I hope you enjoy your work! And that it is fruitful.

It makes me nuts that my sisters, who have wonderful children, don't make a big deal of Mother's Day. Until I moved back to town, their kids didn't even buy them presents. Their husbands just took the family to lunch. Now I have one set of niblings well trained. All three of them (even my nephew) shop for running clothes for their mom. The other set of niblings still needs work. I'm taking them shopping later today....

We used to make a huge fuss (and an unbelievable mess) making breakfast in bed for our mom, making her cards, bugging our dad to take us shopping beforehand, wrapping her presents. Those are some of my favorite memories of my mom, watching her eat pancakes that (I now realize) were both burned and raw, proclaiming their magnificence, and watching her smile as she gently opened handmade cards and peeled off store-bought paper to reveal tiny tokens of our love.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are mothers, and all of us who have/had mothers.

We used to make Mommy breakfast in bed, with Rice Krispies, milk, orange juice, and toast. Many, many years later she confessed that she doesn't eat cereal, never has liked milk, and the toast was cold, and we'd leave her all alone and lonely with our "gift". Poor mom, even on "her day" she's the one who made US feel good.

One year I was at my roommates' family's for Mother's Day. When we all rolled out of bed to make her a leisurely breakfast, she was already dressed and ready to go to church. There was a mad scramble while everyone else got ready in record time.

My best gift is always my card. DH always makes a card, he is hysterical.

For the past 10 years or so, if our team is in town on Mother's day we make it a tradition to go see the baseball game that day. However this year they're out of town, so my son has decided to surprise me with a show and dinner of some sort in the city. I have no clue what he's planning, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I'll miss my daughter who's in LA.

Your question jogged my memory. At first I drew a blank, but then the memories flooded in. We lived in the city, so there were lots of shops within walking distance when we were old enough to cross streets by ourselves. My brother and I always bought our mother a corsage at the florist, perfume- Evening in Paris, but once Chanel #5, at the drugstore with our own money (allowance and change our father put in our banks nightly.) But there was one very special gift I selected at the ladies' clothing store - a quilted robe. I do not remember the robe, but I do recall selecting it, and the saleslady helping. I think it cost $12. I have the pressed glass candy dish that I purchased for 10 cents at Woolworths, this might have been the very first gift I gave her. When I was old enough to take a bus, gifts were nylon stockings which came in a thin box lined with tissue paper, a slip, or duster.

Beachem, very sweet tradition. All the stories are so cute and loving.

My most vivid memory of Mother's Day as a child was being so excited to cater to my mom that I made her a cup of coffee.

She was the only person who drank coffee so her daily morning cup was Folgers instant with a small bit of creamer. I saved up my allowance and bought a sampler pack of the Maxwell's international house cafe blends. Only problem was, I forgot to heat up the kettle first!!

I was so frustrated, stirring furiously and I couldn't figure out why the powder wouldn't dissolve!! She choked down her cold, not dissolved, fake coffee with a smile. She really was quite grateful at the effort I had put in. :)

My most vivid memory since I've become a mom though is quite different. It was my first mother's day as a mom, my first born was 9 months old.

We had planned on luncheon at my parents house. My mom made lunch, I brought dessert. When we got to my parents house, my dad and brother were not there. My brother had extreme abdominal pain and they were at the ER.

Turned out his gallbladder had ruptured and he ended up having emergency surgery.

As we were sitting around, waiting for an update from the hospital, I had a realization and I stated out loud, "wait a minute, today is mother's day. It's supposed to be OUR day so why did mom and I plan everything?!?!?"

From that day forward, with my mother's understanding, I have refused to be part of any mother's day planning.

So, tomorrow I am certain I will get a few hastily scrambled together presents, along with a few obligatory school project moms day gifts. It will almost certainly be last minute stuff.

I KNOW my kids and my husband appreciate me, but it sure would be nice if someone else had the same attention to detail that I have and actually planned something weeks in advance.

Oh well, there's always next year....

When my son was small- 7 or 8, maybe, I gathered all of the neighborhood boys he was friends with and we built birdhouses for the Moms. I pre-cut and pre-drilled everything, so they just assembled them and painted them. They were a big hit!

Another Mother's Day, my son and I did our own version of While You Were Out, and created an herb garden for my wife while she was at work. We made a circle of bricks, divided into 6 pie-shaped spaces for the herbs. We enjoyed that for many years until we moved.

