Happy New Year!

Rod turned down an invitation for New Year's Eve festivities for the opportunity to spend a quiet family evening at home. He also really wanted to get the hallway tiling done downstairs.

When Betsy heard that Dad had turned them down, she decided to make the evening special for the whole family. She came up with a long list of activities and made all the little people have fun whether they liked it or not! Everyone was committed to staying up till midnight to welcome the new year…well, Caleb only made it till about 8, but all the rest stayed cheerful and engaged all evening.

Hannah and I were downstairs with Dad while he finished the tiling. When he got done for the evening, he came upstairs to watch 'Little Dorrit' with the kids and eat junk food! He didn't last very long and went to bed, but the rest of us watched 'Little Dorrit' till 2355. A member of the olders set their cell phone alarm so we wouldn't miss midnight. In the hour before midnight, this same individual got a call from a chatty friend, so we paused the movie. Betsy thought of the brilliant idea to pray while they were on the phone since we wanted to do that sometime during the evening. It was delightful to pray together, and several of the children prayed over their goals for the new year. One twinkie who shall remain anonymous prayed for grace for our older to be able to tactfully get off the phone. As soon as she asked, we heard our person say 'goodbye.' Ye have not because ye ask not! Thank You, Lord!

When the cell phone alarm went off, everyone rushed to help get the caps off the sparkling cider before midnight. We charged our glasses and watched the kitchen clock, but once again the cell phone saved the day for a more accurate New Year determination.

As soon as the phone beeped, we toasted in the New Year...and as soon as the last drop was down, we started hearing fireworks outside to the west of the house. We rushed to the window, but looking at fireworks through the trees and a window was highly unsatisfying, so we braved the cold and stood out on the back deck.

After 5 minutes of fantastic fireworks, we went back inside to finish watching 'Little Dorrit.' When we got to the end of the segment, it was singularly unsatisfactory so we had to watch another one. That put us to about 0100...and though several of the children assured me they could stay up all night to finish the movie, I unmercifully sent them to bed. Thank goodness church starts later tomorrow!

Thank You, Lord, for a very happy New Year...