The Date Inspired by the Letter Z!

Housekeeping Item: Because Ryan and I actually had Sunday and Monday off together, we elected not to record a new Spill the Beans in our normal time frame. We do plan to create a new episode this week, but it will come to you a little later. This messed with my Type A like nobody's business, but I did appreciate the chance to enjoy a (gasp) true holiday with my husband! Learning self-grace in new ways this week!

In other news, guess what? We finished our alphabetical dates!! Can you believe it? Yes, indeed! We zipped up the year with our date inspired by the letter Z, and in so doing, we completed our last alphabet date!

This year, for New Year's Eve, we went to our Sunday School class's party. We are new, so this was our first time to join them, but the rest of the group raved about how much fun it would be, and we looked forward to experiencing it for ourselves!

I struggled a bit, because we are new, and they don't all know the extent of the Bekah-razzi. So while I took my good camera, I was too chicken to get it out of my bag or to really take any photos of a group nature, even using my phone. (When you're still learning names, it's not the best time to start over-photographing.)

Anyway. We took a fruit tray and dip! Three cheers for Pinterest giving me fruit staging tips. (And a dip recipe.)

The house where the party was held was absolutely stunning. (I found someone who loves multiple Christmas trees as much as I do!) We enjoyed our dinner and coffee, and then we moved to the basement for game time!

Ryan played pool with the guys, which marked the first time I knew he knew how to play pool! Things you learn after five years of marriage...

I played a matching game with the ladies, and managed to single-handedly make an utter fool of myself in ways I'll never live down. Might as well make a full Bekah-impression from the start, right? (Eyeroll.)

Ryan and I rang in the new year with a toast and a kiss (and some of the fastest, most unflattering selfies I've ever taken of us), and then we packed up to leave the party.

On the way home, we stopped to pick up Miss Pheebs, who got to spend the night with us! Her people were gone for the evening, so we brought her home for a sleepover!

Ryan had New Year's Day off work, and this year we didn't have to spend the day in the Emergency Room trying to diagnose his gallbladder pain! YAY! We slept in, made breakfast, played with Phoebe, started our new Bible reading plan, watched TV, and just enjoyed a day of zero plans.

We did, however, spend part of the afternoon going through our 2017 box, which is one of our favorite traditions. It was something I started the NYE before I married Ryan. I was single, single, single then, and a friend of mine came over to hang out with me for the evening. I'd found this idea on Pinterest to take a photo box (remember those?) and decorate it. We filled out a questionnaire and put it in the bottom of the box. Then throughout the year, we added mementos (ticket stubs, notes, etc.) and on the next New Year's Eve, we looked back over the year to remember what we had done.

Ryan and I have continued that tradition each year, and we love it. We go through the box, remember all our trips and fun, keep what we wanted to save forever and throw away the rest. This year, we filled out different questionnaires than we did the last five years. I found this new set here on the Dating Divas website. There are four separate pages, so you can do them all or pick and choose your favorites. (We did them all.)

And with that, we zipped up 2017! Parties, rest, remembering the fun, and time spent together. I call that a perfectly zipped up year and project!

(To see our complete list of alphabetical dates, look here!)