Gift for Mom

How sweet of you. Try a day at the spa, maybe together, or a "girl's getaway" trip together. This doesn't have to happen "on the day", but sometime around the birthday. I would love to do something like that with my grown daughter, or both of them.

From a 61 year old: Please, no "stuff" to collect dust. Depending on the price range, taking her out to eat is just fine, really. Or if you want to spend a little more, take her on an overnight stay to San Antonio or even Kemah.

A couple of years ago I gave both my Mom and my MIL a photo handbag from http://www.snaptotes.com/home/ and they both loved it! When they go out with their purses people always ask them about them and everybody comments on the picture of the grandkids.

Hi K.,
What a sweet thought.
My girls got together along with my daughter in laws and grand daughters and gave me a day at the spa for my 70th we took an all afternoon thing, they gave us lunch etc- it was great- It was cafeteria style and they each chose what they wanted- ie- facial, massage, petticure- nails etcec and the fun and togetherness we shared was great- I now she would enjoy that-
and if that is too much- just take her to a special place for lunch or maybe a day of shopping.
What ever you decide to do I am sure she will appreciate it.
Good luck and blessings

I think the gift of time was a great idea. We gave that to my husbands grandma for her 85 birthday. She came over every Monday night for dinner with us as long as we lived in her area.
Or, if she likes candles I have a safe alternative to burning candles. Scentsy wickless candles give you all of the benefits of having a candle without the hassle and dangers associated with having a flame. www.scentsy.com/21237

Not knowing your mom this is hard but I will venture one idea. Give a luncheon in her honor. If you are in Austin, Green Pastures is good. You can make reservations for as many or as few of family and friends as you like. Have flowers, place cards, favors (which can actually be the same as the place cards.) For a friend's 60th, we asked invitees to send cards, notes, photos to me and I put a scrapbook together for her. Start early and give a deadline for reservations and cards, photos, etc. We had 30 to 40 guests so the scrapbook was large but it doesn't have to be large, just personal. The lady we were celebrating did not want gifts but she loved the scrapbook.

T-Mobile came up with a really cool digital picture frame. It has a SIM card in it and you can send picture messages from your phone to the frame. We got this for my parents for Christmas this last year. My mother LOVES it. All of the kids, grandkids, cousins, friends can send pictures directly to the frame any time they are out snapping pictures with their phones. It is just like sending a text message. It has a memory card in that can be taken out and downloaded onto a computer and refilled again. We have had a blast with it. It is perfect for the person who has everything.

Write her a poem that spells her name when you start each sentence with a letter from her full name. Once finished, add a foto of you & Mom at far right of poem,date & sign, frame and present to her along with a spray of fresh flowers! The title of the poem of course will be her name. I did it for my Mom's 80th and it brought tears to both my Mom and 3 sisters since I had made mention of them in the poem. The love you feel for her will indeed inspire you to write!
Example:
M ine is the joy
A nd pleasure I
R eap each day knowing
I love and
A dmire, this woman I call MOM!

A day at the spa, with waxing, massage, pedi and mani etc.

We started a James Avery charm bracelet for my MIL for her 60th. It has charms related to her grandkids so she loves to show it off. We are gradually filling it with first initials for each grandkid and a boy/girl charm depending on the gender. This way we have quite a few birthday and Christmas gifts already figured out until all the grandkids are accounted for.

The gift of time. Spend time with her. Take her site seeing somewhere for a day or an overnight.

That depends on how much you can spend. A relaxing day at a spa (manicure,pedicure,facial,body massage)would be good.
Dinner at a really fancy restaurant and a show afterwards.
Write her a letter telling her just how much she means to you, highlighting some of the events in your younger life.

What about a quilt with family pictures on it? Very a la movie Stepmom...

How about a day at the Spa certificate. It could include a full body massage with hot towels/stones or a body polish and a manicure pedicure and some place even serve a light lunch for you or a group of friends.Women love to be pampered!

