Gift for 6 months Sober for Mom and a box/display for her AA coins

April 21, 2014 4:09 PM

Hi All, My mom is going to be 6 months sober. She loves her AA coins and I would like to find a treasury box or display for her- something like etsy- really cute. She just loves rhinestones/crystals and bling. What creative things have people done to store/display their AA coins or what is something really nice I can do to celebrate her AA anniversary? i am a grad student, so not a lot of moolah. Any nice mantras/meditations or sayings I can put in a "coping jar". She lost her house and her dad this year. it;s been real hard for her not to drink and I am always trying to help her with counter triggers- so something positive to do when she has a trigger.
posted by TRUELOTUS to Society & Culture (9 answers total)

Hey that's great, go mom! I'm not sure how big the AA coins are but there are a lot of useful coin display things that are usually for coin collectors and/or people who collect military coins. Many of these are more traditional but could be altered. I think about simple but elegant things like this one, much simpler but more affordable ones like this (check measurements) or a thing like this for poker chips but I think it would work. You have a bunch of options that will be $40 or less so I'd think about where she'd want to put it and whether it would be for public display or sort of private going over (in which case something that closed would be a better option). From a cute angle you've got stuff like this (more of a container than a display) or like this (blingy piggy bank) or a pretty glass change dish or here's a blingier one.
posted by jessamyn at 4:48 PM on April 21, 2014

Is making something yourself an option? e.g., mason jar (not sure if that's big enough?), rhinestones from uhhh... amazon? Thick black paper, silver marker, etc.?
posted by slater at 4:48 PM on April 21, 2014

Medallion holders are apparently a thing.
posted by xingcat at 5:20 PM on April 21, 2014

Help her make a dream board with pictures of the life she wants to have 5 years from now. Have her glue her coins around it as she gets them, as the frame.
posted by myselfasme at 5:36 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Congratulations to your mom, of course.

I am not surprised to hear that "official" medallion-accessories exist, as xincat points out. Like pretty much everything, "recovery" has become an industry of sorts. When I was in early sobriety, I didn't bother with collecting medallions; I wasn't interested in tying my sense of progress to an object, and I didn't want any additional trinkets to haul around. But that's me; I understand that such markers can be extremely important to others.

Briefly exploring the "medallion holders" market, it looks like many are selling for > $30. And for ones that only hold one coin at a time, no less (perhaps the idea is to rotate in your current chip?). I'm guessing that you could save some money by getting a small frame from Target, Kmart, etc. and covering the backing plate with dark felt. Not only would it be more personal, but she could display all of them at once.

I don't really have any top-of-the-head suggestions for mantras and such. If she's active in AA, she's hearing plenty already. If you gather that she is finding them helpful, you might check out some AA/recovery-affiliated websites for ideas, or just ask her which ones she's found meaningful. Here's an alternate idea of something to put in that jar, though; how about pictures and other reminders of the good times she has experienced so far in her recovery? Obviously, she has suffered some serious blows -- heavy enough to push anyone off the proverbial wagon! -- during her early sobriety, but she must have made some new friends, and rebuilt some burned bridges, right? Anything (a picture of the two of you, a ticket stub to an event she attended without drinking, etc.) that she can reference when things get rough.
posted by credible hulk at 6:02 PM on April 21, 2014

For the medallion display (which I think is a really great present!), if you can find a nice basic coin/medallion holder, it's pretty easy to add some extra "bling" yourself to give it a personal touch. It looks like Jessamyn has some good ideas.

In terms of mantras/meditations, there's a section from the big book called the promises which is really nice. Here's a copy of that section. There's also the third step prayer, although that may be a bit "god heavy" depending on your/her preferences. Here are some other general AA/recovery sayings:

Progress not perfection.
It works if you work it.
The serenity prayer (God grant me the serenity...)
One day at a time
Keep coming back

Also, does she have her own copy of the big book? I wouldn't be crafty enough to pull this off, but I've seen some people make nice, personalized book sleeves, so that would be another (relatively cheap) option.

One last idea: Does she have a copy of the Daily Reflections? It's basically filled with a very short reading for each day of the week. That could make a nice gift although it's fairly popular, so I would try to check first and see if she has it.

You are an awesome daughter for doing this, and congrats to your mother on her sobriety!
posted by litera scripta manet at 6:04 PM on April 21, 2014

I think a charm bracelet would be cool. Should be pretty easy to make and yu can add to it as she gets more.
posted by raisingsand at 6:52 PM on April 21, 2014

AA chips are 39mm in diameter or at least used to be. So I would suggest going to a framing store and having them cut a thick matting board sized to an Ikea Ribba frame with maybe 12 holes cut out. The matting board can be any colour, and your can decorate the frame as well. You can epoxy things to the frame, so maybe get a cute plaque made on Etsy to attach to the frame. The result would be extremely vaguely like this but you get the idea...
posted by DarlingBri at 7:23 AM on April 22, 2014

Response by poster: thanks all!!
posted by TRUELOTUS at 10:35 AM on April 24, 2014