Romantic Traditions: Displaying Keepsakes Like Chopsticks!: a house log

We enjoy sharing little household traditions with you folks. There are simply so many low-cost and straightforward ways to commemorate special dates and display unique items in your home that can make it feel more personal and meaningful. For example, we whipped up these vacation jars a while back…

… and also explained that we enjoy sending a postcard to ourselves to assist remember all the details of every vacation that we spend together (they look strong tossed in a large glass vase):

We also shared how we framed old keys to commemorate all the places we lived before moving into this “forever home” of ours (as seen to the left of the postcards in a vase above).

And how I snagged a vintage map on ebay, mounted it on cork, and framed it for a plain pinboard that helps us chart all the places we have traveled together (we have since brought in a bunch of pins thanks to our big Texas road trip):

And how we enjoy to pose for some low-cost-o photostrips on big days like anniversaries and other momentous occasions (like the day we found out I had a bun in the oven):

But sufficient looking back, let us get back to 2010 shall we? Speaking of the brandspankingnew year, John and I in fact have a strange little New Year’s Eve tradition: a pleasant romantic sushi dinner. It in fact became a tradition after we were together a few years and realized that we had subconsciously gone out to a sushi dinner on Dec 31st ever since we began dating. So after accidentally enjoying a pleasant little Japanese feast together in 2005 and 2006, of course when the end of ’07, ’08, and ’09 rolled around we kept the tradition alive. And somewhere along the line John suggested that we save a pair of chopsticks from each restaurant (unused ones of course) and label them with the date, the occasion, and the place where we dined. It is such a low-cost (well, free in fact) way to keep tabs on our year-ending whereabouts- and it is lively when they are displayed en masse atop a lacquered box, stashed in a cup on my desk, or even stuck in this Ikea vase:

We enjoy that we can glance at them and remember evenings spent celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another- and it is strong to see that we in fact kept the tradition alive no matter where we were traveling at the time (from Georgia to Delaware and of course on the home front in Richmond, VA).

Oh and not to worry folks, this year it was only cooked fish and veggie sushi for me since the bean is “on board.” But it was still simply as delicious and memorable. So that is our odd little sushi inspired tradition. What about you? Do you have any “momentos” that you collect or even label to assist you remember special events or milestones? Matchbooks? Bottle caps? Sea shells? Wine corks? Snow globes? Menus? Shot glasses? Tattoos? Do tell.