What do you give a grandmother that has everything?

My grandmother's "90th" birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I fretted over what to get her for this big occassion. My entire family (all 36 of us - and that's just my mother's side) came in town to help her celebrate.

Brief background on why the 90 is in quotes - in the Chinese culture age 1 is counted as soon as you are born, thus by westerned standards she is actually 89 years of age, but according to the Chinese tradition of counting age she is actually turning 90...thus the reason for the big family celebration. Confusing I know....try going by the lunar calendar for your birthday. It changes every year!

Back to the topic at hand...my beatiful grandmother. So what was I going to get my grandmother, that my aunts, uncles, cousins, mom, dad and brother wouldn't already get her? I knew I wanted it to be something she could cherish....and then I came up with an idea....

What better than to have a one of a kind necklace with your name on it....but since my grandmother doesn't read or really speak English, I wanted to make the Chinese character of her surname, TSAO.

It was quite complicated and intricate but I was pretty pleased with it when I finished. And Grandma was too!

It is composed of gold-filled wire carefully soldered together to make the Tsao character and lightly finished with a hammered texture. The sheer joy on her face when she saw it was more than enough for me. Moments like that make me realize how gratifying it is to be doing this.