We rang in the New Year with our little people tonight. The children and I turned out all of the lights in the house and asked them to sit in the dark at the dining room table and wait for me.
I came in with lantern and they ooed and aaaahed at the light. We poured sparkling grape juice and used the fancy glasses. I talked about the New Year marking the end of one trip around the sun and and beginning of another trip around the sun. The sun that God made. And how it gives us light. And how Jesus brings light into our world. How He is the light of the world. And then we made toasts to things we were thankful for; our fancy glasses ringing like bells as we "clinked".
We toasted to marshmallows and race cars and joy to the whole entire world. Judah said, "Yum, this is delicious toast!" and I didn't correct him. It was too sweet. We talked about how we could show light to others this new year.
And in the dark, with only the lantern to light our way, I took them upstairs to bed. I spun the hands of my watch forward to midnight and in the bottom bunk of the children's bed, all huddled together, we counted down to midnight. We said "Happy New Year!" in joyful whispers and I tucked them all in their beds and kissed their sweet cheeks. At 7pm. The small squabble over who got to blow out the lantern passed quickly and we said goodnight.
Happy New Year! Here's to seeing the lovely in each moment of the coming year.
