would have great food, music and dancing (Hello!  I am Puerto Rican, it's not a celebration without all three!)
2. Games, Wii, and all those other fun party games too.
3. At some point, the participants take a moment and talk about their highest moment of the year that has past and the lowest moment.  They would know this ahead of time so they don't get blindsided with it.  I would do this at like 10:00 or 10:30 to allow time to prepare for item #4.
4. Allow them to write these things down on little scripts of paper and put these into balloons that will be filled with helium.  At midnight we would go outside and release all of those balloons to signal that the old year has gone and we can look foward to the new year.
5. Take a moment to pray for each other for the new year (a moment...not a prayer service).  Balance is key in this, I hate trite prayers and this would NOT be the time for long intercession.  Just a moment for families to gather and simply and meaningfully pray for each other.

That is what I would love to do for New Years this year...what would you like to do this year if you didn't already have a family and/or work obligation?

P.S. - If I forget to say it later, Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year!