Author: Kandice Cruz
Title: The Best Mother's Day
Type of Work: story
Source: CMv1 #58

© Copyright 2002 Kandice Cruz

When Alexis was 4 years old, she was in pre-kindergarden in Euless Texas. I happened to be room-mother of her class that year. Those that have been room-mothers know the joy of attending and planning and putting together parties for Christmas, Valentines, and Easter. For Valentines Day that year, I had managed to get 15 pieces of red felt and I got some black poster paint and each child made a Valentine for their parents with their handprints in the middle of a red heart.

When I spoke to her teacher to discuss what we would do for the children for Mother's Day, she told me that I was not supposed to be at school that day and that it wasn't anything against me but since I was a mother I had to be suprised along with all the other mothers. I agreed that that was a really cute idea and I told the teacher I couldn't wait to see what the children did for their mothers.

When Mother's Day approached, Alexis came home from school with a brown paper bag that was stapled across the top. I asked her what it was and she said "Oh no! You can't see it until Sunday." So I waited until Sunday Morning.

That morning, Alexis came running into my room and bounced onto the bed holding that paper bag in one hand and the other hand she held a dandelion. She thrust both at me and screamed "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!" right into my ear. Fearing deafness, I hugged her and placed that weed into a glass of water that was on my nightstand.

She climbed off the bed and began to dance from one leg to the other while she waited for me to open the brown paper bag. In that bag was a necklace that was about 4 foot long, made out of macaroni and each piece of macaroni was painted with poster paint and each one was painted a different color. I immediatly put that necklace on and hugged her as tight as I could and then she and I went into the kitchen to make breakfast for ourselves. We had chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.

Her father came home from his "guy only" camping trip that he had been on and started to laugh at my necklace. Alexis began to cry and I told him to shut up, it was the prettiest thing I had ever owned. I then had to go to work at the plant nursery and I wore that necklace to work that day.

One of the greenhouses that I was in charge of was the Orchid greenhouse and the temps in that particular greenhouse had to be kept at 108. I worked in that greenhouse for 3 hours that day and when I walked out of there I had green, blue, yellow, and red running down my neck in a odd rainbow effect. Sam (the nursery owner) looked at me and began to laugh. I asked him what on earth was so funny. He told me to go look in the bathroom mirror. When I looked in the mirror, I too had to laugh for the paint on the macaroni had run down my neck from all the sweat I had done.

I managed to clean off my neck before I left to go back home. When I got home, Alexis was asleep on the couch in the living room. I reached down and ran my hand through her thick curls and then picked her up and carried her to her bed and kissed her forehead before I tip-toed out of her room to go back to my bedroom. I took off that necklace and lovingly placed it into my jewelery box. For the nect year I wore that necklace on special occasions and I still have it in my jewelry box to this day.

The last time that Alexis went through my jewelry box back in July of this year, she came across that macaroni necklace and tears welled up in her eyes. She said that she couldn't believe that I still had that in my possession. I told her why on earth would I ever give up the best mother's day present I had ever got in my entire life.

We hugged and then went out to the kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies and to laugh and remember a joyous time between mother and daughter.