A Day of Gratitude and Reciprocity

Happy New Year once again to everyone; it's great to be in 2025, and I'm optimistic about achieving great things, although it's quite odd that I'll be writing about my plans for yesterday, December first, but since I'm just seeing this prompt, then it's fine, so in this article I'll be telling you my plans on how I wanted to celebrate December first and how I ended up celebrating it.

So first things first, just like every single year in the past, the first few minutes or first hour of the year usually meets me in the church where we have our crossover service, and I had planned to visit the church to celebrate the crossover service when it finally comes, and that was exactly how it went yesterday, as I paid a visit to the church to thank God for all he did for me throughout the previous year and pray for more blessings and that his favor continually follows me this year.

After the crossover service, the plan was to go home and call my friends, family, and loved ones, wishing them a happy new year and wishing for the best in all we do in the new year, which was exactly what I did, although some calls came in during the church service, which I appreciate, but then I'm not the type who likes picking calls at such a period; I felt it's best I use that time to thank my maker rather than speaking on the phone with people, even though it's a good intention.

At the end of the calls, texting, chatting, and video calls, I went to sleep and hoped to travel down to visit my relatives in Ijebu Ode to celebrate the festive season with them, because I know if I don't travel, then it's going to be a boring first day of the year for me because I'll literally be alone at my place if I decide not to travel, so that was the plan, but it never materialized at the end of the day.

It happened that, while I was preparing to leave the house, I got multiple knocks on my door from my neighbors, who came to wish me a happy new year and then came bearing edible gifts of foods such as rice, pounded yam, and chicken; others came with soda, small chops, and the likes, and these on their own can make me not travel, because leaving them behind will make the food spoil before I come back, but then I ate one and closed the other, with the intention of meeting it when I come back in the evening from my travel.
In return, since I don't plan on cooking, I also purchased some drinks and gave them to my neighbors as my own goodwill gift for the year.

So I got to the Moto park, and it's painful that despite waiting for about an hour, I couldn't get a bus to take me to my destination because there were many passengers who wanted to travel, and after waiting for so long, I opted to go back home and postpone my movements till the next day, which is today, and that's exactly what I'm doing at the moment of writing this post, because I'm in transit at the moment.

Well, I look forward to having a nice time with my family members over there, and hopefully others who I hope to meet won't have left before I got there, so we can reminisce about old times and have shared moments together as family and bond again. That's about it on my plans for the first day of the year and how it went. Thanks for your time.

All photos are mine.