Christmas Gifts for Mom and Dad

Every year, I have a hard time trying to figure out what to get my parents for Christmas.  My dad always gets on to us about it. He doesn't want anything, and he means it!  My mom on the other hand likes to get stuff. The problem is, I like to get things that have a special meaning. Since I've been into photography, I have been just giving them pictures of the kids. 

This year, I have come up with some good gifts for my parents.  My dad hates the new light bulbs (as I do too), and has been stocking up on the old ones. So, I've decided to buy him some old light bulbs., because they will not be making them in the near future. Sounds pretty weird, but I think he might actually get a kick out of that. 

As far as my mom, I've been doing a lot of thinking on that. Not long ago, I had my Young Women's Medallion on, and she commented on how she like what I had done with it. 

My medallion 

Years ago (like over 20) my mom had been Young Women's President for six years, and had earned her medallion. She told me she had no idea where it was. I can remember her getting it and thought how sad that she had lost it.  Since that time the program has come up with new medallions. They use to be gold with a young women in a flowing dress (which you cannot get anymore). Then they changed to your choice of gold or silver and had a temple on it. Most recently, they have added the "ruby" to the bottom. 

Just before I was released from Young Women's, the church librarian gave me a box of old Young Women stuff. I opened it up to find a bunch of old charms from the old Young Women's program. The girls wanted them, but I didn't think it was right to just be given them away, so I emailed Salt Lake to see what they thought I should do with them. They told me that I could just mail them back and they would destroy them. I don't think so!!!!!

In the old program, you would earn a charm after you graduated from Beehive, then one for Mia Maid, and then one for Laurel and you would then receive the medallion with the girl on it, making a total of four charms. Since I had gobs of these charms, I shadowed boxed a grouping for display in the Young Women's room. It was actually kinda neat. One of my counselors, who had grown up in the ward and moved away, then moved back, had just lost her medallion in the recent move. She was devastated, as she use to wear it all the time. I know she had earned it, so I just gave her one to replace the lost one. Then I went ahead and grabbed one to give to my mom. The rest are in the closet at church.

So, this year for Christmas, I made my mom a necklace to hang the medallion on. As you can see it is made up of many colors. Each color represents a different value. 

White for Faith

Blue for Divine Nature

Red for Individual Worth

Green for Knowledge

Orange for Choice and Accountability

Yellow for Good Works

Purple for Integrity

These were the original colors when my mom got her medallion, so I just put these colors on. About two years ago, they added one more value; Virtue, and the color is gold.

I have one more thing I want to do for my parents as a joint gift, and then I will be done with them. I love making things for people, and am grateful that I have this talent to make nice jewelry. I'm sure my mom will love her new necklace, and I know she will not be reading this. That's why I went ahead and blogged about it...