You could do a photo album of her life. Get all kinds of pictures from relatives, etc. and put them in order in a really pretty photo album. You can add magazine clips of neat or silly phrases to add spice to the photos and outline her life in pictures.

a memory quilt if you're a sewer. I saw a cute easy looking one at Creative Sewing today using photographs

Wow, there are so many ideas, I guess you will just have to decide how much you want to spend or if maybe you can get all of your siblings together with you to do something way over the top.

You could set up a photo session for her to have a portrait of herself made. Have an entire family portrait made.

Maybe a beautiful piece of jewelry. A necklace, bracelet or something she would never treat herself to.

My mother likes for all of us to spend time together. It is so hard to do since we are all so busy and so are our children. She has always wanted all of us to travel together, even if it is just for a few days. Plan a trip to the Texas coast, Fredricksburg, Bastrop State Park, All of you go and stay in Wimberly and go to their "drive in" Movie (it is really an out door theater). Stay in the same hotel and plan on sight seeing or just hanging out.

Have each person write her a "love letter".. Meaning each person tells her why you love her and put it all together in a book with photos of each person.

Do a spa day for her and her girlfriends. Then have them and their spouses go out for a night of partying.

Redo her bedroom the way she wants. Build her an amazing outdoor patio in her back yard, with a covered area and new patio furniture.

If she has a friend or friends that live far away, fly them down to see her or make arrangements for her to go up for a visit with them. Send her on a cruise out of Galveston for a small trip. Send her to Vegas for a fun get away. NYC to see a Broadway show.

Anything you give her from your heart, she will love.

I haven't read the responses so I don't know if anybody mentioned it, but i think a great idea would be a digital picture frame. Fill it with all kinds of pictures of friends and family before you give it to her. My cousin did that and it was a great hit!

The best gift I have given to my Mom is a memory jar. I used the print your own business cards from Avery. I typed one memory of something I remember doing together or something special that she did for me per business card. I put them in a pretty jar. I also gave her a little box to store the cards in when she pulled them out. Then she could read them all, one at a time, and then refill her jar.

A Photo book from Creative Memories, Snapfish, Kodak any of these do them and they are really easy.

You could scan pictures and 'memories' into your computer and use them also. The possiblities go on and on. Pics of her at all life stages, pics of all her kids and grandkids, notes from each. The only problem you will have once you get started is what not to include. I did one for all the grandparents for Christmas with pics of all the kiddos and they LOVED them.

I bought one with a linen cover so they could leave it on their coffee tables or out for all to see.

Once you make one, you will think of all these great ideas to make more for other occasions.

Good Luck!

Hi K.,

There is a place in New Braunfels called the Bisque Bistro on San Antonio St. It's a pottery place where you can go and create your own masterpiece. If you're not much on that kind of thing, you could always take the kids and let them make something, or take your mom on a date there to make her own!

I have a couple of ideas. Find an artist and give her a picture of your family. Have her paint the family or just the grandkids. Its personal and she will love it. Second go to a photographer and have professional family pictures taken. Give her one in a beautiful frame. We have done this for Christmas and my parents always ask when we are going to do that again!

If you have siblings a mother's ring with all your birthstones is always nice.

Does she enjoy Wine?? My company has some fantastic Personalized Wines and they are reasonably priced. Let me know if you are interested!

J. Smith
www.JennysWineShop.com

For my mother's 50th I did a scrapbook. I included pics of her as she grew up, her siblings, loved ones we had lost etc. She loved it. I bought the kit from customizedscrapbooks.com, it was reasonable, had everything I needed. If I remember right, if you don't have time to do it yourself, they have a team that can put it together for you.

Give her your time, with a twist: As you are with her ask questions about her childhood, courtship, new motherhood, empty-nester, historical events she has lived through, etc. Either record these sessions or write as she dictates to you. My sister is in the process of doing this with our 85 year old M. and is learning much about her that we didn't know. She is writing this in a pretty journal for M.. All 6 siblings want a copy!

For my grandparents fifthly wedding anniversary we through a party and all of the grand kids wrote our favorite memory of time that we spent with them and all stood up and shared them we also made a scrapbook each of her children had a page and there grandchildren and their kids shared a page and pages of there weddings and of them and other memories then the speeches were typed up and added to the book they loved it I think that they felt like they had really spent time with us and we wanted to let them know how much we appreciated it.