Generally, I am fairly rubbish at remembering the good things.  I am fairly rubbish at seeing the positive in anything, to be honest.  But last year I read an article in Moments magazine about keeping a memories jar.  The idea is to write down one positive thing that happened each week and store them in a jar.  At the end of the year you have 52 positive things to look back on.

I’ve already opened a few on a facebook live, but wanted to write about a few more of my memories of the year here – in the order I opened them – not date order

18th February – I met my friend Anne for afternoon tea at Tyntesfield and caught up with an ex-student of mine who was working there!  What’s not to love? Tea, cake, National Trust property and chatting with good friends, all in one go!

20th May – Spent the week enjoying time with Sean and Pam!  These are friends of ours in Portugal.  We’ve met Sean several times, but this was the first time we’d really had the opportunity to spend time with Pam too.  A fabulous week – helped by them having an amazing terrace with great views over the see!  Bizarrely, they stayed in the same building as we have our apartment – so it was just a short hop across to see them!

14th January – Went to show my friend Ally how to crochet and spent the morning cuddling her cocker spaniels!  Ally has since moved to Derbyshire, but we shared a lovely morning together and the opportunity to cuddle dogs is always appreciated!

9th September – We went to Joanne’s birthday barbeque!  A great evening sharing food and drinks with friends – some old, some new.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget the silence following the dropping of the just cooked food!  A fantastic evening!

I won’t write about any more experiences, here, but will continue to open them all.  It’s been a lovely thing to do, I have smiled and remembered the year with pleasure.  Some of the things I did were relatively small, but the joy they bought me at the time and in reading about them now, have been worth remembering.

I’ve also been struck by how many things I’ve done with people.  I don’t tend to think that I have much by way of friends and that I am a bit of a lone wold – going through these slips of paper would lead me to believe this is not the case at all!  I have plenty of friends, who I love to spend time with.  I’ve also been struck by the amount of time I spend drinking coffee!!!!

I’m definitely going to carry on with this for 2019.  It’s one of the better habits that I have adopted and I can appreciate that I have so much to be grateful for as I move into the New Year.