Keeping a Family Journal – Getting Started

There are many reasons why you would want to keep a family journal. For example, you may want to remember the memories of your family growing or changing. Or, you may even wish to remember those who are no longer part of your family. To ensure your family journal is personal, unique, and valuable, you will want to focus on the content. So, with this in mind, what content must you look at including?

The Important Memories

Begin by making a note of those important memories before they are lost. Remember those birthdays gone by, the graduations that only felt like yesterday or even those special wedding anniversaries? Remember the important memories with photos and quotes or lines from the event. You may wish to document these memories yourself, or you may wish to get others involved. You may also want to add timestamps to your memories to ensure you do not get confused as time passes.

The Special Dates

Every family will have special dates in time when their family unit changed, and these are the things you will want to log in your journal. For example, a special date may be when your first child was born. Or, it may be when you met your partner or got engaged. As life gets busier and more hectic, it can be difficult to remember these dates and how they felt. However, if you add them to a journal, you and other family members will be able to remember how they felt.

Birthdays, Gifts Purchased, and Received

In a journal, it is always nice to note what gifts you have received and purchased for others. It can be hard trying to remember everything you have purchased or bought for others – and this is when a family journal is useful. For example, noting down what you have purchased will ensure you do not duplicate this further down the line when you are out shopping for others. In your journal, you may also wish to remember those nicer gifts you received. For instance, you may want to remember a special birthday when you received a personalized bottle or two of your favorite liquor from the Oxton Liqueur Company. Keeping a log of gifts received and purchased can also give you inspiration and ideas for future gift-giving.

A Log from All Family Members

A family journal must feature segments and logs from all family members. If you are the only one writing the journal or keeping track, you will only ever see one side to a story or memory. However, when others log their entries into the journal, it makes things more exciting and interesting, as they will have a different view and possibly even a different memory to add.

Updating a Journal Regularly

To keep your journal relevant, you are going to have to remember to update it regularly. If you are not adding logs regularly, the journal will stop being added to, and this will be a shame for you and for others who are reading it too. Focusing on improving your memory and committing to a regular update time is going to help.