New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who prefer New Year’s Eve and those who prefer New Year’s Day. Todd and I are New Year’s Day kind of people. We have a tradition of celebrating the start of a new year over a nice, indulgent brunch, where we reflect on the previous year and talk about our goals and resolutions for the new one. We’ve been doing it since before our kids were born, and the tradition continues with Isaac now 11 and Gillian eight.

We always do a little something to celebrate New Year’s Eve, too, even if we don’t stay up until midnight. Last night’s festivities were especially hilarious, even if unintentionally so. More on that in a minute.

Most years, we have gone out for New Year’s Brunch, but this year, we decided to do it at home. For one, brunch out can be expensive! And for two, we’ve been eating the vast majority of meals at home for the past several months since making some renewed and comprehensive health commitments for me and for Isaac.

(You’ll be hearing a lot more about those changes in posts to come this January. Check out this one: Take Control of Your Health (and Your Skin) in 10 Days. Spoiler alert: in efforts to clear my skin, which crashed in the early part of 2019, I made some dramatic changes to my diet and lost 17 pounds as a “side effect.”)

Our Brunch Menu

This morning’s menu was delicious and healthful with one extra splurge for the kids. Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

• Simple Mills banana nut muffins (GF & paleo friendly)
• Applegate Organic, no sugar, uncured bacon
• Whole 30 Breakfast Hash – click here for recipe
• Scrambled eggs from our local farmer’s market – if you’re in the Tomball/Spring area of Houston, check out Three Sister Farms
• Sides: clementine oranges, avocado slices, Kerrygold butter (grass-fed)
• Beverages: Black coffee made with Todd’s new Chemex (ours is a 6-cup), Maysara sparkling pinot noir (a Scout and Cellar customer favorite!), and the afore-mentioned off-diet splurge…Welch’s sparkling grape juice for the younger set

Our kids have always been early risers, so Todd and I were thrilled to sleep in to 7:45 this morning. The kids were up earlier entertaining themselves but resisted bursting in the room to say, “It’s 2020!” until quarter of eight. We’ll take it! Brunch was a little more “br” than “unch,” starting around 9:00 a.m. Nevertheless, it was delicious and a grand way to start the new year.

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New Year’s Resolutions

Todd and I have been talking about our resolutions for several days now and started talking to the kids yesterday about setting some of their own goals. We also talked about some family goals that we will work toward together. I won’t burden you with all of them or even with all of mine, but here are a few that you’ll likely be hearing more about in my 2020 posts.

Practice gratitude for all that we have: our family, friends, home, neighborhood, schools, teachers, and more.

Accept our life with all of its challenges. I recognize this is the goal of a lifetime, not a year, but it’s something I know I need to focus on now. We are in an especially difficult season, and “fighting” the challenges is a losing battle. It’s a fine line to walk, to accept your life without bitterness and also work toward change. This is where I find myself.

Make home what I want it to be: simpler, more organized, and tidy. This is one we’ve looped the kids into sharing, and we’ll be taking time every evening to tidy the living area together (instead of me doing it alone…or not doing it at all!).

And for the kids: to get along better with each other. Our kids love each other deeply. But life is not easy at our home. Isaac’s challenges and fiery spirit affect the whole family and are especially difficult for the kids to navigate. With their help, we’ve come up with a few strategies to help make things better instead of worse when tensions arise, which inevitably, they will.

A little vulnerability

We have had seasons of relative peace and seasons that are hard and unsettling. We are in one of the latter seasons now. We have good support through Isaac’s school and many resources that we’ve found over the years. We are okay and will be okay. But life right now is hard, and I’ve committed to practicing honesty and vulnerability in this space. Because keeping up appearances doesn’t help anybody.

I’ve learned that one of the best things we can do when life feels overwhelming is to create shared experiences. That’s not always something we can generate, of course. We need it to catch on, to flow, to “happen.” But none of that is possible if we’re not at least setting the stage, trying to engage our kids and do the things that make memories.

Todd struck a win last night with some minor-league fireworks, and I just happened to catch some of it on video. I posted these on my private Facebook page last night and want to share the joy and comedy with you, too. If nothing else you’ll see, up close and personal, why we are more New Year’s Day kind of people. Enjoy!

New Year’s Eve Shenanigans

1. We are not fireworks people.
2. Todd took his inner child (a.k.a. our daughter, Gillian) to “get some sparklers,” and came back with a bag full of little explosives 🧨 that surprised and scared the heck out of us.
3. Todd says he asked the people at the fireworks stand for things that were sparkly but not too loud. Which explains why the video begins with him shuffling to cover Isaac’s ears and ends with, “They lied to me!”
4. All reactions genuine, including my slow backup toward the end of the video.

And here’s an innocent little thing called a “ladybug” 😱. You can hear Gillian saying, “that’s nice,” followed by a terrifying screech, a flash of light, and our daughter’s explosive laughter. Whatever shot up stayed airborne forever before landing on the other side of our fence. 🤦‍♀️ Ending dialogue:

Welcome 2020. We were due for a good laugh!

I’d love to hear which kind of person you are, New Year’s Day or Eve, and any resolutions or funny stories from the past couple of days at your house. Happy New Year, friends!