Happy Mother's Day!

I'm lucky enough to still have an amazing Mom around to celebrate Mother's Day with. We had a very nice day together.

First I gave her my gift, a "megaset" of her favorite Poirot series. I searched forever on Amazon looking for the right set. I eventually chose one because it included a documentary called Agatha Christie's Garden. As you might have guessed, it was all about Agatha Christie and her dreamy estate. Anyone who knows me understands that I LOVE real estate. I adore documentaries that show homes in their natural state. I've long said "If a film features a good house, I'm sold." It's why I've been watching Miss Potter lately on cable. Great real estate.

Anyway, Mom opened her DVD set and was as thrilled as I to see Agatha Christie's Garden. We popped it in the DVD player and watched it over a traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits and fried Spam (Don't you "eww" me! It's a childhood thing).

I then began polishing Mom's silver for her. She has a nice tea service that was in pretty bad shape. It looks fantastic now.

Dad eventually came home for lunch and a Laker game. I wandered off to read more of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (I've got two words for you "Foot Binding". I am so in! More on that in another post.) then we all made our way to my brother's house for BBQ. He made some amazing pork ribs and BBQ shrimp while my nephew kicked my butt all over the place via Guitar Hero. Man, that's a tough game. I only played one song, rather pathetically, and am possibly already addicted. Yup. Heroin and Guitar Hero... same addiction rate.

On the way home we listened to Dad's satellite radio. First we enjoyed an all-Elvis station then moved on to an old episode of Gunsmoke. We stumbled in on an episode where a woman had been found badly beaten and starving. The sheriff eventually finds the husband and tries to tell him off but the moron keeps insisting "She's my woman. I've got rights!" He repeated this refrain so many times that I decided he must have been some sort of Rainman of the West. I really wanted to listen to the rest of the show but my bladder had other ideas. I'll never know what happened to that poor woman. I'll just have to make up my own happy ending.

I'm now finishing some laundry and watching Cranford. It's another delightful Masterpiece offering with my favorite variety of subtle English wit. It also happens to have an incredible cast. I'd recommend it but I'm not sure it's for everyone. It's about a very slow paced town filled with a very old fashioned variety of scandal and drama. Mom and I love it.

It was an excellent day to share with Mom. She is a woman who was raised without a mother for all but about the first 4 years of her life. I often marvel at how she turned out to be such a wonderful mother without being around her own. I then remember that she was raised by several other lovely women. Her kind hearted aunt and the many mothers of friends who took her under their collective wing. She had many good examples but mostly I think she's got a good instinct for motherhood. She never let us get away with much but she always made us laugh. I think that's probably the best gift she ever gave my brother and I, a sense of humor.

So, Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you more than words could ever express. I hope you had as nice a day as I had.