My mother will celebrate her 76th birthday next year. That's defiantly an age where finding special birthday gifts is quite difficult. Family members and I decided to have a party for mom, inviting all her friends and relatives. While planning, we've been trying to come up with ideas for special birthday gifts that mom will enjoy.

One of the more practical among us was trying to think of things that mom needs. She lives in a very small apartment in a senior building. There are no more gardens or flowering plants, so gardening supplies are out. When that was her hobby we were always able to find special birthday gifts that she could use in the yard.

Mom also has a meal provided for her each day in the dining room of the apartment complex, so her baking and cooking needs aren't what they used to be. Basically we arrived at the decision that her needs were already being met.

Another family member remembered that mom had been embroidering dish towels. She'll be making a trip to the craft store to see what she can find for special birthday gifts from herself and her children that will include embroidery supplies. Maybe she'll come home with some high quality dish towels. Then mom can embroider the towels and can, in turn, give them as special birthday gifts to her friends.

As for me, I went shopping with my wife to see what we  could come up with as our special birthday gifts. The department stores were our first stops, and they yielded nothing that could be considered special birthday gifts.

I, with my short attention span, told my wife I wanted to stop in the book store to see if they had a book I had been looking for. While there we noticed a section that had books for gifts. There were several devotionals as well as poetry books. They also had cloth bound books designed to have people write their life story. Each was set up differently, and the one we purchased was called "Mom Tell Me About...". The inside of the book was like a daily planner. Each page was for a day in the month and had a question at the top of the page. The rest of the page was blank lines to write the answer to the question. The questions were designed to allow the person to tell their life story. They also had pen sets with different color inks. We thought the book and pen set would be the perfect special birthday gifts we were seeking.

I can't wait to read it when she's done.

I have found several similar books available for purchase online.