Whatd you get Mom and Steve?
my older brother, Tom, asked me the day before Christmas last year.
It checked all the boxes, and I felt good about it.
Me and mom at The Rockhouse
I wrote in her card, which was originally only supposed to be for the scarf.
This card entitles you to one Mother-Daughter trip of your choosing anytime in the next 365 days.
I will doall of the planning.
Meg, mom, and me (l to r) in Jamaica
Just tell me where you want to go, and I will make it happen.
but Im too embarrassed to fully revisit that word choice at this time.
When my mom opened the travel gift certificate, her eyes lit up with joy.
Meg, mom, and me (l to r) in Jamaica
And well take Meg [my younger sister], too.
I felt so happy just knowing that they were pumped.
And in a way, we were.
Meg swimming in the Caribbean
We spent five days there, and they were absolute, total bliss.
We befriended the bartenders (shout to Chevron!
It was so much fun to just chill with my mom at a bar in Jamaicashe can totally hang!
Meg and mom waving to me at The Rockhouse
My mother continued to impress me with just how well she could hang.
My mom was laughing and chatting with our driver the whole time.
shed laugh after we hit a bump, in a way that only mothers can.
What a relaxing spot, she sighed as she gazed out into the lush jungle below.
And you know what, he wasright.
We had reached peak positivity.
She didnt have to tell me twice.
It was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Is there anything better than that?
Actually, there is, because she kept it up after returning home.
Since that trip, shes stopped eating boxed cereal in the morning, and switched to fruit and yogurt.
But she still needs to teach me some of those sweet Caribbean dance moves.
Annie Daly has written about travel forBuzzFeed Travel, Yahoo!
Travel, AFAR, United Hemispheres, Cosmopolitan,and more.
