I love my mother very, very much. It was only when I became older and hopefully wiser that I began to give back to her the affection and connection that a great relationship requires. Whenever I was studying abroad in Australia in 2009, I made my mother a Christmas present as a project for a book-binding class. She loves to cook, so I made her a grocery list book bound with twistie-ties commonly found in packaged sliced bread. Of course instead of using it for it's function she tucked it away like a museum relic. Either way, she was happy, and it made me happy too.