Mother-Daughter Time

Every so often I get a call from my mom, announcing that she has found a reasonable flight to Boston. She will dash in and out in the middle of the night and leave as quick as she came, but I will take every minute that she can squeeze in, at what seems to be a family outpost on this side of the country. A few weeks ago I turned on the porch lights, knowing that I would awake to my mother sleeping in the guest room. As soon as the house began to hum in the morning, my mother appeared from the back room. We spent most of the day catching up on the latest neighborhood news and curious happenings in each other's lives. As soon as the kids began trickling in from school, we headed into the city, stopping for pizza and Popsicles along the way.

We spent the evening at the Science Museum, attending two 3-D movies and exploring all the new exhibits.

The next morning Mom rotated treating each granddaughter to a birthday date at the mall. I dropped off one child and picked up another all morning between soccer games and play dates. Annelise shopped for shoes and at the Gap and then went out for ice cream. Sophia chose the American Girl Store and the Cheesecake Factory and Emilie led my mom to Abercrombie and the jewelry store and also ended up at the Cheesecake Factory.

At night we went into Chinatown and wandered through the markets and little shops. We ended up at the China Pearl for dinner, which truly had the best Chinese food I have ever tasted.

The next day Mom came to church with us and then we went into Boston again. This time we found ourselves in the North End, eating Italian food at LoConte's and taking scoops of Gelato to a nearby park.

We returned home to make necklaces with the Italian Murano beads that Mom had picked up in Italy and ate the chocolate that she had brought from Europe as well.

We turned out the lights early on Sunday night and, just as quickly as she had arrived, Mom left, leaving me to awake to a empty guest room and a thank you note left on the kitchen counter.