Describe the best gift you (as a mom) ever received or gave to your mother:
The best Mother's Day present I ever received from my only child, my daughter Paige, was a clay paperclip/penny cup that she made for me on her child-sized potter's wheel. It's about 2 inches wide and 1 and 1/2 inches tall. It was given to me the year she was nine, and she's now nearly fourteen.

What made this gift extra-special?
She conceived the idea of the gift, and made two or three before she had one that turned out to her liking. When it dried, she painted it in carnival stripes of sky blue, red, yellow, and lavender. My favorite color is blue, and she color-coordinated it with the others. She painted the stripes inside and out, with great care. I'm sure it took her a long time to make the cup, and then to paint it. She's a very artistic child, and this expression of her love for me thru that medium was both personal and unique.

Other comments or suggestions:
My daughter does not live with me now and thus, this little clay cup is ever more precious to me. I keep it by my bed on my nightstand, and I still use it for loose change and/or paperclips. Some of the paint has chipped off by now, as well as a little of the clay, but to me it's just as lovely as it was the day she presented it to me, all wrapped up in shiny paper, with a huge grin on her face. It serves as a daily reminder that though we may be apart physically, we're together in our hearts forever!