👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 A new family tradition

Hey all 👋 

As a reminder, this what to expect from my personal newsletter:

• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Thoughts + resources on faith, parenting and family

• 💼 Business updates + learnings (BetterLetter, Malachi Daily, Network)

• 🗓️ 1ish times a month

Today: One new family tradition, two books I’m reading and 3 random updates

New family tradition 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 

We just started a Year in Review tradition. At the end of every calendar year, we look back at the previous year through the lens of the photos and videos on our phones.

It was a blast. The kids loved it (and so did we).

This tradition does a few things:

• Creates an annual rhythm for our family:

  • Most childhood memories revolve around rhythms and things we did regularly (birthdays, holidays, family reunions, etc.). Rather than just relying on the rhythms provided by the culture, we’re creating some of our own and making it fun!

• It helps us reflect:

  • We all have a million photos on our phone, but how often do we actually set aside time to re-live the joy of what we capture the first time?

  • As the saying goes, the days are long but the years are short. This is helping us pause time for a bit and soak in the joy of the everyday moments from the past year.

  • You get to recap and relive all the “firsts.” It’s cool to see how much the kids have grown in such a short period of time. In 2024, both Christopher and Cali learned how to swim and how to ride a bike. We watched Christophers first race on the swim team and got to see them become big siblings for the first time (and start pronouncing their “r”s correctly.

• Reinforces family stories and family values:

  • Stories help shape a child’s identity within their family.

    • A phrase we’ll often say during the Year in Review is “Remember that time when….” and it becomes a recurring story we refer back to frequently. Our kids’ faces light up and they lean in whenever we bring up a story involving them from the past. We want them to have rich memories from their childhood and stories they’ll re-tell when they’re older.

  • This is a fun way to reinforce what our family is about. When a memory from the year ties to one of our family values (creativity, curiosity, hospitality, integrity, loving, local), we can reinforce it, applaud it and remind our kids of what it means to “be a Lenahan.”

It’s pretty simple. Here’s how to execute it:

• Create a shared photo album on your phone

• Invite grandparents, friends or relatives who have a lot of photos from the past year to the album

• Ask them to add their favorite photos/videos to the album

  • Give them some direction - aka don’t add duplicates, no videos longer than 1 minute, keep it to less than 100 photos. Otherwise, this tradition will last for 12 hours 😂

• Pick a date to watch it and put it on the calendar. Decide if you want to invite any extended family. Hype it up to the kids for a week or two leading up to it to create anticipation.

• The night of, turn off the lights, make a pillow fort, pop popcorn, give the kids ice cream and make it fun!

Questions? Reply here. And if you try this, let me know. Would love to hear how it goes!

What I’m Reading 📚️ 

• 📚️ Money, Possessions and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More by Randy Alcorn (link)

  • This has been a paradigm shifter. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

  • A few quick thoughts:

    • Living in 21st century America, materialism is the air we breathe. I considered myself a minimalist before reading this book, but it has revealed just how much my actions show that I’ve bought into the lie of materialism: that money and material things can provide true and lasting happiness.

    • This book is helping me ground my view of money, possessions and life through the lens of Scripture and eternity.

    • Jesus had A LOT to say about money and possessions. Much of it will surprise you.

    • Most of us can talk a big game about what we “believe” and what we “value” - but nothing drills down to what you truly believe and value better than looking at you bank statement and where your money actually goes.

• 📚️ Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson (link)

  • This has been a really fun, quick read.

  • Great for people who feel stuck, bored or want to bring some more adventure into their life. There’s a lot to learn in life and business from the world of improv.

Until next time 🫡 

Kieran

P.S. Showed this picture to a friend recently and his immediate reaction was, “Does Judah have red hair??”

Yeah, kind of. My grandma on my dad’s side was a redhead. So as of now, everyone in our family has different colored hair and eyes…curious to see what baby #4 ends up looking like in April!

P.P.S. Judah took his first steps recently. Cute video here for a smile :)