Our New Year's Traditions

Happy New Year!! I know that it's cliche but didn't 2014 just FLY BY!?! I remember when I was a kid, it seemed that time went by so slowly and the adults around me were always saying the exact opposite! Now, I'm the grown up and I find myself trying to come up with ways to make sure that my kids hold on to as many sweet moments as possible.  I pray that those are the moments that make them smile when things don't go their way or when they need something to look forward to.  
Over the past couple of years our family has been doing a couple of fun things that really ends up being a fun activity and gives them a chance to see themselves grow and change.

THE  MEMORY JAR
I keep a square jar on our mantel.  It is filled with little squares of paper and a couple of pens. At the moment it isn't decorated because for some reason I never got around to it. (I will within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!!) Anyone in the house can add a memory to the jar, even visitors! The only rules are that whoever writes a memory has to write the date and sign their name.  We read all of these memories on New Year's Day and laughed and talked! It was such a fun way to start the year!!

Our undecorated "Memory Jar".

Taking the memories out of the jar and reading each one was so fun!!
It inspired a lot of "I remember that" and "that was so much fun!" 

SOME OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITE MEMORY JAR MEMORIES:
1) The time Lincoln had to be rescued by the life guards at the beach because he had gotten himself in a pickle. He was fine! AND it wasn't funny at the time (I was MAD!!! lol) but, of course, it's funny now!
2) When Megan came home after she had been asked to homecoming!! (Milestone!)
3) Sebastian's 8th grade graduation!
4) The night we had a homemade Crab Feed! (So MUCH fun!!)
5) When we met Cimorelli!
Really, trying to write out my favorite ones is tough because there were so many great moments this last year!! 2013 had been a rough one for us so 2014 was a very welcome change! 

Sebastian gave me permission to post this picture.  I love how he started his letter to himself.  He spent most of the time giggling at what he wrote.

LETTERS
Last year on New Year's Day, I had each of the kids write a letter to themselves. At first they weren't too excited about it but in the end three of them did wrote their letters. Our 2 younger ones didn't write one; one because he was only 3 at the time and the other because he adamantly refused and I had to choose my battles. I put the letters in a safe place and saved them there until this New Year's Day.
It was kind of fun to see that the kids that had written them were actually looking forward to reading them.  It was even more fun to watch them read and comment on how silly or funny they were or how much their writing had changed. 

I gathered everything together and decided to simply fold a piece of card
stock in half, tuck everything inside and save it.  I don't really know when or if we'll look at last year's
memories again but I couldn't get rid of them!

These are just a couple of our traditions! Actually, I find that our traditions evolve a bit as the children get older.  Watching them grow and change is one of the things I live for!! 
Do any of you have any New Year's traditions? If you do, I'd love to hear them!
Until, next time!!
Love from:
The Crazy, Chaotic, Happiness that is our Family

Welcome to our World of Creative, Chaotic Happiness (part 1)

Our family is what you might call a big one. There are 7 of us total (5 kids, 2 grownups) not to mention 3 small dogs.  To say that it is never boring in our home is an understatement!  There is always something going on and sometimes the chaos is a lot but more often than not, I find myself steering into the skid, so to speak. 

We currently have 3 teenagers (15, 14 and 13) in our home, which makes for a great starting point for our story...

Our family has dinner to together at the dining room table (nearly) every night.  There is the occasional carpet picnic but for the most part you would find us at our kitchen table at 6:30 pm(pst)every night.  On one particular night we were discussing selflessness during dinner.  We were talking about how some of the teenagers had become a bit more full of themselves than we thought was acceptable and we were trying to come up with ways that each of us could practice thinking of others before ourselves.  Never did it occur to me that the conversation we had that night would lead to such a great idea for a family project. There was a lot said, a lot of ideas thrown around but in the end it was decided that our family had some shopping to do...The Homeless Present Project was born!

So, what is the Homeless Present Project? Well, it started out as us buying some socks or something like that, wrapping them up and giving them to homeless people that we would see while we were out and about.  The idea was to give presents to people who often are forgotten at Christmas time.  There are a lot of programs for children and families with children and they are all wonderful!! We decided that we wanted to focus on the homeless...the man we see everyday at the park not far from our house and the people that nap at the plaza. By the end of dinner we had decided that this did not just have to be a "Christmas thing".  Everyone was super excited!! I personally felt like I had scored major awesome parenting points with the Man upstairs!

A couple of nights later, we went to the Dollar Store and Big Lots to collect our supplies.  We bought gallon sized zip up bags, applesauces, cheddar cheese snacks, yoohoos, fruit snacks, toothbrushes, hand sanitizers, gum, combs,candy canes and reusable spoons. (It ended up costing us about $50 give or take a couple of bucks.) 

Phase 1: Sorting....The kids put all of the items into stacks.  This is the first time we had done this so we set our goal this round at 12 presents.  

Micah on the assembly line, loading his bag with lots of goodies!

Phase 1 Complete!

Phase 2: Wrapping! We all wrapped up the little bundles in fun paper.  The kids really liked this part!!

All of the goodies ready for Phase 3!!

I think that it's important to point out that we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination! We are basically a single income family of 7 (and the 3 dogs!). I have an etsy shop that is not even close to where I want it to be! We do budget our money though, and the money for this project came out of our monthly "Target" allowance.  This meant that this month we spent less on our beauty and cleaning supplies...we bought cheaper brands and skipped some things all together and we were happy to do it!!

Thank you for checking out our first post!! Come back soon so that we can tell you all about Phase 3 and 4! 

Love,

from the Chaotic Crafty Happiness of our home