Pick your Precious - Story Telling Sunday

I was rather caught on the hop today.  We have just returned from a weekend of camping to find that it is of course the first Sunday of the month, which means it is Story Telling Sunday.  My camera was busy downloading the photos from the weekend so I had to think fast about pictures I had of something precious that fitted with this month's theme of being given with love.  

My mind immediately turned to obvious things like my rings - engagement, wedding and eternity, but I didn't have pictures of those.  Then I remembered a very special piece of jewellery that is tucked away somewhere safe (i.e. now I come to think of it, I can't recall where it is...)  

I remember the day that we went out to choose this; myself, my fiancé at the time (now my husband of almost 15 years, otherwise known as Management) and my dear old Dad.  We went out specifically to find something suitable for a girl turning 21.  A girl who wanted the world but had it right there in front of her and didn't know it.  We went into various jewellery shops in Portsmouth because my Dad really wanted to get me a locket, something I could keep and wear forever regardless of fashions and sizes.  In the end, we chose this ensemble with my Dad buying the locket (as he wished) and Management purchasing the chain to accompany it.  

In the years gone by I have had periods of wearing it everyday and other times (when the children were little and "grabby") when I didn't wear it for months.  I wore it once while holding a baby around 9 months old and he put it in his mouth revealing a little tooth mark in the back of the locket.  You can see that many of the links have been stretched over time through being pulled too.  This locket has seen a lot of action in the last 18 years...

People often ask me what I have in it, expecting photos of loved ones or a lock of hair, but I always answer the same thing - kisses.  It used to be Management's job to fill it up with kisses in the morning before we went to work and then I would have enough to last me through the day.  At one time it became Louis's job to fill it up.  There was also a time that Bella would "steal" the kisses inside that were meant for Mummy whenever she needed them.  With her starting school in September, I think I need to find that locket and have it filled up with kisses from all three of them before they leave for their respective activities in the morning so that when I am home alone, working on something and thinking of them, I can have a little bit of them to last me until they get home.

Have you got a story to share about something precious?

Bye for now
xx