1-1-11 Out with the old, in with the new!

As is our custom, we spent New Years Eve at home, celebrating quietly as a family.  We made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream, played a few games, and then, went to bed early.  NYE is just not a big deal to Tim and I, we have never been big partiers.  In fact, we bought a bottle of wine to share and never even got around to opening it.  Still, we are excited to usher in a brand new year.
    One of the games we played last night was that I gave each person in the family 5 index cards.  Everyone was told to write down their answers to the following questions, one answer per card…

• What was the best thing that happened in 2010?
• What was the most memorable?
• What was the worst?
• What are you most looking forward to in 2011?
• What is your New Year’s resolution?

We were not to write the questions down, just the answers.  Then we put all the cards in a big bowl and picked them out one at a time.  After I chose each card and read it aloud everyone had to guess-- 1.  Which question was being answered and 2. Who wrote it.  The game did not turn out to be very challenging- no one had any trouble figuring out that “I turned 12!” was written by our oldest daughter in response to what was the most memorable thing that happened in 2010- but it was still fun.  So, based in part on our answers here is our year in review….

Top 5 best things--
1. Birthdays
2. Our trip to St Louis
3. Christmas
4. Visits from our family and friends
5. Baby learned to walk and started sleeping through the night

Top 5 most memorable things--
1.  Spending the weekend with my best friend and going to Universal Studios with her
2. Playing soccer
3. Taking an ice skating class
4. Discerning a call to the permanent diaconate
5. The Duck Song

Top 5 worst things--
1.  The A/C died
2. We got a rodent in our house
3. Some stuffed animals got thrown away
4. We did not get many new toys
5.  The baby’s sleepless nights (all those long months before she started sleeping through the night)

Top 5 things we are looking forward to most in 2011--
1. Going camping
2. First Communion
3. God’s next adventure for our family
4. Going to the Everglades
5. Our next birthdays

Our resolutions--
1.  Be more nice
2. Play nicely with my siblings
3. To remember what Easter and Christmas are all about
4. Keep in touch better with friends and family
5. Try to do better in math
6. Remember that God loves me

Happy New Year, may God bless you (and us) this year and always!