Today is my moms suprise retirement party. She won't be completely gone from the office, but she will only come in to run the bids on bid days and deliver office supplies on occassion. Her real work is done though so today the field guys are coming in and we are having cake and my Dad told everyone to bring in gag gifts.

Sometimes I think I must know my mom better than my Dad does though. I wasn't thrilled that we were just doing cake and not lunch, but he wanted to invite the field guys and they couldn't get off during the day for lunch so I understood. Then telling everyne to bring gag gifts is fine, but I think you should balance that with a genuine and nice gift as well. She has worked for my Dad for over 10 years and never got a pay check and she has sacrificed a lot of herself. This business was not her dream but my Dad's dream and she selflessly supported him on it and yes this contributed to her own livlihood, but she never loved it the way my Dad does.

Then the icing on the cake (excuse the pun) was the cake itself. He wanted it to say "We are putting Marty out to Pasture" and put green icing on the cake and a sheep. Ok so I know where he is going with this but I also know my mom and she would probably be offended a bit at the old, useless reference, especially since all the gifts are gag gifts and all she is getting is a crummy cake. She never really felt appreciated for all she has done here so I think this might feel like another instance where she isn't truly being praised or congratulated. This of course is not my Dads intention so I made the executive decision to go a different route. Luckily at Costco you don't have a lot of options so I told him they couldn't do it and got a nice, pretty cake that says "Happy Retirement Marty!".

I also didn't get her a gag gift but a cook book since she has been talking about wanting to get back to cooking nice meals now that she has the time and the book "The Last Lecture" which is about how to live and appreciate every moment. I think she will enjoy them both, especially now that she has the time to read them.

I forgot to wrap the gift though so I made do with an old project schedule and rubber bands. I thought it looked pretty good, considering:

I am very excited about my mom retiring and moving on to a new phase in her life. She hasn't really done anything for herslf since my sister and I were born and it is well overdue that she starts doing what is best for her and finding her happiness. Who knows what she will do but at this point, her options are wide open and that is just fantastic. I also think it will change our relationship. When I see my Mom on a daily basis at work, I don't neccessarily want to hang out with her on weekends. However we don't get into meaningful conversations at work so we miss out on that quality communication and bonding. Last weekend she was Mike and my sherpa when we ran an 18 miler and that was great because we chatted the entire time (no ipod at all!) and then went out to lunch after. That was the quality conversing that I have missed and I look forward to doing more of that in the future as well as having a greater desire to do that because I wouldn't have seen her the entire week.

I think for everyone in the family, my mom retiring is for the best, so cheers to her.