For boys maybe it’s baseball cards. I’ll have to figure it out. Girls, I know girls.

When I was a toddler my grandparents gave me a gold heart charm locket with a diamond in its center. The locket opened, and I wear it still today.

I love gifts like this, long ones. The gifts that stay with us throughout our lives, the ones we cherish enough to pass on. I’ve wanted, for a long time now, to get a gold charm bracelet for me, and a matching one for Abigail. Each year, our tradition would be to get a new charm. Maybe we’d mix and match. They’re literally links, a link to where we’ve been, reminders of fads and fights and the bond between a mother and daughter. Even if it will be many years before she can wear the bracelet, I’d still like to the collect the charms now, so she too can say, "I was given this when I was just a little girl."

I like yellow gold best for a charm bracelet. I’ve written before that I’ve never, ever, been a big fan of Tiffany’s. Love the color, but it’s kind of a cliche of a store, even if it is timeless. It’s also so Long Island, the way David Yurman is so Texas. So, I’ve always preferred more "creative" jewelry, thinking outside the Tiffany Box. However, I’ve got to say, Tiffany’s has just about the best charms I’ve ever seen, but with prices to match. What I love best, though, is the bracelet. The links of the bracelet open, so you can insert the charm, rather than each charm needing a big honkin’ clasp. I also love the possibility that you can then attach anything, and it won’t need a clasp. Brilliant. I think I might just cave and get the Tiffany bracelet.

I love the rain. LOVE. Love so much I should move to Seattle. Love the mood of it, and storms are just outright sexfests. They’re best in the afternoon when it should be bright, but the sky darkens and it feels like 7pm. Love it. My father will sometimes call complaining of the weather. "Ugh, it’s still raining. Enough. I can’t play golf in this. But you, you love this weather." I do. I also love this Tiffany umbrella charm, which I know some might associate with bad luck indoors, but to me it represents so much more: opening up, renewal, and that enchanting whimsy of a little girl twirling her umbrella. It represents cycles and new days, growth. I think I’ve just come upon my new power symbol (sorry Mr. Turtle). I could see myself wearing it alone, on a very thin, barely there, fine gold chain. But at $950? Talk about saving for a rainy day. What I need is an 18k gold knock-off.

I also love this Pail & Shovel by Roberto Coin (with his signature small ruby on back) for my Little Miss, Abigail Ruby. I’ve found it for $675. Yikes. This is an expensive story, no?

Charms tell a story. Here’s mine: NYC Taxicab, Martini with emerald olive, A camera that opens or where the dial turns, A laptop or pen, An artists palette to represent creativity and imagination, A bikini (to represent my time in the Hamps with the chicklets),  A tennis ball, or something to represent my crazy ball-chasing-chewing-hiding between sofa cushions LINUS, A Jean Schlumberger Turquoise egg (Turquoise is the birthstone of the sprouts), A Moose or a scale, or perhaps a powder puff (hello Chubb Rub), and then, when I make a movie I’ll need to add a film reel… I kind of love that I don’t know what’s next. In the meanwhile, I can dream up wish lists on ThisNext:

A YEAR AGO: (Un)comfort Food, Slacker Mom

5 YEARS AGO: Turks, Frogs, and Pink Elephants