Need shortcode functionality in custom Theme Options

I am developing my own theme and just started building its own “Theme Options”. There are 3 “<textarea>” blocks that grab the data from it and output it to the page in the footer area. One of them is the “Copyright” section.

I made a “[year]” shortcode and when I type it in the “<textarea>” under Theme Options, it just outputs it as “[year]” instead of “2012” on the website.

I know I have to add some sort of filter to allow shortcodes, but I don’t know where. I’ve tried a few methods but I just can’t get it to work.

Any help appreciated.

functions.php

function currentYear() {
    the_time('Y');
}
add_shortcode('year', 'currentYear');

theme-options.php

<p class="text-option"><?php _e( 'Left Footer Content:', 'jframe' ); ?>
<textarea id="jframe_theme_options[leftfootercontent]"
class="large-text" cols="50" rows="5" name="jframe_theme_options[leftfootercontent]"><?php echo esc_textarea( $options['leftfootercontent'] ); ?>
</textarea>
<label><em>Content for left side of the footer.</em></label>
</p>

footer.php

<p class="copyright">
			<?php if ( isset( $options['leftfootercontent'] ) ) {
				echo $options['leftfootercontent'];
			}
			?>
		</p>