So the first thing you’ll notice is that the Happy Jar is not a jar at all. It’s a tin. A Thorntons toffee tin to be precise. I can also confirm it is most definitely empty, having scoffed every last piece of toffee.

But I had to eat all the toffee because we needed a jar to become our happy jar. And in the absence of any “proper” jars this was close enough. And a really good excuse to overindulge. Again.

I wish I could claim the happy jar concept as my own but it’s floated around Facebook for a while and both Ad and I thought it a fab idea. We rarely agree on anything so, this being a novelty, we decided to try out the happy jar for 2016. The idea is that throughout the year, each time something good happens we will write it on a piece of paper, drop it in the jar tin and on NYE 2016 we will empty it and revisit the happy times.

I’m sure we aren’t the only family to get hung up on the bad, the sad and the ugly in life. The sad times often overshadow the good and it’s those memories we hold on to. We forget the little things that made us happy; the beauty of the world around us, the surprise gift, the laugh out loud moments, the goals we achieve, the happy tears we shed.

Today, 1st January 2016, I’ve added my first note to the tin. You’ll have to wait a whole year to find out what made me smile today. 😜