happiness jar.

Spontaneity is not my strong suit. I'm not very apt to try new things, so starting new traditions in my house is a thoughtful endeavor. As we counted down to a near year, I thought over all of the experiences that we've had this year - a mix of blessed, happy, challenging, and thought provoking times.

Our New Year's traditions are pretty bare bones. We watch the performances on t.v. leading up to and after the ball dropping ... and that's about it! With the busyness that surrounds our daily ins and outs, I really believe in being purposefully reflective about our lives. I've done thankfulness challenges in the past like this one (I strongly recommend these exercises if you haven't done them before!), but I wanted to have a culminating activity to really think about and appreciate the entire year. Enter a happiness jar.

I'm not sure how they are generally used, but I plan on our family writing down little things (or big things) throughout the year that make them happy or thankful, put them into the jar, and then open them on New Year's Eve.  There are so many options to make, buy, decorate (or not decorate) your happiness jar. This DIY is right up my alley because the aesthetics are the least important thing -  it's what's on the inside that counts.

Here's what I used to make my jar:

• Jar or container of your choice 
• Paper to write down what makes you happy or thankful
• Scissors and/or a paper cutter 
• Decorations for your container (I used little polka dotted rhinestones with adhesive backs and may make a trip to go get some ribbon) 
• Twine 
• Embellishment to label the jar (because everything in my house gets labelled eventually) 
• Pen 
• Chalk to write my label (this didn't work for me - going to find my silver pen here in a bit)

I spent maybe $10 to make this because I had most of the materials on hand. Love that this has so many optional components - really all you need is a container and paper to write on :)

Here's some of the process. So easy! The only thing that I haven't done is figure out how I want to label the jar - a quotation, a simple label, a picture?

I'm not sure if I date cutting a slot in my mason jar lid. For now, I'll just take out the center and leave it open. But ... dust! Going to save the cover just in case.

And to kick this little tradition off, I put in my own little thing that made me happy today. I'm going to try to date all of these and put the name of who it's from (in case I'm putting in for someone else like my kiddo). I'll gently plead to have everyone roll up their happiness notes so that no one peeks.

And voila! An inexpensive happiness jar in a central place in our home that I hope will make us more thoughtful throughout the year, as well as give us a flood of great memories come next New Year's Eve.

EDIT: I went and got my metallic pen for the label. Even though I was excited that the labels are chalkboard (hello, reusable!), my handwriting with chalk is atrocious. Metallic pen it is!