When my parents returned home from New Year’s Eve parties, they always had noisemakers, glittered hats and oversized glasses with an outline of the new year, and a table centerpiece. There was usually a Mylar balloon for each of us. This morning my mother texted me to wish me a happy New Year from Florida. I wished her the same and asked if she brought home my centerpiece. My phone vibrated. She’d taken a photo of it at least. Traditions, the quirkier the better, are perhaps my favorite things. I hope to make more of them.

This year, I’ve already taken out the double handled “Memory Jar” and set it upon our dining room table. Over the years I’ve read that New Year’s resolutions just peter out and make us feel like failures, that they don’t stick, even the easiest of them. Last year, I vowed something simple enough: to watch more movies! And, still, I couldn’t keep the resolution! But, I’ve also read that this one activity was actually worth doing, so our family is giving it a try. Throughout this year, if there’s anything we want to remember, we’re scribbling it on a scrap of paper, and folding it up, and adding it to our “Memory Jar,” to be read on January 1, 2016. Or on December 31, 2015. Depending on our plans. You get the idea… it’s tradition and making memories and keeping memories all at once.

I also like that it’s a reminder to focus on the positive, to fill our lives with joyful moments worthy of remembering. Though, in truth, most of the things we really remember are the times when everything goes terribly wrong and how we still manage to laugh.

I also hope to fill more frames with art and pages with words. Sharpening pencils, dipping brushes into paints, oh glorious art supplies, you bring me such joy. Remember this, this year… I’ve written about it before: make sure that the amount of time you spend on things accurately reflects what you want to be remembered as/for.