What Mother's Day means to me...

Mother's Day has not always been a happy day for me.  I spent Mother's Day of 1999 sitting in the ICU of Cooper Hospital watching my mother on life support a few days after she suffered a brain aneurysm.  She put on a good face that day and gave us all hope as we adorned her area with cards, etc.  However, the next day we were bombarded with the terrible news that she was now brain-dead.  Needless to say the subsequent Mother's Days were not so happy for me since my mother was now gone and the anniversary of her passing was always very close to if not on Mother's Day.  Then came the 2 Mother's Days that I was going through loads of fertility treatments and attempting to hibernate through any and all celebrations during which someone might ask the dreaded questions about whether or not Jim and I planned to have children anytime soon.  Then as luck would have it, on May 11, 2008, the 9 year anniversary of my mother's passing.  I celebrated my first Mother's Day.  I was 4 1/2 months pregnant with twins! 

We will be celebrating Mother's Day with the kids and Jim's family.  We are attempting to see if they can make it through our usual Mother's Day dinner spot... Carmine's in Atlantic City.  We haven't tried this with them yet, but it is a family style restaurant that moves pretty quickly so we are hoping it works out.  I'll let you know. 

I have already received my Mother's Day gifts and I LOVE them all!  Summer and Cole each got me a card with a Starbuck's Gift Card since they know how much I love their coffee!  And Jim got me a card and found Pomegranate Margaritas... I'm so excited about this one!  I have had a couple fresh ones out and they are delish! 

Then I received a few handmade gifts that Summer & Cole made at school.  And although Jim was super proud of his shopping abilities, these are truly my favorite.  Shhh.... don't tell... ok??



I nearly broke down into tears as Summer and Cole told me so proudly that they made these for me!

I hope that you all have an absolutely fabulous Mother's Day whether you are a mother, still have your mother, or not!