Happy New Year and Happy New Jar!

Antunes family  - December 29 2013

Happy New Year friends and followers of my blog!  I hope that you have all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and that 2014 finds you well and in good spirits!  Life here is returning to normal after all the fun and festivities of the holiday season.  Christmas vacation, spent at home with my girls and my husband, has to be my favorite time of the year.  The snow can fall...and fall...and fall, and it's okay because we have nowhere to go and nowhere to be.  "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"  We enjoyed sleeping in, sharing late breakfasts together, lazying around the house, watching movies, snuggling by the fire, afternoon naps, holiday baking, spending time with family and friends, the list goes on and on.  I was even fortunate enough to celebrate my birthday at Niagara-on-the-Lake again this year (one of my favorite places on earth). Suffice to say, the holidays were lovely and magical, and I am so grateful!  

For those of you who are regular followers of my blog, you may remember my post from last February, My Happy Jar and Gratitude Journal.  I spoke of starting a Happy Jar for 2013 and filling it with things (handwritten notes, receipts, stubs, small tokens) that made me happy during the year.

 Well, here it is!  It became something like a memory jar, filled with happy recollections. I encouraged my hubby and girls to add to the jar as well.  We added many things during the course of the year.  The fun thing about the happy jar is that you can't read the notes and additions until the end of the year. Only then do you crack open the jar  together to read/share/remember all the happy things that happened that year.  Isn't it a wonderful idea?  I just love it! 

Here are some of the contents of our happy jar!  It's a great way to remember all the blessings of this past year. It has been a challenging year for our family. With the joys, came too, sadness, fears, struggles, and difficulties to overcome.  This jar of happy memories serves as a reminder that even in the midst of tough times, joy can be found always, everywhere, and in the simplest of things, if we only allow ourselves to feel it.

The happy days, the good times, and the fond memories of 2013 are what I choose to take with me into this new year.  My jar is once again empty and waiting to be filled with fabulous, happy things to come in 2014!

I encourage you to create your own happy jar so you can fill it to the brim with your own happy memories!

Thank you for stopping to visit!  I really appreciate your time here and all of your comments.  May this new year fill your homes and hearts with love and laughter!  Let's make this the best year ever!!  

  

My Happy Jar and Gratitude Journal

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself.  For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance, but by our disposition" Martha Washington

Last December was a difficult month for our family; we learned that my father-in-law had brain cancer.  Shortly thereafter, he had brain surgery and was due to begin radiation and chemotherapy in January.  This shocking turn of events caused me to count my blessings, more than ever before.  I felt thankful for every single day and all the little things; things that we all too often take for granted.

When 2013 arrived, I wanted to start the new year on a positive note.  I remembered seeing an online post about starting a memory jar at the beginning of each new year.   You drop in a note every time something good or special happens.  You are supposed to keep adding to it, the whole year long, and at the end of the year, empty it out to see how very blessed and fortunate you have been. I thought this was a great idea and set out to make my own jar.

I looked for a pretty glass jar.  You can make one too!  You can decorate it any way you like.  You can keep it simple or make it fancy, it's all up to you!  This is how mine looks...

I call it my Happy Jar!  Anyone in our family can add to it...Nuno, the girls, and myself.

It's nice and big so we can fill it with many happy things throughout the year.  I keep it on a shelf in the kitchen where we can see it at all times.

I bought the glass jar at Michael's and decorated it with things I already had at home.  The label and ribbon were gifts from friends, which made it even more special!  

My jar is filled with happy notes, receipts from special dates, a champagne cork, hearts, among other things.  It will be fun to empty it out at the end of this year to see what we all wrote.  Isn't it a wonderful idea?


I also started a gratitude journal in mid-January.  My first entry was on January 17th.  At the top of the page, I write the date and the words, "Today, I am thankful for..." or "I am grateful because...".  I take a few minutes every evening before I go to bed or early in the morning before I start my day to write down what I am most thankful for that day.

I've been doing this daily for over one month now and I can't tell you how much I enjoy doing it.  It is so rewarding to flip through the pages and recall all the blessings each day brings.  My girls wanted to start their own gratitude journals.  They, too, own one, and write down things they are thankful for.  Neither of them write in it daily like I do, but it's nice to see them pick up their journals once in a while to count their blessings.  

I bought an inexpensive little journal at the dollar store with blank pages and a ribbon .  You can buy a special journal too, and write in it with your favorite pen.  My pen has flowers all over it.  It was a gift from a sweet friend.  

My happy jar and gratitude journal have been a positive addition to the start of 2013 and to my life.  They serve to remind me how much happiness and blessings fill my daily life, even in the midst of life's most challenging times.  I have never been more thankful for my life, my family, my friends, and the simple little things - which in the end, matter the most of all!  

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 
thank-you, that would suffice" - Meister Eckhart

My blog brings me so much joy.  I am thankful to all of you who take the time to read it.  I really appreciate your comments and feedback. It lets me know that someone out there is actually reading this!  Wishing you all a happy, gratifying week!  xoxo