Or for some of you, what are you now making a panicked rush to buy because you forgot it’s tomorrow? (I’m talking to you, boyfriend!)
It isn’t very sentimental, but my mom’s been having trouble with arthritis in her hands and I got her a set of food storage containers that you open and close by snapping up and down these panel things - much easier than lids you pull off. Plus, they were the best storage containers rated by Cook’s Illustrated. Dad will get her jewelry and I’m sure we’ll all go out to dinner, or maybe I’ll cook. Guess I ought to call Dad and secretly coordinate if we need to get reservations or not.
What I SHOULD be doing is finishing her grandmother’s footstool that I tried to have secretly done last year. I found out that upholstery with exposed nail heads is actually really challenging and something I’m going to have to pay somebody to do. That’s as far as I got. (To be fair, the refinishing was a bear of a job, and I did do that, and tightened the joints and all.) And if I put my ass in gear maybe I can have a copy of a picture made for her that I was supposed to get done, you know, in January after Grandma died.
But, hey, who doesn’t need more stuff to put your leftovers in that you haven’t lost the lids to yet?
I got her a t-shirt off of shirtwoot that has a really fun graphic of books and literary characters --Robin Hood is dueling Achilles, Sherlock Holmes is investigating the Kraken and Capt. Ahab is after it, stuff like that. I got one for me too.
I got Mom the same thing I’ve got her since forever, a hanging basket.
Every few years, I bring up how it’s not very original, and she immediately protests, “No, don’t ever change. I love them every year.”
She and my stepdad have a screened in patio with a metal awning outside of it with ample places to hang the ones my brothers and I each get her. It brings her pleasure all spring and summer through, so I guess there’s no reason to change.
I do try to vary the flowers and the color scheme every year, at least.
I got mom a gift certificate for a massage and I got my surviving great aunt/godmother a potted flower plant. Mom has a tendency to kill plantlife; even fake flowers aren’t safe from her.
When my mother was alive I either took her our for a meal at a nice restaurant and/or made her favorite meal at home. I always gave her flowers – sometimes a hanging basket, sometimes cut flowers, sometimes an azaela bush or something she could plant in the yard.
My MIL loves to garden, so I always get her something along those lines – plants, tools, etc.
I’m taking her out to eat at a nice seafood place and sending her flowers after Mother’s Day so she’ll be completely suprised. I’ve also bought her a cookbook and a little plaque that says “faith” (heh) on it.
I got mom tea; she drinks tea for breakfast, in the afternoon and after dinner. Since she gets herself anything she wants, I figure tea is a good bet since it won’t clutter up the house for long!
I got my MIL some cake decorating tools; she’s taking that up as a hobby, so I figure she can always use more tools. And if she already has them, well, I got gift receipts as well so she can return them and get herself something else.
I sent my mom a hand-made card and a gift card to a restaurant she likes that should feed four. She’s at the point in her life where she prefers to get consumables and she enjoys treating friends to a meal out.
You must really love your mom! I once pushed my dad all around the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen for an afternoon because he was down about his back hurting and missing out. My dad is 6’2 and weighs easily twice what I do. The next morning I thought I was going to have to call for a wheelchair myself.
Mom has this small Mom & Pop type restaurant she likes to go to. They don’t sell gift cards so I just called up the owner, gave him my credit card and told him to use that to pay whatever the bill is. (He’s knows my Mom)
At the time, I didn’t think nothing of it. I figured it would probably be just her and my Dad and maybe a couple of friends.
But then earlier today I got to thinking: 'Mom doesn’t ever do anything small. It’s more likely to be her and about ten other people. And it’s all going to be on one tab too because my M&D always pick up the tab when they go out." (They’re loaded)
So now I’m dreading Monday morning to find out what the bill is. :smack:
I thought fondly of her, of who she was, and of what she taught me.
I won’t be visiting her as EBS1* has her ashes securely held in her house, her wishes of being scattered or burried long having gone by the wayside.
I did get my MIL some fresh Kiebasa, which she loves, from the store by us (she doesn’t drive) and I took my boys out on the super secret mom shopping mission of cool cards, scratch-off tickets, and fresh chocolate from a specialty place I know.
The Crowning Jewel: a vase of chocolate roses mixed with fresh flowers.