Well, I'm lousy at things like this. I did get a really nice diamond necklace one year because I had been away at training for about 4 months and finally someone realized exactly what I did around the house. That didn't last long, so now I have my own house. I do the same amount of work, with less headaches! LOL. Last night my 14 year old said Oh NO! I have to get up early and go get you a gift for Mother's Day! I told him not to worry about it. I think we are going to the movies later today and possibly dinner, but for 3 no one will take reservations, so it's a crap shoot if we'll get in anywhere at a reasonable hour. We don't eat out very often. I get up earlier than the boys, so breakfast is long over by the time they wake up! They'll make me lunch though. One year after we moved, on my birthday my older son said he'd make me breakfast, so he made my tea, two pieces of peanut butter toast and put 12 mini cupcakes (that my ex-sister in law gave him for me) around the plate and he brought that in and his brother carried in the tea. That was pretty nice! LOL.

I know that I gave my mother gifts; but since her birthday was usually the same weekend (like yesterday would have been) I don't really remember anything in particular. I don't even remember making her breakfast; but I think that we did ( I think my middle brother would have orchestrated this) and of course the hand made cards. I do remember going out and picking a wildflower bouquet for her every year (at least, until I was a teen!) I remember that my dad was diligent in buying her a corsage for every occasion; Oh! I remember one year we bought her a stepstool for the kitchen! Now I wonder if she had requested that!

For myself, I would receive cards from my daughter. I was a single parent from the time she was two, working full time (and being on call 24/7) and maintaining a house. One Mother's day, my brother came over unannounced and mowed my lawn. That was really special to me, and very very much appreciated, as I really had my hands full and generally got little to no acknowledgement of that or assistance from my parents and sibs, or my ex. Funny, ex-DH was no help but he continued to give me little gifts on Mother's day. I wonder how his new wife felt about that.

@Eam44 it's great that you're training the next generation. Mom should be appreciated all the time but at least they're doing it once a year.

@raee_gw, mushcreek, Texas_gem, happy2be, linelle, cpartist, bpbathome

Your stories are so sweet. I loved reading them.

Keep your memories coming.

I am enjoying the stories too.

When I was young my father took me and my siblings to get my mom a pink flowering dogwood tree. When he was young he'd planted trees at every house he lived in with his family, and we always enjoyed seeing how much they'd grown when we happened to see any of his childhood homes. He knew my mom loved dogwoods and reasoned that a tree that we could watch grow over the years would be a lovely symbol of our love for her and how it grows with each day and year that passes. I remember all of us planting it on the yard, still in our pjs, early before she woke up. She loved it and lamented leaving it behind when we moved a few years later. One of my brothers went to visit the old house a few years ago and somewhere along the last 20 years since we moved, the tree had been removed, which slightly broke our hearts. I'm overly cautious about removing any plants from our yard now as a result!

My most special Mothers' Day as a mother has to be my first. My first child was born about three months prematurely, a few days before Mothers' Day three years ago. He was in the NICU, of course, and I was still reeling from having had him so early. I wasn't able to hold him yet as he was too tiny and frail, but they lifted the lid on his incubator and let me touch him and talk to him for a few minutes. He recognized my voice and tried to look at me. In that moment I felt more love than I ever had in my life and I finally understood what being a mother, and the love of a mother, meant. My gift might have come in a different package, but it was the most precious gift I ever could've hoped for. (He turns three tomorrow and is an absolutely perfect, rambunctious little man now!)

Best Mother's Day? This one.

oldest dd had an abdominal mass removed last week. Found out Friday it was benign. Happy campers at my house and hers. She has a 3 yr old and a 1 yr old. Lots of kissing going on this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you :-) Cheers!

girouxgh, you jogged my memory for this story. :-) The year after I was married, my husband and I purchased a lilac tree for my mom for Mother's Day. At that time, in the late 70's, we spent our off-work hours on our motorcycle, so the tree was moved from the nursery across town to my mom's home squished between my sweetie and me. At that time, we did not have a sissy bar, and it was awkward and dangerous, but we made it and it was a great surprise for my mom. My sweet mom has been gone 13 years, and I miss her still.

Please accept my "Happy Mother's Day" to everyone. Thanks for sharing and prompting happy memories. What great questions, beachem.

I just have to brag....I didn't wait another year!!!

I woke up to breakfast in bed, got to snuggle with each one of my kids individually, then I got my presents.

The absolute best present was a collapsible wagon! I had mentioned to hubby how much I wanted one a few months ago. Several other moms at my kids' school have one and they make it so much easier when doing room mom/PTA stuff at the school and on field trips.

