Mom's Day

My little sister is turning 21 on Mother's Day.

So I'm flying out next week to help her celebrate. Since there are two occasions -- birthday and Mother's Day -- that means I have to bring a bunch of gifts. Which I actually enjoy. But my family, in a move most gift-givers would probably appreciate, always does this one thing that really annoys people like me, who believe that thoughtfulness and surprise are the key elements of a great gift: they tell me what they want.

It's not as though I've ever given a bad gift! I'm actually an *amazingly good* gift-giver. At Christmas, Dad gave me money and asked me to go out and find gifts for Mom and Grandma, since he couldn't think of anything to give them. And of course, given my unique talent, I found phenomenal gifts for them both (so phenomenal, in fact, that he gave me extra money and took more gifts than I'd planned on him taking -- which meant I had to make another trip to the mall to find them gifts from *me* again).

So for Mother's Day Mom has asked for the most random thing: Mother's Cookies. And not just any kind of Mother's Cookies; a specific kind that apparently you can't find anywhere online and that they really don't sell in stores anymore. She asked her local grocery store about it and apparently since the plant is located in California they'll only take special orders for California stores. And how convenient for her -- she has a daughter who lives in California.

And so, Mom has been telling me for the past month and a half now, the only thing she wants for Mother's Day is Mother's Angel Shortbread Cookies (they're actually really good; they're shortbread chocolate chips and they're especially tasty if you stick them in the fridge). I've been trying to get my hands on them for about a month now, visiting stores and making odd phone calls, etc. Today, I finally hit the jackpot: a nearby Albertson's talked their Mother's Cookies guy into dropping them four boxes of the stuff.

The best part is, after nagging me for so long and having me tell her a few times I haven't been able to find them anywhere, I think she kinda thinks she's not gonna get them. Which means that when I bring them to her next week, it will be kinda like a surprise!

Haha! The Master Gift-Giver strikes again!!