For about as long as I can remember, I have been the one that celebrated and most certainly took note of the “lasts” in life.
This is me after my last softball game in 4th grade. We WON the game. I am crying those big tears because it was my last game with the team. The last time I’d pitch from the mound that summer. Last time we’d do our crazy team cheers.

Lasts have never been my strength. In fact, my mom says that in elementary school it always took me a good while in the Fall to like my new teacher, because I was always still missing the teacher from the prior year.

So New Year’s Eve has always been an interesting holiday for me. While most people want to go to parties and celebrate the dawning of (as the name states) a NEW Year, I’ve always been confused why in the world people wouldn’t spend the LAST day of the year reflecting and celebrating the glory of THAT year.

Here’s where I get honest with you and reveal the quirkiness that is ME. A couple of years ago, I was invited to five different New Year’s Eve parties. Five. And you know where I celebrated the last day of 2008? In my living room, all by myself with my laptop reflecting on the year that was about to be over. Of all five parties, THAT was the most fun and exciting choice for me. I loved every minute of that New Year’s Eve.

So much so that I had my dad take a picture of me before he and my mom left for their party!

Some years, I sit down and list out highs and lows from the year. Other years, I’ve re-capped the year with the major events that happened. One year, I even wrote a letter from our cat’s perspective of what she had seen us do during our 2001.

Part of me thought about using this post to share with you my annual reflection, but I decided against that for a couple of reasons.
1.    There is no way my 2010 could adhere to the word limit!
2.    It’s kind of just a Me thing. No one else gets to read it.

Instead, I wanted to tell you about it, because no matter if you’re newly engaged or newly married, taking an hour or two to REALLY reflect on what 2010 has meant to you is worth every second. So between now and that big New Year’s Eve party, schedule some Me time with yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.

I’m going to share a brief excerpt from our Christmas card this year where I was quite concise in re-capping our 2010.  Maybe this is the style that you’d prefer.

In a year that has been all things Shippmates, we decided to forego the traditional Christmas letter, assuming that you all know the story of our 2010.

Frosty proposal + Lots of stunning pics + Seven sweet showers + Enter kind and amazing author friend + MOST SPECIAL WEDDING EVER + Crazy awesome honeymoons + Today Show appearance + Shippmates’ First Home.

For a girl who is horrible at concise, this was one of my finer moments and it served its purpose of highlighting some pretty big moments of our 2010.

But what that list doesn’t tell you or what you can’t see in a picture somewhere… those are the moments that make up the everyday celebrations.

Because that list tells nothing of the ordinary Tuesday evening that Ryan and I make dinner together; it doesn’t talk of the tears shed by my dad and I during the sweetest, most sentimental viewing of my family’s favorite movie, “Father of the Bride” just nights before my wedding; it doesn’t tell of the sweet whispers shared before going to bed with my favorite person in all the world. Missing from the list are the moments I was mad and angry at the world and called my best friend; it doesn’t reveal the precious talks my cousin Chloie and I had on our drive to go ice skating; it can’t explain the mixture of emotion on my mom’s face when she saw me in my dress for the first time.

Just like a highlight reel is always exciting, the big moments are fun to read about and celebrate. But also like the highlight reel, long before the big moment was captured, someone spent hours and hours preparing for that moment that MIGHT happen. And the hours spent were never captured, just like my wedding photographer wasn’t there to capture the way my dad held me as we cried during the late night basketball scene between Annie and George Banks.

THOSE moments – the ones that no camera can capture – those are the moments worth writing about.

I know you have some from 2010.

The question is – will you let 2010 leave without a memory of them?

I’m going to save the “Happy New Year” for next year.  Rather, I’ll leave you with this challenge for the next couple of days – “Celebrate YOUR 2010!”