Turns out he was listening and, when he got to drive for the first time in 3 weeks due to his eye, he went and bought me one.

My 1st grader has a field trip tomorrow and I'm planning on using it. :)

Then we watched Inside Out, a cute movie I've been wanting to see since it came out, and swam in the pool until it was bedtime.

A perfectly awesome day with my perfectly awesome family! :D

That collapsible wagon came in so handy for travel soccer games! Chairs, blankets, food, backpacks! Money well spent. We brought it to the zoo when my nephew and niece were visiting and they rode in it for a short time too, even though they aren't designed for children to ride in.

Belated Happy Mother's Day all. So glad about your DH's eye TG! And your DD's benign mass ILR.

Most memorable MD was when I lost the fake stone I'd bought for my mother and didn't replace it. I was so depressed that I'd lost it that I did nothing!

I don't get gifts from my kids/DH but sometimes I buy myself plants for the garden. Not this year though since we're taking everything out and re doing it all.

Mother's Day.
The Day of Nightmares for the restaurant business.
People take their mothers out.
Evidently many people who

1) never go out themselves and hate paying for it -- sticker shock
2) never see their mothers, but feel they must take her out and
3) resent having to spend the time and money on their mother.

God forbid you work in a casual restaurant. To take mother out on Mother's Day means taking them out "someplace nice." When Chick Fil-et is your norm, a casual restaurant is a step up. Talk about a headache and working for people who are already mad when they walk in. Talk about people who shouldn't GO out because they shouldn't be allowed in public? Talk about working for nothing? HARD for nothing?

That said, I gardened. My mom passed two years ago. I made the bright move to take this weekend off after last year's [debacle] Mother's Day and enjoyed every sprinkle of rain and every burp of sunlight.
I don't remember what we did on Mother's Day as a family, because I haven't lived with my family in over 30 years. I know I always made a call, at least. Seems blah.

I'm a mother and a grandma, and I don't make a big deal out of Mother's Day. I like a call, and yesterday got a lovely email from my DD, a gift from my son (just something he'd been wanting to give me for awhile, and this was a good excuse) and a fabulous Facetime call with my 18-month old grandson. I got to pick what we had for dinner last night, and I didn't have to cook it. Otherwise, like any other Sunday. Perfect.

My son surprised me with tickets to see Aladdin on Broadway yesterday. :) Never mind he's almost 28 years old. He figured we loved the movie when he was a kid, so would enjoy the show and he was right! We did. Afterwards we headed back to the island for dinner in a local restaurant. All in all a perfect day.

The only thing missing was my Mom who passed away almost two years ago. I miss her every single day. :)

Oh and my memory was jogged about a peach tree we bought the first year we moved into our house when my kids were 2 and 6 years old. Every year we took a picture of the kids in front of the tree until our marriage fell apart.

Worst memory? In I should have known at the time? LOL.

My son was about 20 months and had quite a vocabulary already. My ex didn't get me anything for mothers day. Not a card with my son's name on it, nothing. I was so mad I confronted him and suggested that the least he could have done was tell our son to say Happy Mother's day to me. He insisted that would be too hard to teach our son.

I turned to my son and said, J, please say "Happy Mother's Day."

J then said, "Happu Muddah's Day Mommy."

For father's day that year, I taught my Son to say, "Happy Father's Day" and found a picture of our son and I snuggling, put it in a cheap frame, wrapped it up, gave it to our son and had our son give it to his father and say, "Happy Father's Day."

Needless to say, his father never forgot mother's day again. Too bad it took me another 14 years to see the writing on the wall.

This one! With my own mother having passed away a few years ago (whom I miss deeply!), and my sweet mother-in-law gone since October, and my three boys all out of town this year for the first time ever (one at UC San Diego, 3 hours away, one on a medical mission in Papua New Guinea, and the other in CT at a new job) I had no plans. But my youngest surprised me by coming home early, letting himself in, and making me breakfast as I slept in. I thought it was my husband downstairs. Extra bonus, my boys can really cook! During breakfast I got to Face Time with my CT son and then extra surprise, I got an email from the son in PNG for the first time in 3 weeks (he only has sporadic access to internet). Great day. (Oh, but I had to bite my tongue because my son is a tornado in the kitchen and it isn't even finished yet!!)

" nylon stockings which came in a thin box lined with tissue paper"

I remember that! those were the good ones!