Happy New Year!!

I think this year was probably the most low-key new year I have had in a long time, and I have to say, it was wonderful. I'm still up in Seattle, and this year none of us really felt like braving the cold or the crowds or the traffic to go anywhere super exciting, so we opted instead to make dinner, play games, enjoy the fireplace, and celebrate without the millions of others that live in the city. So that's what we did--we enjoyed a wonderful meal of soup and wine (well I'm not a huge fan of wine, so I created a new drink that I thought was pretty good--rum and Dr. Pepper...definitely not a bad combination!) and then played Scattergories until midnight. Darbee thought it would be a grand idea to light the sparklers in the fireplace, which actually did work pretty well--I'll post photos eventually. We also decided to use the last 15 minutes before midnight to share our favorite part of 2006, and it was fabulous hearing from the other girls ways that God worked this past year and hopes they had for the new year. I fairly easily came up with Cursillo as my favorite part of 2006, althought I couldn't narrow it down to one single moment, there were so many different ways God worked and used people in my life through those weekends, and the friendships created are ones I'll always treasure. I am astonished really, to look back at this past year and see the crazy things that happened and the places God has led me, things I never dreamed of or imagined I'd be doing. I think that as I look forward to 2007 I am not sure what to expect, and I think that's ok. I think the biggest thing I've learned this past year is to expect God to move in ways we never anticipated and then to not try to shove Him into the boxes we create for Him. When we do those 2 things, expect Him to show up and give Him room to move, then I think we can anticipate some pretty incredible things for this next year. Stay tuned as this crazy journey of mine continues!

Another very random note, but tonight Darbee introduced me to the most amazing band ever, so if any of you are into the itunes thing, go download music by Eastmountainsouth (yes, that really is all 1 word)--especially the songs "Hard Times" and "So Are You to Me." Talk about beautiful harmonies and fabulous lyrics! (Or you can listen to "Hard Times" on my myspace profile here).