The longest tradition in my life with regards to New Year’s is the annual double-date my wife and I would do with her best friend and husband, Kelli and Doug.  We would go out to a fancy restaurant, eat well, go back to their house and wait for that big Ball to “Drop”.  The guys would go downstairs and play darts and the women would stay upstairs and talk over TV.  I love that tradition and it sucks that we haven’t been able to celebrate that way for the last few years.  Having said that, New Year’s Day isn’t the most important year marker in my life.  It is, at best, 7th.

Not to be too selfish, but the marker at the end of January that says I’ve lived another year is much more important (1).  So are those of my wife in February (2), my daughter in April (3), and son in August (4).  May of this year will mark year number 7 of marriage with my wife (5) so that has to be a much more important New Year’s Day than the one on January 1st.

As a Christian, we celebrate New Year’s with the kickoff of Advent, which is way back at the end of November (6).  And since GOD comes before Empire, let’s recognize it’s place in the top 6 (I know it should be number 1, but I’ve already covered this).

So clearly, New Year’s Day is lucky if it gets to be number 7.  But to do that, it has to be ranked higher than my parents (8 & 9) and sister (10), my grandparents (11-14), my best friends (15-17), and my extended family (18+)!  What about their anniversaries and special occasions?  What about the day I was baptized?  And the days in which I was confirmed, ordained a deacon, and ordained a presbyter?  What about counting the years of other milestones?  If I were a recovering alcoholic, days, months, and years of sobriety would mean way more than the Roman calendar turning over.

Those that know me recognize that I really do love holidays and celebration.  I love getting together, uncorking a bottle of bubbly and toasting another year.  I really am eager to say goodbye to that arbitrary marker that was 2011 with the optimism that 2012 will be so much better (and let’s be honest, it has to be, right?).  There is something really

fundamental about this process.  But I’d rather hype up the fact that in this next Roman year I will officially be considered “mid-30’s” and so will my wife.  Our kids will turn 4 and 1.  We will be married 7 years (which I hear is a big milestone, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for the next five months)!  I’ll be a deacon for 5 years and a priest for 4.  We’ll be in Year B which means a whole lot of the gospel of Mark, which makes me giddy!  And we’ll be moving back to Michigan, bringing our kids closer to their grandparents.

On New Year’s we get to reflect from the broad view and celebrate what matters.  But I’d rather party all the time, since we’ll have so many great things to celebrate.  Too many different new years to celebrate simultaneously at midnight tonight.  We’ll watch Coldplay on Austin City Limits on our computer (stupid local PBS station won’t have it), we’ll toast each other and get ourselves ready for the next New Year’s Celebration, which happens in a little under a month!  We’ll save you a glass!