Mother's Day 2012

I know that Father's Day is almost near and that this post is a month too late, but I wanted to share what my sister and I (with a little help from our Dad) went through to give my mom the most relaxing Mother's Day she's ever had. I don't know why I haven't had a chance to write this last month (maybe it's because of all that book writing :P), but here it is anyway.

My sister and I had everything planned the week before Mother's Day, but we had to make a few changes because we had to go somewhere that Saturday. So very early that Sunday morning, my Dad and my sister went to the supermarket. But what my mom thought is that they were going to our house in Laguna.

A few moments after I woke up, my mom asked me to call them and ask them where they were. When I got to talk to my sister about how her shopping went, I forgot to ask what to tell my mom where they were. So when she asked me again, I told her that they were in Magallanes (the place where I thought they were shopping), and my mom asked how that could be because it was in the opposite direction. I got her to believe that the connection was bad when I spoke to my sister so I might have heard the place wrong.

When they got home, my sister had to sneak in a few of the stuff that had to go to the fridge but my mom caught her without getting a glimpse of what exactly she was hiding. We got to the car to head of to church and thank goodness that my sister had a bouquet of roses in there. When my mom saw it, she believed that it was the cause of everything weird that was happening and that it was the only surprise we had for her.

Later that afternoon, we got her to believe that we're all supposed to go to Makati to meet up with someone who's selling a car (my dad's planning to buy one for me :D).  But on the way, we made a detour to a spa. We led her down the car and up the staircase that lead to the spa. She only noticed what we were doing the moment my sister opened the door to the spa. We talked to the concierge who had our reservations ready for a full body massage, foot spa, hand spa, with a mani-pedi. We left her there and got her thinking that we were heading to where the guy with the car was. But that wasn't the case because the surprise isn't over yet. My dad dropped my sister and I home as he went to do some errands of his. We had a little dinner to prepare in three hours (hopefully).

I was to prepare a vegetable lasagna and butternut squash chowder while my sister was to make toast with salmon and cream cheese and a parfait. I was less than halfway into making both dishes when my mom called saying that she might be home earlier because they didn't allow her to have a foot spa. Apparently, it wasn't allowed after a massage. I felt kind of bad about it because I was expecting of giving my mom the most relaxing day ever, but more than that, I was scared of her coming home while the kitchen was still a mess without dinner on the table (which was my surprise if you hadn't caught up).

I called my dad and told him to make some kind of leeway. I thought that he could distract her and ask her what we were having for dinner and if she needed to buy anything from the market. It would work not only to buy us more time, but also to make the surprise dinner almost unthinkable for her. It worked and when I was in the brink of finishing up, my dad called telling us that they're about to head home. Everything was just in time when the car got to the garage. I had just laid the table and made sure that my sister had done her job when my mom got to the door. We only had one problem: the kitchen's a mess. So I just kept the door shot and didn't let my mom to step in or even see the kitchen.

That night is a very memorable night not only for my mom but also for the rest of the family. Usually, we would only buy her a bouquet of flowers and eat out for Mother's Day. But now that my sister and I are older, we have made it a point to do something my mom would appreciate and also benefit from (not that she doesn't get that from the usual celebration). We thought that she needed to relax after all those nights sleeping late in the office during the Tax Season (she's an accountant) and that she needed a break from all the cooking after loosing our maid.

After all that, we realized that we have just one tiny problem, how do we top that next year? But anyway, we still have eleven months, right? So what's the rush? 'Till next time.

Lots of Love,

J<3