Heirlooms.

I made the below necklace at a laurel retreat my junior year planned by my wonderful mother. We received letters from important women in our life (for me that was my mom and my two grandmas) that contained an heirloom which we then assembled into a necklace.

What's what:  the big red button and the silver flower are buttons off one of my grandma Udall's dresses; the blue and yellow oval one is a broach from my grandma Smith; the watch face and strap is from my mom's college watch and the music note is from her charm bracelet growing up.

Up close picture of the collage.

Why am I bringing this necklace up if I made it so long ago? Well, I got an email from my dad today that had a really cool story about how my grandma and grandpa Smith met and their engagement process. Part of it talked about her freshman year at BYU (coincidence??) which made the whole story very relatable. I also got an email from my grandma and grandpa Udall who get home in eight weeks from Paraguay. The whole point of the necklace was for us young laurels to understand heirlooms and legacies and the importance of making our legacies own by knowing our families' stories. I wore it to church today because I wanted to be connected to my grandmothers' legacies. They both have written books that contain their histories and have been kind enough to give them to us grandchildren for Christmas, which all the grown-ups said we would really appreciate someday. And honestly, I have never given those books anymore thought from when I originally opened them. But today, when I was reading that story, I really enjoyed what I was reading and I think I am starting to see how priceless those Christmas gifts were. Thanks Grandmas! Love you!

I love my necklace ladies!