The Joy Jar 2017

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Lisa and I started the Joy Jar tradition last year. We have a Mason jar in the kitchen next to a large notepad. The jar is filled throughout the year with slips of paper, and on each slip is written something that gives the writer joy on a particular day. On New Year’s Eve we get together to read each of the notes out loud.

This was not an easy year, but a lot of great things happened for which we’re grateful. Here are just a few of our highlights:

  • Better hours. Home every night for dinner!
  • Watching Aria in her first dance class.
  • Our weekend getaway to Pana-Sea-Ah on the coast.
  • Taking Aria to first day of preschool. So proud, but wouldn’t let Mommy go.
  • Walking through World War II bombers over Father’s Day weekend.
  • Our trip to Mount Hood. Fun at 7,000 feet!
  • Watching Aria and her cousin, Thad, sit together at Disney on Ice.
  • Aria climbing up into her big kid bed for the first time and saying, “Wow!”
  • Daddy-daughter living room dances in the summer.
  • Aria thinks “Roll out of bed in your jammies” is the funniest thing ever said.
  • Watching Clarke discover his talent making applesauce and apple pie.
  • Aria opening her Bitty Baby from Grammy and Grandpa at Christmas. Sheer joy.

The main theme was once again family. We saved our favorite notes and put them in a time capsule with the others from 2016 for reading again someday. The new year will have its own set of challenges and uncertainties, so a new joy jar is ready to go for 2018 as a reminder of all that’s good during the next 365 days. Happy New Year!

Before looking ahead, here’s one more glance at 2017 with a few joyful pictures:

Christmas 2017

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From the Gospel of Luke (and the lips of Linus from Peanuts):

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Wishing my readers a joyous and merry Christmas.

Favorite Christmas Gifts – Part One

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Do you remember what you were given for Christmas last year? I hear the question asked every December, and it’s funny how it often leads to a puzzled look and a shrug of the shoulders. We often simply don’t remember. Sometimes, though, a gift really resonates more than others and is recalled for years to come. I have had many and thought that I’d reminisce about a couple that I remember from the 1970s. There are more, but you’ll have to come back for those next year!

The 1970s Era Big Wheel

My grandparents gave me one of these when I was between the tricycle and bicycle stage. The Big Wheel, made by Louis Marx and Company, was itself an oversized trike that rode low to the ground and had fat tires in the back. I’d tear around our dead end street on that thing. What a sweet ride:

I had one accident attempting to ride off the curb on one back wheel like the boy across the street could do. I fell off and smacked the back of my head in the same spot that my hair started graying not so many years later. Is there a connection? Maybe. But it was the ’70s. No one wore helmets!

The 1979 Hot Wheels Service Center

I collected Hot Wheels cars, made by Mattel, as a kid. This was back when they were actually made of metal and not plastic. My daughter likes to play with the ones that survived my childhood. One Christmas a different set of grandparents gave me a Hot Wheels Service Center, which had a racing ramp, car wash, transmission repair shop, gas station and more. It was also portable, folding into itself with a carrying handle. This was a favorite toy of mine for years:

In the future I had a Hot Wheels City, which was built the same way but with different activities and collapsible buildings. The service center was the classic, though, and something that was never on a wish list. My grandparents just knew what to give a little boy who liked Hot Wheels cars!

How about you? What is a favorite gift you received as a child or even as an adult?

(You can read the 2018 entry here.)