I can’t quite believe that we are nearing the end of 2017 and 2018 is on the horizon. How was 2017 for you?

Here there have been some marvelous highs and lots of lows. It’s been one of those years really. What I am really pleased about though is that at the start of 2017 I started a celebration jar.

Nothing too sophisticated, it’s a very simple idea really and not especially craft intensive, so don’t worry if you aren’t crafty.

You take a jar, any large jar will be fine. You simply decorate it with the date of the new year, you could add names if you wanted, or a family name perhaps as well.

Then place it somewhere accessible and most of all somewhere you will see it everyday.

Basically each time something good happens to you as a family, or a member of your family, you write down what happened on a post it note or small piece of paper, fold it up and pop it into the jar.

It might be something like, one of the children passing a swimming badge, or winning a trophy for something. Perhaps it’s good school reports, or passing a particular milestone. Perhaps one of the adults got a promotion or maybe got out of a job they hated even.

Whatever these ‘good things’ are, they will be unique to your family and that’s what makes them special.

Basically the idea is, you spend the entire year collecting these good moments, writing them all down and recording them on bits of paper and storing them in your jar, and then on New Year’s Eve (or any day over the festive season), you sit down as a family and take it in turns to read each ‘good thing’ out.

So what’s the point?

It’s simple really, bad things happen, they happen all the time, and because these bad things can be so overwhelming for families, the ‘good things’ can get totally lost. It can feel that nothing good has happened – which is such a shame, because with children good things are happening all the time.

I promise that even when you have a really sh*t year, good things happen too, and this celebration jar will prove that to you.