Mother's Day and Ascension

Like Frau Fahrtmann's mother, my mother, Barbara Nelson Bennett Hart, has had her Ascension Day, March 30, 1997. She is resting in peace, no maybe about it. Her Alzheimer's is gone. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

The rest of us Moms celebrated in style on Saturday as one great blended family, eating Japanese at the restaurant that was Donica's and my first date almost 8 years ago. We purposely picked Saturday evening so as to miss the Sunday crowds. Not grouping anyone together to take canned shots, I just took photos as they came.

Donica's mom and Lee are first. I absolutely adore Jann and get a great kick outta the fact that my mother-in-law is only 5 years older than I (and has red hair!). Her smile is as genuine as she is and is one of the main things Donica shares of her.

Mark, my son, spent the evening with us, as did Amy and Nicholas, of course. Nicholas loves his Uncle Mark! In fact, he wanted to make sure he sat next to him at supper. Some of the great shots of Nicholas include some with Mark in the photo album. We don't see Mark as often as we see Amy and Nicholas (hint hint), so it's always fun when we all get together. I love Mark--the best son I've ever had!

After Japanese, Donica and I took Nicholas home with us for a much-needed sleepover. We had been Nicholas-less for 6 weeks in Germany, the longest stretch of his life. In fact, as Amy reminded us, we have seen him every week (minus two or three exceptions) for his almost 5 years of life. So a 6-week dearth was nigh unbearable.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we did our traditional breakfast at Waffle House, with Donica and Nicholas choosing 6-songs-for-a-dollar on the jukebox. Donica picks the songs and Nicholas, standing on a chair, enters the number/letter combinations as she reads them off to him. G'ma sits and watches with the biggest, proudest grin ever. Good practice for the pre-K boy!

When Amy came to pick up Nicholas in the afternoon, we celebrated her as Mom, last but definitely not least. Nicholas loves his mommy. He knows her favorite color is red. He loves drawing pictures for her and says he wants to bring her flowers, whenever she's not feeling well. What a sweetheart. I love her as my daughter and friend. The best daughter I could ever want or have.

How could any Mom want anything more than what I have! A daughter, a son, a grandson, a mother-in-law with her companion--all to die for--and my partner to share it all with. I feel totally blessed.

Whoever would have thought that within 3 days of each other, we would celebrate Father's Day (in Germany) and Mother's Day here in the States (or America, as the Europeans say)! It's been quite the ride.