Over Thanksgiving, my mom surprised all of us by pulling out little notes that we had apparently written as a family on New Years Eve, 1999, heading into the Millennium. It took some brain-digging, but we realized that we celebrated in GA that year rather than NYC because we were all scared about flying and planes dropping out of the air on 1/1/2000. Looking back, it might seem silly, but at the time, it was so unknown what exactly would happen! Plus, it gave us a chance to host the fam at the Christmas holidays in GA, which was very fun.
In any case, my mom's side of the family gathered at our house in Atlanta that year, and we stayed up with good food and drinks until the New Year hit. My mom then passed around notecards, and instructed us to write down what we hoped for in the new Millennium. She then collected them back up without reading them, and stored them (for all of these years, and no one even thought to look through it haha) in a basket on her desk.
Opening these note cards ten years later was SO worth it, and I wanted to pass it along to you and yours in case you want to start this hilarious family-bonding moment, too. You could store these notes with your holiday decorations in an envelope sealed up until a certain time - then open them up in a number of years (or even one, similar effects I am sure) as a group and read them all out.
Tip: Reading them after a few drinks is optional, but it sure does add to the fun ;)
I apparently did not get the memo that night that for the most part, my family wrote down goofy nonsensical responses. I took this assignment like any typical teacher's pet (at the time) might, and wrote down a super serious note that had me crying-laughing reading it out loud this past weekend to my relatives. It was so insightful of where I was in that point in time of my life.
Here are some of the gems - excerpts from our short and sweet looks into the future:
Uncle: "There are some who call me ..... Tim ....." (Monty Python quotes are popular in our fam)
Brother: [drew an image of his name in a creative manner] "Visit
Mom: (nothing - apparently she was having too much fun collecting everyone else's to write one?!)
Aunt: "... I wonder what our cat Phoebe is doing right now?"
And me: "I hope that I will grow in my faith and open myself up to new and interesting people." (Wow Katherine, you could BE any more serious?!)
Keep the rules loose and make your own mini-family time capsule - it will bring you smiles now, and then even more smiles in a few years when you look back on your memories!
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