Treasuring the New Year

This idea came to me at the beginning of 2009, but as is almost always the case, I am a little late in my follow through. I was thinking about the brevity of the time we have with our children and  how many little memories just vanish because nobody takes the time to remember them.

So beginning this year, we are going to start treasuring our memories. I have a little treasure chest where we will collect mementos throughout the year. Each member of the family can put something in the chest whenever there is something special they want to remember. It may be a movie ticket stub, a rock from a special walk, a photo, or any little thing that they feel will help them remember the event. Every time an item is added to the chest, the person will also write a brief journal entry explaining the significance of the item. I also plan to add an entry to the journal whenever one of the kids says or does something that I want to remember.

Then at the end of the year, on New Year’s Eve, we’ll open the chest and read through the journal and pore over our memories together. This will also be the time that we will empty the treasure chest to make room for the next year’s treasures. The only thing that will remain for the new year is the journal. We will keep adding to the journal year after year.

Happy New Year!