In my family it is tradition that we would wake up mom with breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day. Of course my mom would be awake the whole time because no young child can be quiet in a kitchen, and she’d play along acting extra sleepy when we surprised her. One year my father apparently slacked off on his supervision duties and let me make the dinner all on my own. Years later my mother loved to tell the tale of the Worst Mother’s Day Breakfast.

With the air of a prestigious chef I commanded my father to scramble an egg (so perhaps that how I distracted him from the rest of my culinary mistakes)  while I smeared grape jelly on the ends of the loaf of bread, you know the too small gross pieces that no one actually wants to eat? I placed them delicately on the plate next the egg, then because it was a special occasion, I was going to make Mom some chocolate milk. I filled up a cup with the milk and then went to get the bottle of chocolate syrup. It looked a little different than the bottle we normally use, and the color was more golden brown than dark chocolate but a bottle is a bottle. or so I thought.

After walking upstairs with the tray of food, I “woke” my mother up and set her feast before her, a plateful of soggy-yet-sticky pieces of toast paired with a stone cold scrambled egg and a tall glass of Maple Syrup flavored milk. I sat on the bed watching her every move, making sure she had enough of my delicious creation and that she didn’t miss a single part. She loving sacrificed her taste buds and took at least one bite of everything and what I’m sure was the smallest sip of milk possible. She sent me downstairs to fetch her a napkin so she could get rid of the rest of it. She smiled when I came back up though and said it was a delicious surprise.

Mother’s Day can be the day for beautiful jewelry, sentimental cards and fancy dinners but it’s also a day for kids to make them drink maple syrup milk, lopsided pottery and scribbled and torn construction paper love notes. Either way,  Mom is going to love it- and remember it the rest of her life. (and she’ll never let you forget it!)