New Year's Tradition: Family Memorable Moments Jar

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted more traditions in our own little family. Traditions make memories. So I decided to start some of our own...and New Year's is one holiday that didn't seem to hold many (if ANY!) for us.

One thing I had been trying to do more of throughout the year, was to capture more of our everyday fun little moments. The idea was to blog them, but you know how that goes. Life gets in the way and sometimes these little tiny moments of time never made their way to the blog. So I decided to just jot them down real quick in a notebook here and there. But then...nobody enjoyed them. So I had the thought, "Why not get a jar of sorts, and have the whole family contribute to little fun (or funny) moments throughout the year?" We keep a tin box (used to be a jar...either works!) on the counter (with some blank pieces of paper and a pen in it) and we write them down when they happen and return them to the jar folded.

Then...come New Year's Eve (or day) every year, we all sit down together and have LOTS of good laughs together remembering and going over the everyday funny family moments we have had together the past year. Some more memorable than others. Some creating the belly gut laughs all over again, and others bringing soft smiles with remembrance. Either way, it's a great way to end and being a new year...celebrating our lives together, as a family!

Some are just little things like when my daughter was talking about following Jesus and his example one year on the way to school and then she said, "I'll never go to the dark side Mom." (Hmmm...Star Wars and Jesus mixed together? lol) But they are fun in the moment and worth recording to me.

I love this little quote about those little moments:

There are moments of such pure, sublime, unparalleled perfection that they will force you to close your eyes and hold on to them as best you can. Life is a series of these moments. Everything else is just waiting for them.

― Iain Thomas

What do you do on New Year's Eve? What are some of your favorite family traditions? Someday, I might even want to put all of these memories in a book together for my kids. What a treasure that would be!