Well, it’s time to say goodbye “2024” and hello to “2025.” Yet another year is upon us. Honestly though, every day is a new day that’s never repeated itself, unlike in the movie “Groundhog Day.” I’m sure mentioning that aged me a bit. Anyway, whether you like to put much focus on the newness of the year or not, it can be an opportune time to reflect on things.
Every year I give a sort of a verbal year end review to my family, often accompanied with a slide show of pics from the past twelve months. Wow, that never seemed weird until I wrote it. Well, that’s me. I like that sort of thing. I love looking back and remembering all the big and small moments that happened. I’m usually surprised at how much can happen in twelve months time. Of course, when you have a family of ten under one roof, a lot can happen in just a week!
Family Update
Let me start by saying, we are so blessed! I am really thankful to God for all He has done this past year. Who knows all the moments that could have went tragically wrong in our lives, if it wasn’t for divine intervention? The truth is, none of us know. Perhaps we will find out one day. That may have been too deep a thought to start the update with.
Not everything this year has went perfect in our lives, this is true. I’m sure most all of you can say the same. However, when I look back I choose to see the positive. There’s surprisingly a lot of it out there if we pay attention. My last upate was in October, if you get our newsletter, then you may know we have dealt with some illness in the home much of late fall. Thankfully though, we were all well enough close to Christmas to enjoy some of our regular holiday outings and traditions.
December always seems to go by quickly to me. This year it seemed to go by much faster than usual. I’m sure that is partly due to my own hurriedness to get so many things done before Christmas. Nursing all the littles back to health gave me less time to prep, but of course was more important than all of that. I try to really enjoy each season of life as it comes, and intentionally take time to appreciate the little moments. Despite the trials in the last couple months, I can say I still tried to do that. Sometimes life can be a real mental game.
Holiday Fun
We do a lot of the usual things that many Americans do around Christmas. We make cookies, look at Christmas lights, visit a live nativity, attend a candlelight service (one of our favorite events), exchange presents, etc. Christ is the focus of our season, but that is really no different from other seasons. There is more emphasis on His birthday of course, because that is when we celebrate it. Yes, it is true, Jesus was likely not born on Dec. 25th. However, I believe any day is a good day to celebrate His miraculous birth.
Every Christmas the kids and I bake a birthday cake for Jesus, and that’s our dessert after dinner. It’s just one way I like to remind the smaller children who we are celebrating. There’s always one child who jokingly suggest we tie presents on balloons (or something similar) and send them up to Jesus. I then remind them that the greatest gift we can give Him is our hearts. That’s all He really wants.
Legos are extremely popular at our house, like over 15 years going strong popular! A Christmas Festival that we attend has an annual lego display and once again, it did not disappoint. It’s always a hit. Lego Corp, if you ever need some fresh designers, I believe I have some Lego masters living with me that I can recommend.
Since food has always had a prominent place on this blog, I can’t leave you without a picture of Christmas dinner. Christmas morning at our house also means hot cinnamon rolls. So not to deceive you, I will admit these are “Rhodes” cinnmaon rolls out of the super market freezer isle, I make another kind without any dairy. Christmas Eve with a family of 10 is super busy for this mama!
The New Year
What lies ahead for us in the new year? Well, I really don’t know. Good thing I like surprises, good ones that is. I think I’ll keep blogging for now when I can steal the time, you all have encouraged me. Back to Homemade’s subscribers have tripled in the last few months! Though I seem to be balancing many things (because I am), I hope to find a rhythm in it all soon. Vlogging has been a fun hobby the last few months. More videos coming soon at Happily Outnumbered – YouTube.
We all had a fun New Year’s Eve at home. I ordered some games and food ahead of time and of course some confetti poppers and sparkling grape juice for the kids. There’s really no other way we’d rather bring in the new year, than by spending time with our crew. We had plenty of fun, ate good food, reflected, gave thanks and prayed together for the new year.
Next year, who knows maybe we go to Bangkok or Dubai to celebrate? Have you seen their fireworks? Sydney Harbour’s pretty impressive too and we can maybe visit some koalas and kangaroos? If not, well, I’m happy to stay home with my little monkeys too.
Happy New Year!!
Til next time…
Amanda
Whether you think you’ve had a bad year or a good year, or anywhere in between, I hope the best for you is yet to come. Last year I wrote an article about hope. If you find yourself needing some hope (who isn’t), then check it out HERE.
Before the end of 2024 I managed to open up a digital download store on Etsy, here you will find some fun and educational worksheets for kids (soon for all ages). More to come. Just click on the fox above to check it out.
