My Favorite Mother's Day Present...Ever!!!

More than two decades ago—when my daughter Sara was just three years old—I received a Mother’s Day gift that I will never forget. It wasn’t an expensive piece of jewelry, a gift certificate to a designer boutique, or a weekend at a beauty spa. No…it was a nondescript ceramic mug selected by my young daughter when her “daddy” took her shopping to buy me something special for that special Sunday.

My Daughter Sara at Three

My husband brought my daughter to a shop that sold kitchen utensils, dinnerware, and pottery. He suggested to Sara that a mug for my morning coffee might make a nice gift for her mommy. She looked at the racks of mugs, pointed to a beige mug with a brown handle that had some writing on it and said, “I want that one, Daddy.” My husband read the writing on the side of the mug and tried to turn her attention to other coffee mugs. He pointed out one with brightly colored fish. “No,” my daughter said as she pointed again to her first selection, “I want that one.” My husband then showed her a mug with pretty flowers painted on it. “How about this one?” he asked. “No, Daddy! I want that one!” My husband could not change my daughter’s mind about the gift she wanted to give Mommy.

And so, reluctantly, my husband took the beige mug from the shelf and brought it to the sales clerk who read the writing on the mug and looked at him reproachfully. “This is a Mother’s Day gift?” she asked him with an edge to her voice. “Yes,” he gulped. She shook her head.

On Mother’s Day 1983, I unwrapped my daughter’s present…and laughed…and laughed. Every time I look at that mug I laugh. Here’s a picture of it:

Here’s what the writing on the mug says in case you can’t read it in the picture:

My Mother
Always told me:
Son, you can’t buy
LOVE.
But she never told me
That I couldn’t
RENT it.

Is that too funny??? I think it is. And that’s the story of my favorite Mother’s Day present…ever!!! And here's a recent picture of my beautiful, funny daughter...who keeps me laughing.

Have you got any tales to tell about your favorite Mother’s Day gift?