May is here which means Mother’s Day is once again upon us. I for one am looking forward to spending time with my own mother this Mother’s Day.
Now that we’re adults my mom generally spends one year with me and the other with my sister. Partly to be fair, but mainly because we live in two different states with Iowa in the middle. So unless one of us travels to the other she only gets to see one of us at a time. And she always insists on coming to us. I think it is mainly a ploy to get us to take her out to different ice cream places then she has where she lives.Which is besides the point.
These days mother’s day typically means I take my mother out to brunch if she’s visiting me or sending her something I know she’ll enjoy if she’s with my sister. But when I was little it meant making cards, little tinkety things that we picked out for mom and homemade gifts. My mom even has a couple of the tissue paper flowers I made for her one year.
However, every once in a while when I was a child we would get her a nice gift. Which often meant doing something with my older sister or our dad getting involved. I was probably about eight the year I decided to get her a really nice gift all on my own.
After months of saving up to buy her something really nice.I managed to talk my dad into taking me into town to buy mom’s Mother’s Day gift at the JC Penny in Rochester. Where I picked out a pair of tiny opal earrings for her; which she still wears every Mother’s Day.
I picked those earrings out from the jewelry counter at JC Penny’s. Not from one of the display tables, from the counter. I looked into the case and told the lady working the counter which ones I wanted to buy. Then I paid for them all by myself.
Those earrings cost eight year old me about $30; which is a lot of money if you’re an eight year-old circa 2005. But I was so excited to give them to her, because I bought them myself without any help from my dad or older sister.
While taking my mom out to brunch doesn’t have the same thrill of giving her my first big deal gift I had bought her myself. I am still looking forward to getting to spend this Mother’s Day with her.
