Among Friends

[skatting44]

My GreatGrandMother's ring . Also some very old  family photos.

[Sooner]

A horse!  Nothing else close!  

[Shanus]

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@Luv2Watch wrote:

Christmas in July has got me thinking about all of the money we spend on gifts each year.

So many presents we give and receive soon become "forgettable" while a select few standout and become true treasures that we would never want to part with. 

Maybe you could share which gift meant the most to you and why you value it so much.

Maybe you were the recipient, or maybe you were the receiver.

Here's one that I'd like to share:

A dear friend of mine had a very turbulent relationship with her judgemental and harsh mother. Even as a grown woman with her own husband and children, my friend was constantly seeking her mother's approval and love, but her attempts were always met with disdain and coldness.

One day, I gave my friend a sterling silver bracelet with a 'key" charm on it along with a tiny card on which I wrote one of my favorite sayings:

               "Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket."

My friend sobbed relentlessly when she opened the present and read the card.

She has since moved to another state, but she tells me that gift of the "key" and the quote gave her strength and perspective and helped her make a mental shift that she had never been able to do before. She rose above her daily struggles with her mom and realized how much time and emotion she had been wasting trying to please someone who could never be pleased.

I think giving her that gift gave me more joy than it gave her to receive it.

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@Luv2Watch  I had a beloved aunt who had no children. When she passed, she gifted me her long strand of beautiful pearls. I treasure them and wear them almost every day...jeans, dressed up, etc. I always think of her when i put them on. They are quite meaningful to me. 

I also cherish the holiday gifts the granddaughters make for me. I'm not above wearing their beaded and/or girlfriend bracelets, necklaces made with those colored rubberbands. It's priceless seeing the looks on their faces when I show up wearing them. 

[Sooner]

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@Sooner wrote:

A horse!  Nothing else close!  

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To be very honest, it was my friend in a lonely childhood. 

[Calcgirl]

My family.

[qualitygal]

When I was still in elementary school, dad and mom hand built and decorated a horizontal doll house for us.  Ranch style I guess you could say.  My sister and I could play with that for hours on end.  It was the best in my book.

Second best a metal ice hockey game.  Fast, furious, and almost wet myself laughing so hard and didn't want to stop playing.  Had a great growing up time. Great parents.

[qualitygal]

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@On It wrote:

i was a young adult visiting my grandmother one summer afternoon. She took me into her bedroom, opened her jewelry box, and took out her original gold wedding band. (My grandfather had given her a beautiful diamond band some years before.) She said that she wanted me to have it. I was stunned as I was the middle grandchild out of five. There were other granddaughters both younger and older. I still cherish her wedding ring knowing she chose to give it to me.

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My grandmother passed on to me her engagement ring.  I've loved jewelry since childhood.  Evidentally, I always asked if I could have it.  Don't remember that at all, but grandma did and now I have it.  So thankful.