Tag Archives: New Year

Looking Back at 2010

It’s New Year’s Eve and nobody’s really working today, so it’s time for a little 2010 recap. Thankfully my wife did a full recap in photos, so I can skimp a little.

2010 has been insane.

Bigger Family
The biggest moment, of course, was welcoming a preteen into our family, along with all the Hannah Montana and Justin Bieber and sparkly pink that comes with a pre-teen. It’s been quite a ride with Yeshumnesh and we’ve got a ways to go. I’ve never felt so old—and at the same time so young. I did manage to welcome Yeshumnesh into our family with a new haircut. First time in three years I paid for one. The mohawk made our Christmas card.

Writing Wins
I also published three books:

Addition by Adoption, is my book of tweets about raising kids and bringing Milo home from Ethiopia. A portion of the proceeds go to clean water in Ethiopia, and in September we hit the $5,000 mark and raised enough to build a well in Ethiopia. The book is also just barely turning a profit, which is exciting.

Then there’s Open Our Eyes, the book that supports homeless advocate Mark Horvath. If you want to know more about what Mark does, read Ka’e k’e‘s story. It’s been a big year for Mark. We also helped him win $50,000. The book has all kinds of big names contributors, like New York Times best-selling author Chris Brogan. All profits from the book go to support Mark’s work with InvisiblePeople.tv. The profits aren’t much—I send Mark his first payment yesterday ($226.56), but he won’t be retiring any time soon. Knowing Mark he’ll be spending it on someone else.

I also published a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel. More for fun than anything and to give self publishing a try (works nicely, crappy cover and all). The post-apocalyptic fun continued all year as I kept diving into more post-apocalyptic literature (hmm… maybe I should have reversed that order).

For all the writing success, I also had a big failure. My fourth attempt at National Novel Writing Month fell flat. I gave up after two weeks when the story wasn’t coming together and I realized my life was too busy.

Giving Back
With building a well in Ethiopia and publishing a book to fight homelessness I’ve done a lot of giving back this year. But it started even earlier when we responded to an earthquake by coloring. Lexi’s pictures ended up raising $675 for Haiti. Other folks got in on the action about the time the idea fizzled out. I’d love to do more with it, but I think I have enough charity cases on my hand.

New Year’s Fuddy-Duddy

I’m kind of a New Year’s fuddy duddy. Last night on Twitter I made this comment:

I can never get that excited about New Year’s. It’s like watching an arbitrary cosmic odometer rollover. Woohoo?

And it’s a sentiment I shared 11 years ago. That about sums it up. Last night we sat in bed watching The Office until we got tired and went to bed. We grunted happy new year at each other as we drifted off to sleep.

I think in 2008 we were in bed by 10:30.

In 2007 I was actually in California ringing in the New Year with a few thousand teenagers, though it was part of my job and not necessarily my choice. I also had to get up at 3 a.m. to catch my flight home, so I wasn’t so thrilled about staying up until midnight.

Apparently in 2004 I watched Star Wars.

I remember a short-lived fondue party New Year’s trend we did for a few years, but I think when kids came along the boiling oil and midnight party didn’t seem like a good combination.

In 2000 I was on my honeymoon. I remember ordering take out and watching “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Pop-Up Video Edition.”

In 1999 my then soon-to-be fiance and I were babysitting for a couple that came home early, woke up the kids we’d been working half the night to get to bed, and rang in the New Year at 10:00 p.m. We ended up back at Abby’s parents’ house watching replays of the Millennium celebrations on TV because no one bothers with a live countdown for the Central Time Zone. Yes, New Year’s in the Central Time Zone is kind of lame.

In high school I remember staying up with my girlfriend’s family to ring in the New Year and being surprised at all the finger-food appetizers that seemed to be their tradition. I don’t think my family had a New Year’s tradition.

I vaguely remember my youth group having New Year’s Eve lock-ins, but I don’t remember actually counting down to midnight. I do remember playing laser tag one year and they announced in the middle of the game that it was midnight. But c’mon—you don’t interrupt laser tag. I do remember sleeping all day on New Year’s Day and waking up in the late afternoon to go see the Insyderz and Five Iron Frenzy. A snowstorm struck and the show got moved from Clutch Cargo in Pontiac to some random church or school in Livonia, but we still made it and rocked out.

I remember another high school New Year’s when we aimlessly turned on the TV to watch the countdown because we couldn’t find anything better to do.

Yeah, I know how to party.

I’m not too big on New Year’s resolutions either.

Last Day of 2009

It’s the end of 2009 already? Sheesh. I’m old.

I love the holidays for the chance to do a lot of nothing. This year’s nothing seemed like it came and went faster than normal. And I don’t feel like I did enough nothing.

Christmas always feels like a month-long blur, and this year was no different. Our Thanksgiving in Kansas plans changed at the last minute and we spent Thanksgiving in Green Bay and then Christmas in Kansas. And our Christmas in Kansas plans were moved up at the last minute and we ended up taking the dogs with us, which is always one extra thing to worry about. But it’s probably good we left a day earlier and avoided becoming one of the many cars I saw in the ditch (and especially glad I didn’t become one of the three rollovers I saw in the ditch). And our lack of New Year’s plans turned into a last minute pizza party in the backage claim with our good friends during their three hour layover.

I’m sensing a last minute theme to the 2009 holiday-palooza. I guess that’s how we roll.

The New Year & the New Millennium

1999. Wow. I had go back and fix the date. It certainly won’t be the last time. I guess I don’t have too much to say about the whole New Year’s thing. I don’t get into the resolutions, and the whole thing doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. It’s like getting excited about the odometer in your car turning over 100,000 miles. It’s kind of funny that we humans have to pause and celebrate, just because the numbers in our way of organizing things turn over. It’s not like today is any different from yesterday. The only thing different is that I’ll keep writing the wrong date. It seems the only thing this turning over of the calendar is good for is making money. Maybe I’m just a New Year’s Scrooge, but look at next year. Talk about a moneymaker. Hotels have been booked for years. M&M’s are sponsoring the new millennium. I’d wish I was the genius who came up with the idea of selling the Mars Candy Company those rights (anyone want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge?). Next year is just a really big turn over of the calendar. Sometimes I wonder if God looks down at us and laughs. Silly people, nothing’s changing.

I guess the only thing the New Year does do is make us stop and think for a moment. I suppose that’s good. I do advocate thinking. It is the one time of the year when people stop for a moment and reflect on what they’ve done and what they’re doing. Where they’re going. Hmm… where we’re going. That’s a frightening question sometimes. But for me anyway, it does bring some sense of hope. Because I know that the only hope in the future I have is that God is in control, and so I don’t have to worry. That’s always a good thing to know.

So Happy New Year, I guess. Although I don’t see what makes it any different. Unless you remember to write the correct year, which would make it a happy year.