We prepared a mini feast and had an intimate sharing session on the eve of Christmas, where we started with a simple prayer and I shared how our evening would unfold.
With very hectic individual schedules, it is very rare of us to have a complete family dinner for 5 of us. The only time we are glued together would be vacations that dad would plan and special occasions like this. Having more meals and spending more quality time together is one of our goals that we hope to work towards as well.
After dinner, I dished out a sheet of paper for each person - where they were given some time to reflect on the year and filled it up. We also had a family section, where we shared about one thing that we wanted to achieve as a family.
Full details are found in the image below!
Thereafter, everyone would place their filled up sheets in the centre of the table and we would go one round - sharing about those points in detail. Not only is the perfect bonding time for the family, but we get to share our goals explicitly in 2017 and spur each other on to achieve them. It was also a a stepping stone for our family as we connected with one another on a deeper level and listened intentionally and grow as one.
If you still do not have any plans for your countdown, you could take this time to bring your family members together and spend a few hours sharing about what you have learnt in 2016 and goals you have planned for 2017. You could get participation from your closest friends or other half too!
Most of the time, we would do a reflection for the year but I shared with my family that reflections need not be a yearly affair - but it could happen with more frequency, perhaps a weekly basis where you would dedicate some time thinking about how your week has been and what you can do better in the next.
With impending deadlines and long to-do lists, we tend to rush through the motion and it does not occur to us that if we took a step back and thought about how we felt and dealt with things, we could learn to manage what we had better.
Some questions we could post to ourselves would be:
1. Why did I react this way? (eg: being angry with my partner over not closing the door)
2. Why am I more patient towards this and more impatient towards that?
3. How can I delegate time for ______?
4. What really matters to me?
5. How can I react differently?
Not only does it gives you more clarity about yourself, but it gives yourself more intention to become a better individual as you take time to review your week.
I hope this would be a blessing to you.
Blessed Christmas!
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