As a former marketing major, I know that holidays like Mother's Day are largely created by the media and corporate America. But how they came to be and how you choose to celebrate them are two entirely different things.
Ours at home was simple, the way we prefer most things around here. It's an unstated rule that I get to sleep in on Mother's Day (even though I had also slept in the day before while Daddy got up with the kids). Sometimes I wake up to the smell of sausage and biscuits downstairs (my favorite home made breakfast). Sometimes I wake up to cards on the night stand.
This year, our four year old is still a bit under the weather. The first thing I got for Mother's Day was to snuggle with him under the covers in my bed. When he woke up, he came padding softly into our room and walked around to my side of the bed. I opened one eye to look at him, still pretty much asleep, and held out a hand. He took it and hopped up into bed and over me to the middle. Then he burrowed himself under the covers with me and backed into my arms. Daddy snuck out, and we slept for another hour or so.
"Mom," he whispered. "Hey, Mom!" a little louder. I'm pretty sure I mumbled something incoherent in response. "I'm going downstairs now, 'kay?" I maybe nodded. Or perhaps more mumbling of non-words, all the while thinking why on earth do you wake someone up to tell them you're leaving the bed? But the thought didn't last long, because I wasn't fully awake.
So I slept for another hour, until about 10:30 a.m.
This time the not-completely well four-year old and the husband appeared. The little one was holding my card, shoving it directly under my nose with an enthusiasm I couldn't quite match in my sleepy state. Josh had a plate with some of the best breakfast ever, the one I used to stop and pick up before work so often that the fast-food people started to know me by name and order. A sausage biscuit, two hashbrowns and a large Coke. A lot of times I would even forgo the sausage biscuit. Nothing like fried grease and Coke to start your day, right?
My husband had gotten the little guys up from bed, taken them downstairs with some toys and a WordWorld DVD, and then left for his breakfast errand. He even stopped by the delicious bakery downtown and picked up pastries and doughnuts for dessert. I was supposed to have a cherry and cream cheese danish on my plate, but instead had cut-up pieces of glazed and chocolate doughnut. Apparently my kids felt they were entitled to first dibs, seeing as how they were actually awake when he came home!
And then there was my card, probably the most appropriate and amusing one ever. It was a musical Hallmark card, that said something to the effect of "who do the kids ask for whenever they want anything?" When you opened it up, there were three cartoon character kids, and a really annoying chorus of inquisitive and eventually whining voices saying "Mom? (pause) Mom? (pause) Mo-o-om?" over and over again. Yeah, that pretty much sums up life with three toddlers (and only one of them actually says that word, one clutches at my hand all day and the other uses his eyes to "look" me into doing what he wants).
So I started my day with a snuggle, a little extra sleep, a delicious breakfast, and a laugh. I couldn't ask for more on my Mother's Day.
The rest of the day was pretty typical. The not-so-well one camped out on the couch, nodding off to college baseball and animated movies, and the other two played outside on the play sets. I made a phone call to my parents to catch up and wish my Mom a happy Mother's Day, and had the bonus of talking with both of them at the same time since they both picked up from different locations in their house!
At the end of the day, we headed out to Grammy and Pappy's house to celebrate the day with Josh's extended family. There was food, laughter, catching up and lots of playing. Not a bad way to spend any day.
