Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Favorite Mother’s Day Tradition

I love Mother’s Day.  Is that okay to admit?  It’s one day out of the year when my kids actually want to please me just for the sake of making me happy.  No hopes for gain, no fear of revoked screen time, no sibling rivalry… they do it just to see me light up with appreciation.  So simple.  Wouldn’t it be grand if every day was like that?  Maybe… or maybe it’s the fact that it only happens once a year that makes so special and novel.

I love how everyone is in on it.  Dad, the teachers… all co-conspirators in making my day awesome.  My birthday doesn’t get the quite same royal treatment, because it falls during the summer and the three kids’ teachers probably weren’t planning for that.  I got some pretty sweet swag – a beautiful necklace and a bracelet from Sonya Renee (my favorite jewelry designer).  For me, though, I’m not all about the gifts.  My favorite part about it is receiving the little surveys and handwritten letters.  I know, I’m so corny that I sound like I’m full of it.  But I swear it’s true.  What could possibly beat a letter from your son demanding in all caps that you share the Swiss Chard from the garden?  Or reading that your daughter writes “My mom laughs when I fart” and “I love my mom because she takes car of me”?  Nothing, I tell you!  Ari and Liam even made their own notes, and Ari did her own survey by selecting from multiple choice options that Gabe and Bella gave her.

Like every year, we went to our special Mother’s Day place for dinner at 5 PM and sat at table 19.  Don’t even try to reserve it on that day at that time, if you happen to recognize it by the pictures.  I will say that my kids call it “Kelsey’s Chicken” although this isn’t the name of the restaurant.  We only eat here once a year.  It’s not that I only like it enough to visit once a year.  I like it a whole lot more than that; it’s the best patio in the valley if you ask me.  But going only on Mother’s Day helps me to recall the memories of Mothers Days past.  It’s like filing them all under the purple tab of the cluttered binder that is my mind.  And that’s how I feel about traditions in general.  I love them because they help me accomplish one of my cardinal goals as a mom: to remember and to remember with my whole heart, mind, and all five senses.  The repetition of a meaningful tradition helps me to do that.  And this is also the principal reason I blog.  You’ll see that my blog isn’t about winning Top Blog for this or that, replacing our income, or even teaching you how to garden/cook/bake/decorate/throw birthday parties (although that would be fun too!).  This blog is about remembering.  But I digress…

It was a great day, topped off by an even better evening.  All because of the five most important people in my life.

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