Scout posed for me with next year's Christmas tree. Ha.

I love New Year’s Eve.  It’s not about going to parties, drinking champagne or wearing glittery dresses to me.  It’s all of the wonderful possibilities, the dreams, the aspirations for the new year and a new improved me.  This year, I must confess that the end of 2009 has caught me off guard.  This week, I was really hoping to get out of the house and do some shopping, see a movie and enjoy the benefits of being off work!

Instead, I have been snowbound.  We did not get a ton of snow, but it drifts on our gravel roads, and they stay slick for a long time.  My hubby comes home from work with any essentials I think I need from the grocery store, and during the day, I have been working on preparing for the spring semester.  I am happy to be getting some work done.  Even though I miss civilization, I can’t deny that I have plenty to keep me busy right here at home.  Besides my class plans, I need to give the house a thorough cleaning, and I would like to organize my files and get all of the 2010 folders ready.

Even so, it’s not all work.  I received a pumpkin cobbler kit for Christmas, which I would like to try.  I’ve never made or tasted a pumpkin cobbler.  I also have a beautiful shortbread pan I received last year that makes some very fancy looking cookies.  Baking relaxes me, so I am looking forward to playing in the kitchen and making some goodies.

But, here it is New Year’s Eve, and I haven’t paused for much reflection.  Here is one of my favorites though,

Forget the former things.  Do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing.  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18-19)

I love making new year’s resolutions.  I love planning the new me and setting short term and long term goals and anticipating little rewards if I am successful.  However, I must confess that it seems like I make some of the same resolutions every year, so…this makes me thoughtful.  I have to either set resolutions that I really want to do or I have to find something to love about the resolutions I just feel like I really need to do.  One thing that has helped me in the past is making resolutions that are fun!  That way, I will certainly achieive some of them!  You may laugh, and that’s okay, but in past years, I have made some pretty goofy resolutions just for fun, to try something new, to get myself thinking outside my comfort zone.  I also find great comfort in the fact that God alone makes all things new.  He makes us new creations in Christ.  His mercies are new every morning.  He gives us a new day and a new opportunity every 24-hours.  As a result, if I don’t have my act together and my resolutions all mapped out by January 1st, that’s okay.  January 1st and the New Year are markers created by man.  God is the real creator of the new, and he is able to provide new whenever we are ready to ask and receive.

With that said, here are some of my goofy, but fun resolutions from year’s past:

• Take a sewing class
• Try new makeup shades
• Try a different bath product
• Go to one yoga class
• Go through underwear drawers–discard & replenish

So, you get the idea–resolutions shouldn’t be something that you are going to dread doing!  Sometimes, I’ll admit–I have to trick myself.  One of my serious resolutions is to start exercising regularly again.  Now, I think this is more likely to happen if I phrase it as “walk with a friend for thirty minutes three times a week” or “listen to i-Pod thirty minutes every other day.”  Both of those options add an element of fun–I love visiting with friends and I love listening to music; the walking/exercise becomes incidental.

I still feel a bit unprepared for New Year’s Eve.  I know everyone had different traditions–my grandparents used to eat oyster soup and then go to bed at their regular time.  One lady I know has a very elaborate ritual with candles and writing down disappointments and on paper and then burning the papers in the fireplace.  I think my ritual will simply be meditating on Isaiah 43:18-19.  Wanna join me?