As I ate dinner last night, it occurred to me that most of our possessions are hand-me-downs. We sit at Brandon’s grandmother’s dinner table and eat off her 1940s Franciscan Desert Rose dishes. Vintage silver serveware from his Mimi decorates the walls. The rest of the house looks about the same.

Our house isn’t so different from the ones Brandon and I grew up in. His was stuffed with pieces his grandparents passed down and those his parents collected at antique shops.

Mamaw and Papaw didn’t have much, but everything they did was old. They kept everything – right down to their old wooden tv set. They were from a generation when people repaired rather than throwing away.

Brandon and I are like that too. We recently recovered the dining room chair cushions. We plan to work our way through the house, reupholstering and repairing as needed… protecting the family treasures we’ve collected.

There are little bits of our family history everywhere. Photos of our grandparents and great-grandparents greet you in our living room. My Papaw’s belt buckle and keys lay here – daddy’s pocket knife there. Even Bug and Belle’s rooms overflow with items once belonging to one of the past generations of our family.

Perhaps I sound like a traitor to my generation, but aren’t these the things that make up a home? I feel cozy and comforted by our family treasures. None of it is worth a whole lot, but then again, cash value isn’t the only kind of value.

Do you have a collection of family heirlooms in your home too?