An Amazing 2018 Out of a Jar

When 2016 was almost finished, I read something about a tradition that instantly resonated with me, so my wife and I picked it up for 2017.

Since the very beginning of 2017, each week, my wife and I write a note with good things that happened or things we did throughout the week. We then add these notes to a jar.

This is the kind of jar we bought in a hurry at the end of 2016:

On New Years Eve of 2017, we then sat together, emptied the jar and read about the amazing year we had. It worked quite well, but we decided pretty quickly that we were to read each others notes. This added even more fun of deciphering handwritings. ;-)

Sometimes, we would try to remember and talk about the specific things or the specific week: “Oh. I thought this was last year. Whoops.“ “Wait, what did I mean by that?“ “Oooh, right, this was the week where I almost ...“ It probably took around two hours that went by pretty quickly.

Here you can see a photo of our notes in 2017 as well as our beloved cookie jar in the living room.

In 2018, we did the very same thing and it worked out just as great as before. We just decided to keep the notes and therefore stick with one color for every following year so they are more distinguishable later. So our 2018 was a yellow year:

While it is obviously great to finish/start a year this way, it is also nice to be "forced" to contemplate the last week and appreciate the good things that happened, even when the week itself was stressful or felt very mundane. So I can really recommend to pick up the tradition yourself, so you have both a great way to end/start your new year and an opportunity to appreciate ever single week.

So, if you want to pick this tradition up for yourself, get a few empty notes, start thinking about the begin of this week and write down all the good things at the end of the week! :)

With this in mind: Have a nice and rememberable year 2019! And try to stay healthy, too!

(Original toot)

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2018,Traditions,HappyNewYear