The Year Picture

On December 31, 2006, my family was doing absolutely nothing for the new year. This wasn't a new thing, but I had always wanted to have a party or at least stay up to midnight with someone. If I remember correctly, I called Brooke, the only other person I know who's wanted to do something great for the new year, and she came over at about 9pm. We watched a movie (I really have no clue) and the news coverage of the New York City ball drop on low volume, so as not to disturb anyone. In our excitement of the new year (and since the family wouldn't have liked us to cheer loudly), we took this picture as the year changed:

To keep our egos in check, this is how we looked that evening.

The following year, we were at a college conference at church, and were praying as 2008 began. We stopped a few seconds before midnight and quietly whispered "Happy New Year" before praying again. We took this picture post-prayer.

I think that we were both in Beaufort to ring in 2009; in fact I'm certain that we were, because I have pictures of us during that time. We weren't together for the new year for whatever reason, so we took this picture in church one Sunday in January before we went back to our respective colleges.

We weren't together to ring in 2010 either, but I was able to spend a night in Brooke's dorm when I was visiting Virginia that January and we took our picture there. We discussed re-taking it at our weddings (I was engaged; Brooke was nearly engaged and we were married 10 weeks apart that summer), but we forgot.

We didn't see each other in 2011, so we took pictures on our phones and texted them to one another (disclaimer: I'm pretty sure that mine was from last new year, but I couldn't tell and couldn't find the real one).

Though we intended to see one another before 2011 was out, we had made it to the very end of 2012 before we actually were able to take the picture in person. This was our texted picture for 2012.

And this was the "in person" picture, taken two days before the year was out. Jury's still out on whether or not it counts.

Here's our official 2013 picture, taken moments after the ball dropped in Times Square. I'm hopeful that this is was just one of many more New Years Eves together to come!