Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day has always been a day of mixed feelings in my family. This day was full of brunch, presents, BBQs, fun, and a dash of drama.

On my mom's side, there are a ton of women. My Grandmother's generation was 6 girls and one boy. While my Grandma added some boys to the family by having three boys and three girls, the rest of her siblings didn't help much. My mom has five cousins that are girls and two cousins that are boys. My generation only added to the female population: six girls and two boys.

Needless to say, there are lots of women that we have to pay tribute to on Mother's Day. Between all the Aunts, Moms, Grandmas, and Great Aunts - that is a lot of cards!

So in my family, we made it simple. The kids made brunch for all of the women. Unfortunately, for my childhood in Washington, I was the only kid.

Despite offers of help from other family members, my mom always insisted that I, being the kid, cook the brunch because, afterall I "come from a family of tough ladies who work hard, move ahead, break social rules, and always seem to have dinner on the table by six!".

So with an apron that was far too big for me wrapped around my waist and a stool in front of the stovestop, I cooked breakfast. My mom would help me flip the bacon and sausage (Yes, it was required that we have both), mix the waffle batter and pour it onto the waffle iron, and make the fruit salad.

The fruit salad always ended up a mishappen mess that was barely touched once it was placed on the table. The fruit was cut by me and was in a variety of shapes and sizes. I was not comfortable with a knife yet, so I insisted on cutting with a plastic knife, leaving the juice from the fruit to go all over the cutting board. I would finally end up pulling or ripping peices of fruit apart and in the end, the fruit salad looked far from appealing.


So however you are honoring the special women in your family - Happy Mother's Day