The year is rapidly coming to an end and that means it’s time to start a family memory jar!! Every year I get a glass jar with a lid, write the upcoming year’s date on it–in this case 2023, and stick it somewhere in my kitchen where everyone can see it. I put either a sticky pad or pad of paper with a pen next to it and let my kids write down fun, or significant things that we do throughout the year on it, then stick it in the jar. It becomes a memory jar for us. This last year we chose to do experiences for birthdays instead of gifts and wrote down all of those fun things!
We also wrote down the family reunion fun that we had, and all the states that we visited! My youngest 3 visited 6 states, while most of the rest of us visited 8 states. My oldest went to 10 states this last year!!! So cool!
My oldest also started high school:
My 2nd oldest started middle school, and my 3rd child played tennis for the first time.
We started off the year with a bang in the ER with my 4th child getting 11 stitches on New Year’s Eve! That is a feat that we are hoping not to replicate!! She also got baptized!
My 5th cutie started Kindergarten!
My youngest had a fun year too!!
These may all sound common place upon first glance, but these little experiences are what make up my kids’ lives! As we recall these little notes, a sweet smile of remembering cross the faces of my family and we all relive with appreciation the things that have transpired during the year.
Some years are not as happy. In 2015 my father unexpectedly passed away. In 2017 my mother passed as well. We’ve experienced illness, financial hardship, job loss, and etc. The trials that maybe we don’t want to focus on are important to note as well. In hardship there is growth, even if we don’t feel like talking about it, it is good for us–and our kids–to see that we overcome in the end, and hardship is not forever!
No we are not perfect about writing everything down, but we’re pretty good about catching up every few months if time passes without an event that seems worth it. I have been known to encourage my kids to add a note in the jar if an ordinary day was pretty darn ordinary, but they ate something amazing! Haha! Around here we believe that yummy food is noteworthy!
Luckily for us, our birthdays are spread out enough that we will often review what’s happened since the last family birthday and play a little catchup. Sometimes we have even chosen a family word to focus on for the year, as so many have done, and we’ll write that word on the jar as well, just as an added reminder!
When the year comes to a close we open up the jar sometime in the last week of December–hard, fast rules are hard to keep with stuff like this, so I give myself some leeway. We sit in a circle and take turns pulling a paper out and reading the memories from the year. If a particular memory is important to one of my children, they will tape that paper into their journal to keep. Other memories we choose to toss, because we only needed to be reminded of them once–Ha! Ultimately, I hope my children are instilled with the desire to remember the things we’ve done together, the difficulties, the awesome trips, the silliness, the accomplishments!
May this upcoming year be filled with little papers that include more happiness than not for you and your family!! Happy New Year, Friends!!
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Kayleen
