Decorate Your Future

December 26, 2024

Each year, during a family vacation or local outing, my family selects three new Christmas ornaments for our collection: one for each child and a shared one for my husband David and me. As we decorate the tree in December, we start in Ross Family Year 1 and move chronologically through our life together, recalling where we were when we got each ornament. When the kids leave the nest, they'll take their set along, and, we hope, continue the tradition.

As our collection has grown, decorating the tree has taken longer—not just because there are more ornaments to hang and stories to share, but because we have to root through more wrappings to find each one. So for me, the tradition became slightly clouded over time by the pinprick anxieties that would surface when an ornament didn’t turn up right away: Was it broken? Stored in another box in the attic? Hidden in last year’s tree and accidentally thrown out? Madison’s 2016 ornament from our trip to Concord, MA never made it to the 2017 tree, so this is not without precedent.

But last year, I finally got wise: As we took down the tree, I made bright, cheerful labels on origami paper and laid them on the ornaments as I placed them back in the sorting box. When we put up the 2024 tree, decorating was as easy as telling the stories. "THANK YOU, 2023 DEB!" I said out loud, because of course I did. And because "2024 Deb" can't help herself when a soapbox opportunity pops up, I seized the moment to linger on the point: You should always thank those who make your life better, and that includes your past self. It's much easier to motivate yourself to do something tedious when you know it will be appreciated someday, so make sure to give that gift to yourself each time. My family thought it was the height of dorkiness—and it was—but I think they got the message.

So as you close Chapter 2024 and open Chapter 2025, take a moment to appreciate the tough things you did this year to make life easier and brighter for Future You. Just as you remind your kids to say thank you for a kindness, make it a habit to thank yourself, too—because what you did matters, and so do you.

—Deb