Year in Review, Year in Preview: How Our Annual Couple’s Date Strengthens Family Bonds

---

Some years ago one of our pastors recommended that my wife and I have a big end-of-the-year date where we discuss the highs and lows of the previous year and goals for the next. We call this our “Year in Review, Year in Preview” date. We have done this almost every year since 2015 and it has helped us track our progress as a family, and to trace God’s grace to us over time.

I made an Instagram post highlighting our date at the end of 2023, and have since learned that several couples we know were inspired to have their own end-of-year dates. Even though this article would have been more timely in December, it’s never too late to be intentional as a family.

This is what the Watson family does each year, with the hopes that it will bless you and your family if you choose to do it too.

Date

Make this a special date. Find a place that is meaningful to you and your spouse, and make a day of it. Find something that is your thing. Go for a hike. Buy the pricier bottle of wine. Do an overnighter at an Air BnB. Anything, but make it yours. Then, pull out a pen and journal, or open an app like Evernote or Notion, and start recording.

Each Christmas season Fredericksburg, TX, the shopping capital of the Texas Hill Country, lights up its town square, the old German Kirche, and has ice skating, hot chocolate, and a Christmas pyramid. We like to go after Christmas around New Year’s to see the lights, eat German food, and have this little talk while sitting on a bench in the Marktplatz park. It’s our thing.

Review Questions

The nitty-gritty of our date is the questions we ask ourselves to review the previous year and set goals for the next. These questions have changed over time, and this last year we simplified them to help us not feel bogged down. Our review questions focus on highs and lows, all with an eye to how the Lord has blessed us through them. We have found it a best practice to keep our responses short and bulleted.

Preview Questions

For family goals, we have individual goals and goals as a whole. Sam is two and can’t make goals yet, so we make them for him (this year it is pacifier weaning and potty training). The main thing is to keep it simple so you’ll stick to them. This is also the time to start calendaring trips you want to take (with a pencil).

Word of the Year

We like to choose a word that we think may describe our coming year. Often this changes mid year. For example, in 2020, our word for the year started out as “Discipline.” However, since it was 2020, it quickly became “Survive.”

Some years it remains the same. Our word for 2023 was “Establish” and it stayed “Establish”, as we felt the Lord was establishing us in our roles as parents, in our church, in our careers, and in adult life. Our word for 2024 is “Continue,” because we want to honor God by keeping our hands to the plow.

Pick a word, meditate on it, but be ready for it to change. Why pick a word of the year? Because if you do it right then you’ve just created a verbal cairn, a landmark to remind you of your bigger why. One year we chose “Explore” as our word, and that helped us make decisions to do things that we otherwise would have been too cautious, or lazy, to do. It helped us say yes to a backpacking trip, to date nights at new restaurants, and to see more of the state than we had before, and that helped bond us tighter as a couple.

Verse of the Year

This is a new one for us, so new in fact that sadly I didn’t even think about doing this till January. Pick a verse from the Bible that you want your family to memorize and meditate on throughout the year. Pray to God about it. Let his Word form your family through it. This year our theme verse will be Joshua 24:15:

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Do you have a Year in Review, Year in Preview date with your spouse? What questions do you ask each other and how do you make it a special date? Comment below so I can steal your good ideas.