My mum's birthday present

I have to tell you all about the shopping trip I had with my Dad recently. Remember it was my Dad's 60th birthday back in Feb and we had a party? Well May 20 is my Mum's 60th. She is not having a party, more a small dinner. She has chosen a restaurant and Mum, Dad, Joel, Xav and I plus my Gran (Mum's mum) and a few of Mum's friends are getting together for dinner. Yes my sister is invited but I will get to that in a minute.

My Mum and Dad never exchange gifts for birthdays or Christmas. I think it's odd myself (I would kill Joel if I didn't get a gift!!) but they are more "activity" people rather than "gift giving" people. What I mean is that if it's Mum's birthday my Dad won't get her a present but he will spoil her for the day - he'll cook her breakfast, take her to a movie, take her out to dinner etc. Mum will do the same sorts of things for Dad. Regardless of this, when it was Dad's 60th Mum felt that since it was a big birthday and there would be a party etc that she should get him a present. So now that Mum's 60th is approaching Dad came and asked me what did I think he should get for my Mum. Mum had mentioned to me that she wanted a new handbag as her old one was wearing out. So Dad and I got the idea to put our money together and buy her something really special together. So last week Dad, Xavier and I went shopping for a handbag and purse set for Mum.

To start with it was difficult to convince Dad to drive the extra 15 min to the larger shopping centre where they have better shops and a larger choice of bags and purses. Dad wanted to go to our local shopping centre which we live about 5 min from (Mum and Dad live very close to us). Not that he wouldn't go that far and make the effort, but he just didn't get what the difference was. I had to explain that while our local centre only had 2 bag stores that were small, the other larger centre had at least 5 - one of which was massive - and that if we went to the bigger centre we were likely to only need to go to that one massive store and would most probably find what we were looking for really quickly. So with my Dad on board off we went to the bigger mall.

When we got to the store we wanted to go to Dad and I both split up and looked around. Xav wouldn't come with me, he wanted to go with his Pop! I located a beautiful bag really quickly that I thought Mum would love. I went to find Dad and Xav who were together on the other side of the store, to show Dad what I had found and see what he thought. Dad had in his hand a bag that I knew my Mum would hate. My Mum is very conservative and the bag my Dad had chosen was little and shiny with a big gold clip on the front. It had a tiny little handle, a pattern around the trim, and you know on the Chanel bags how they have the embelem with the C's on them? Well this was not a Chanel bag but it had some type of big embelem on it. And I know it's not about money but I have to say the bag also was pretty cheap. Dad, however, was beaming like he had struck gold and was really proud of himself.

I kept saying it was a nice bag, not wanting to crush his spirit on his first ever handbag shopping trip, but I was searching for a way to steer him away from it. I ended up saying something along the lines of "Wow dad, what a shame that bag only has a little handle. Mum likes a long strap so she can put the bag on her shoulder like this (I demonstrated with the bag I was holding). But Wow it's a great choice, if only it had the longer strap, that would be the one for sure." It was true what I said about Mum wanting a longer strap, and seeing me with the bag on my shoulder jogged his memory and he said "ah yes, that is how your Mum wears her bag". He then looked at my choice and liked it a lot so we then decided to look for a purse to match.

Dad really put his all into finding her a purse. He held up one that was lovely, had lots of compartments which Mum loves, was a good price and the right colour. The only thing was that the leather was a different leather to the bag we had chosen. But he had put so effort in and we had gone with my choice for the bag that I really felt we should go for the purse. I don't think Mum will mind the purse doesn't exactly match once I explain. So we paid for our purchase and it's really lovely because Dad is still so happy that he felt involved in the choosing. Everytime he sees me now he will bring up our shopping trip and what a good team we made. Then he will give Xavier and I a high five and Xavier will yell "Go Team!!" which Dad taught him. It's really sweet, and if it's the thought that counts when you give a gift, I think my Mum will be very happy.

As for what I was saying regarding my sister, do you remember me writing about the scene she made at my Dad's party? On the day of Dad's party she told Mum it was because Dad made her feel left out. As the weeks and months have gone by the story has changed and now the reason she got upset and made a scene was because it was me that made her feel left out, because apparently I was "flaunting that I am close with our parents". I'm not sure how I did that considering I had no contact with her for the day and just went about my business and mingled with people. I did say a speech at the party and thanked everyone for coming and wished my Dad a happy birthday. I also came to the party before everyone as I brought the cake and helped Mum decorate with balloons etc. Maybe it was one of those two things that made her feel that way, although I can't see how that would affect her. Anyway she told mum that in the future, she didn't want to come anywhere that I would be. As much as I prefer to keep my distance from her, I do want her to come to family functions for my parents sake. I don't believe I caused any problems for her at Dad's party and as far as I was concerned she deserved to be there. She told Mum recently that she wouldn't be able to come to Mum's bday dinner because I would be there. Then all of a sudden last week she changed her mind and says she will now come because "why should I stop her from attending Mum's 60th birthday". I have no idea why she feels I am stopping her. I certainly wasn't doing anything of the sort. So at this stage she is coming and Mum is pleased. I hope there are no scenes like at Dad's!! I'll keep you posted!

Love Jo xoxoxo