By Katelyn Fry

At the start of the new year, let the present become your past and future and give yourselves something to share for years to come. Make a time capsule together!

First, grab a cardboard box or another container. Have the children decorate the box directly or wrap it with sheets of paper of their personalized design.  

Ideas for What to include:

With paint, have your New Year babes make hand prints. That way, when you open the capsule in however many years, you can make the same print all over again and see how much they’ve literally and figuratively grown.

Take a photo of each other wearing an article of clothing you guys love today – your favorite jeans or their favorite pajamas or fancy dress. Better yet, if you are will to part with it, put the item of clothing in the box! Let’s see in a few years who was the biggest fashion criminal of 2017!

Help your nieces and nephews gather some photos of you all – the more locations in the photos, the better, like at your home or theirs, their favorite restaurant, in the car, at their school, the mall, and of course, on your latest “Auntventure” together. These will be great to look back on to see how things were at the time.

Take the children to pick up a print magazine or newspaper of their choice. I’d recommend one of each – a newspaper to show what was happening in the world on that day, and an entertainment or sports magazine to see what pop culture was like this year. By the time you open the capsule, who knows how much this news will have changed.

Make a list of current favorites - movies, books, TV shows, musician/songs, food, activities, etc. Perhaps include favorites you share together.

Include a photo of their favorite toy, plush or video game.

Write down a few facts about yourselves: age, height and weight, your current job/their current grade in school, their favorite classes, your/their best friend, hobbies, etc.

Get a Little Deeper Now

Each of you should write a letter to your future selves. Where do you each hope to be in X amount of years? Do you have a dream job in mind? Do they plan to be captain of a sports team, join chorus or band, or hold a leadership position in school? Do they want to go to college? Get married. To whom? Maybe one of you wants to take up a new hobby. Each of you write down every long-term goal you think of.

After writing letters to yourselves, now you write letters to each other. Tell your nieces and nephews where you hope they are in the future and what you imagine is to come, and have them do the same for you and each other.

Finally, make one more list of long-term goals, but this time, it’s for all of you. Make a list of places you want to travel to together. Pick a number of books you’d like to read and share. Make a list of restaurants you want to try. Pick a few hobbies you’d all like to take up together, like baking or a new sport. Get silly with it, and promise yourselves you’ll all dance in the rain one day. This list of yours knows no limits!

When the day finally comes for you to open the time capsule, in five, ten or twenty years – whatever you choose - you’ll have all these memories to share once again.

Have a Happy New Year!

Photo: Dmytro Sidelnikov
Published: January 1, 2017