An easel. Her last one was second hand, falling apart.

I’m probably buying her a Cattleya next week, too, as a late mothers’ day gift. (I never gift people in those “commercially special” occasions, I’d rather wait a bit and give them fancier gifts. Or look for stuff that they’ll genuinely enjoy. Birthday gifts are a must though.)

Bread maker for my dad when his old one started dying. Quality has dropped a lot in the last few years; I expect new bread makers won’t last more than 1-2 years going forward.

New e-reader for my mom when Amazon/Kindle started getting shittier. The real gift though was setting it up for access to her library and a storefront so it’s easy for her to download new books.

My mom, a switch. She’d been wanting one, and I managed to save enough.

My dad, a bottle of Johnnie Walker blue label. It’s one of those things he had loved when he had it ages ago, but finances never allowed him to indulge in since. I had quit smoking back during covid, and I set aside part of what that used to cost every month that I can. A little into one “envelope”, a little into another, and so on.

Normally, we don’t do purchased gifts. Which is actually really awesome because the gifts really do matter more now. Typically, I’ll do a cake or something like that for my dad, stuff my grandmother used to make. Nostalgia for him (and I recently found what I think is the right recipe for one he’s requested before, but hers was lost), and a great experience all around remembering mamaw and hearing his stories.

But, I figured that the occasional bought gift was okay. And I wanted to give them each something that I knew they’d really enjoy. My mom has always been the sort to value escapism. My dad the sort to seek experiences. So it made sense.

Sometimes, for my mom, I do the savory version of what I usually do for my dad. Recreating one of her parents’ meals, like my grandfather’s SOS, or grandmother’s meatloaf (which, tbh, my mom says she likes mine better, but my grandmother’s is more nostalgic).

An old 4G Nokia flip phone.

He locked himself out of his good smart phone and is using a very cheap ZTE that barely works. At least he can’t lock himself out of a flip phone surely.

Before that, a filament dryer.

A bottle of wine and a gift voucher for my Mum (well I’m giving it to her tomorrow) :3