MOTHER'S DAY RECAPstories from the curious city

MONICA

[my adventurous mom in her 20s]

Despite an entire ocean spanning between us, I was still able to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom in Taiwan, though a little unconventionally. Via Skype we chatted about the progress on the house I am helping her design and build, and also about the new car we are jointly purchasing together!

I was recently in a car accident and my 2004 Prius was pronounced totaled. It was a heartbreaking experience and I'm still not entirely over it. My initial reaction was not to get a car, but to get a bike and try the bus/bike commuter thing to work because both Antony and my brother have cars which is frankly enough for our household. But when I told my mom the situation she thought it would be best to get a car for us to share since she will be back and forth between LA and Taiwan until the house is done in a year or two. So after much haggling between a couple of dealerships and using Truecar, which I highly highly recommend to find the best deal out there, we bought a new 2013 Prius! And as a gift to my mom, I got custom leather seats! Stay tuned for Mother-Daughter Road Trip Summer 2013 baby.

JUNETTE

In addition to buying our family delicious foods (key word is buy, not cook!!) for Mother's Day, we gave my mom the gift of beauty. No, I am not talking about myself (haha!!!) but of the flower bouquet I made. Coincidentally this week during my first week of Floral Arranging 101 with Chelsea Fuss (eek! of Frolic blogging fame!), I learned to make a bouquet. I wasn't that happy with it because supermarket flowers are very limited in options, but in retrospect, it's much better than any other arrangements I've ever made. I'm guessing my mom liked it, because she "ordered" two more bouquets from me.

After lunch and dessert in Ktown (and naps), we headed over to my sister and her husband's pad. While we waited for the weather to cool down, my mom, sister, and I had a good session of making fun of our husbands, catching up on the latest news, and doing funny/mean(ish) impressions of my mom.

To work off the Korean-Chinese food we had for lunch, we went on a (too hot) hike in Glassell Park. It was supposed to be the highlight of the day, but BDF and I were pretty miserable because our dogs were being bad little dogs. My mom enjoyed the walk and she got to wear the new sneakers that my dad bought her for Mother's Day. (Cue the "awwww.") Though nothing eventful happened and no grand gifts were exchanged, I think these are the days we'll remember. Our whole family being together is what really makes my mom feel happy and satisfied with her life's work.

Happy mother's day to my beautiful mama!