Athletes' Favorite Gifts to Mothers

"I bought my mom a little lake house in Southern Ontario in 1999. She loved it!"

"I've just brought my mum and dad up to Surfer's Paradise (resort on Australia's Gold Coast). Right now [May 6, 2009] we're sitting out on the roof deck watching the ocean and enjoying the holiday. This just might be the best Mother's Day gift I've ever given her."

"The best gift I ever gave my mother was a Ford Mustang for Mother's Day. She had never had a new car in her life and I bought her a new Ford Mustang and Jack [Roush] put the stage three Roush package on it and she loves it."

"How about a 9,000-acre ranch? That gave my mom the opportunity to further her career in raising horses and training them and whatnot. It was a huge surprise. They [his mom and dad] were living in Florida and I said, 'Hey, how would you like to live in Texas?' [The ranch is two hours south of San Antonio.] They didn't have any clue that I was going to ask them to run the place and move and whatnot. She went from like a two-stall barn to a 30-stall barn, she's got a covered indoor arena where she can ride ... it's pretty legit. She started bawling. She knew the opportunity it was going to give her. She was ecstatic about it. She loves it."

"The best gift I ever gave my mom for Mother's Day was a macaroni picture frame with a picture of me in it, which I made in kindergarten."

"The Mother's Day right after I got drafted in 1999, I made it possible for my mom to retire from the cafeteria job she was working. That was the sweetest gift of all."

"The best present I ever gave my mother was either when I went through our photo album and cut our pictures and made a scrap book of photos of us or when I surprised her and came home from college when she thought I wasn't going to be able to."

"I treated my mom to a day at the spa. She was there the whole day and she loved it."

"I was born on Mother's Day. Boom! You can't do any better than that."

"Usually a card does it, just recognizing that Mother's Day is a special day. It's nice to acknowledge that. A card is something that's simple and to the point. I took a picture with the pink bats [a project to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation], me and my older brother, Glenn. We gave that to my Mom. I know she was excited about that."

"It would have to be my art projects back in elementary school."

"I get Mom flowers. Boring, I know, but it's the thought that counts, right? Plus it comes from all of us, including Bob the dog. His thought counts too. I have to cover for my delinquent brother by adding his name, because I know he'll never remember."

"One year we got her a Mother's Day ring with all our birthstones on it (my sister, my brother and I). But, my mom has never really been big on giving gifts, so usually we would go out to the park and go picnicking or hiking. One year we were out picnicking and almost got stampeded by a herd of buffalo. We were hiding behind trees. It was awesome!"

"I think the best gift my mom ever got from me would have been the gifts and cards we used to make in school for her. Also, on some Mother's Days my brothers and I would try to make her breakfast in bed. Never really worked great but we tried!"

"My most memorable Mother's Day was when I surprised my mom and flew home (from college) for the weekend and surprised her. She was so ecstatic."

"A few years ago, three buddies and I decided to treat our wives to a spa weekend trip to Mexico. Since we all had our kids around the same time, we thought it would be nice for our wives to go and relax while we stayed at home with the kids. It took a lot of convincing, but our wives finally trusted us enough to leave the kids with us. They had a great time in Mexico."

"For Mother's Day one year, my brother and sister and I did a song and dance for my mom. We made lyrics, dance moves and all of that. It was like Jackson 5 style, but more like Wiggins 3...I think I was eight, Alan was 9 and Cassandra was 13 at the time. My mom loved it."

"I don't think it was ever anything that was an extravagant gift. Maybe a card or something like that. We always have cards and cookouts -- crawfish, crawfish bisque, shrimp, crabs, you name it, we have it -- that's how we do it in Louisiana."

"A couple of years ago, my siblings and I took my mom out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, but more importantly, we bought her a new cell phone. She had had the same phone for the past 10 years and it was WAY outdated. She never thought it was a big deal and never wasted money on herself, so it was cool to get her something cool. Now she text messages all the time and sends pictures and emails from her phone. Another time, when my siblings and I were really, really young, we picked all of the flowers out of my mom's garden, wrapped them up and sold them to her as a Mother's Day gift. She bought them, it was a classic."