New Year's Eve

And here's what we do!  We spent the last day of the year at KidPak, putting together a very nice New Year's Eve service for the kids.  We had worship, a wacky invention, a candy cane relay race, and a message about Keeping Christmas Well throughout the year.  It's still Scrooge's series, so we were talking about how it was always said of him, he kept Christmas well.  How do you do that throughout the year?   For us, "Keeping Christmas Well" is really just another way of saying, "Keeping God's Presence" throughout the year.  And as you can see above, one of those ways is with worship.

Here's Daddy and Calvin with the famous invention that tells people what their New Year's Resolution could be.  Hmm... I wonder what those could be?  It was anything from winning at "America's Got Talent" to "Putting on a Mask and Fighting Injustice."  Or "Getting a Million Dollars," and then more significantly, "Praying More."  It was a fun little skit, but at the same time we got a good point in.  The fun didn't stop there!

Josh and Calvin had a girls versus boys game involving candy canes, using the hook parts to pass along other candy canes to a tub.  Who could do more?  The answer was the girls team in both services, and of course Madison was cheering loudest for that.

After a great message from Pastor Lance about using our time wisely, we all went home to rest up, and get ready for a long night.  Yes, tonight was New Year's Eve!

We were watching movies tonight, starting with "Scavenger Hunt," which used to be a tradition for Daddy when he was younger.  Or, at least perhaps it was.  I remember watching "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" on New Year's Eve one time, so the whole motif of wild, large cast, race movies was there.  Madison kept wondering about Montclair the toilet, but on the whole enjoyed the movie, as it started out with a similar premise to the Westing Game, which is to say there's an eccentric millionaire with a bizarre will.  

We saw the last bits of "La Nouba" online, the Cirque du Soleil show that closed out tonight after nearly two decades of shows in Orlando.  Mommy and Daddy saw it twice, and tonight we got to see the last act in the show, along with all the bows and curtain calls.  It was bittersweet, of course, and nice of them to broadcast this last showing live.

Almost there to midnight, we watched a few old videos with Madison in them, including her jousting videos.  How long ago that seems now.  How fleeting time is, and yes, it was fleeting tonight - we were approaching midnight.  We had on the big television the live broadcast from the Magic Kingdom, and watched the fireworks live, and together, we counted down the final seconds of 2017.  It's been a good year, actually.  A really good year, better than any of us deserve.  Sure, we've had a few complications along the way, but who hasn't?  The overall thing is that we've arrived safely, blessed and highly favored.  And that's our prayer for 2018, another year of peace, joy, and God's presence.