How Do You Start Your New Year?

Check out what our readers have to say...

Our New Year starts out with making and serving a lentil soup. This is a Czech custom where the lentils represent coins, and serving them on the New Year is thought to bring prosperity in the coming year. We talk with our children who will be ages 8, 10 and 12 this year, about how our "riches" can be non-monetary - our family, health, friends, home, jobs, schools - (our youngest family member usually adds our pets to our list of riches!!). This starts our New Year off with a feeling of gratitude and appreciation for all the prosperity we truly have, and opens the door to sharing with others.
Mary, Jordan MN - Our January Winner

I say good bye to the previous year and take inventory of who I am. I don't make resolutions or set goals for the upcoming year, but rather I look to the person I was, the choices I made and the paths I ventured down in the previous year, and assess how I did. I don't always take time for reflection, but I realize that it is an important part of my growth as a wife, mother, friend and daughter to stay in check with the person that I am and how I move forward in life.
Kimberly, Minneapolis, MN

 I have a party. Even though we are surrounded by family and friends during the holidays, we always throw a family party on New Year's Day where adults and kids gather to have fun and celebrate the New Year. Originally it started with the tradition of sledding and hot cocoa, but now it has become about so much more. For my husband and me, it is mostly about all of the special people gathering together in a fun way to ring in the New Year. It seems like the holidays are so busy and stressful, this is our way of coming down from all of the commotion and surrounding our family with those that we love and laugh with.
Tori, Stillwater, MN

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Next Month's Question: What makes you feel beautiful?

One of the submissions will win a gift certificate to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre - dinner and a show for two.

Send an email with your answer to yourvoice@stressfreemagazine.com, and be sure to include your name, address, and phone. Or mail to Stressfree Living, 14070 Commerce Ave. NE, Suite 200, Prior Lake, MN 55372. Must be received by January 18, 2008.

01/08/08