Mother's Day -- Mission Accomplished

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
--Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Ah yes another Mother's Day has come and gone. I and the day ended with smiles for both my mom and my wife. This year I had my stuff together with Mother Day for the most part. I had gifts in mind from the get-go. Mothers day is not a day taken lightly in my family, its a MAJOR holiday. No last minute shopping at the mall that Sunday to hand her something later in the day. No way, that can lead to a very unpleasant day for all.

My gift idea was a locket, a tasteful piece of jewelry that the Lady can keep a few photos within. As I wandered from store to store and browsed online the vast majority of lockets are in the shape of hearts and seem to run to either extreme of the design. Either they are very plain to the point of being unimpressive as a gift or gaudy to the point of being unwearable. And again all of them were these damned heart shaped things. The Lady doesn't wear hearts around her neck, ain't her style... Through my browsing online I knew that there were a few oval shaped lockets out there, that matched my mental images of the perfect gift. I found one, because I'm a born and bred shopper 1st class. But I'm sure plenty of schmoes were buying these guady things for their wives and moms. Those jewelry cases are such a minefield of bad decisions waiting to be made.

I'm happy Mother's Day went well for our family this weekend, but man am I glad its over. These holiday's stress me out to no end. All I asked for this Father's Day is a card, that's it. Not that Father's Day is as huge a deal to begin with... but that's a topic for another day.