A friend and I were talking the other day about the importance of ‘building memories’ – the things that stay with us in our hearts long after the actual moment has faded. As autumn blusters in, with the holidays literally just around the corner, one of my favorites comes to mind. Our son was 14 and we were living in Northern California, so my husband and I decided we would rent a cabin in Yosemite for New Year’s. We were hoping for snow on the ground and a huge fireplace to warm ourselves in front of.    

At the time, I was the General Manager of a large department store and I found these cute jewel encrusted champagne flutes for ninety-eight cents each. Oh, yeah, a bargain – but one seized with the ‘building memories’ in mind. Wouldn’t it be fun to pop open a bottle of champagne, enjoy it and then throw the glasses into the fire. Crash – Happy New Year. We’d feel like the Greeks, who smash plates after dinner. And remember, after all, they were only ninety-eight cents a piece.

So – we have this plan. And we’re going to enjoy it. And Michael’s into it, too. Until New Year’s Eve – after we’ve sipped on our chilled bubbly, and none of us have the heart to break these cute little glasses. (I’m laughing now, because it was too funny. We just couldn’t do it.) We washed the glasses and brought them home with us — and we still talk about that night.

To date – those three “cheap” glasses have moved all over the world with us … they now reside in our Florida home, where we pull them out to celebrate another New year … How’s that for building memories?