mom 50th birthday. what should i get?

Oh, you just have to give her a party. She'll remember it forever. I had mine at a pizza place that had pasta too with a party room there. They let us have the room free if we had at least 20 people. (You may have to invite 50-75 in order to get 20...& be sure they rsvp.

Otherwise, you could have it at her house, but clean it & get it all ready, or rent a party room & have a potluck. Invite friends, relatives, her co-workers, people from her church or other group, whoever you want. Don't make it a surprise party. Let her look forward to it & get all dressed up. Plan some kind of party game or print out words for a sing-a-long.

Plan to say something to the group in 1-2 minutes, then let her say something, too. Take lots of pictures.

For a gift, you could give her a little photo album to put in the pictures from the party. Also, give her a framed family picture or else get a frame that holds several pictures of your immediate family.

If you don't like the party idea, get her pearls or some kind of gold earrings or other jewelry. Long scarves are in style, too, so you could get that instead. A book of quotations by women would be good. Otherwise, you might find something on the website for the National Women's History Project. I think she'd like the photos best, though, in a frame.

Here's the website for the NWHP. http://www.nwhp.org/ I saw a book called The Juicy Tomatoes Guide to Ripe Living After 50. It's sold out, but the same book is on Amazon. They also have books like a big coffee table book of first ladies that I got my mother once. I also got my mother a book designed for writing family history, including questions like your family's first car. My mother never filled hers in, though, so it would depend on your mom or if someone would spend the time helping her & encouraging her to do it. It's not that someone couldn't do it alone. It's just that it would be more fun with two people doing it together.

Get her a piece of jewelry, the best you can afford, that conveys "mom, I love you."

If you can, I would pool with other members of your family.

If you have brothers and sisters, you can get a ring with all of your birthstones, including hers and your dad's, if they are still together. If your birthstones are too expensive, they make synthetic ones.

This is something that a jeweler can put together for you. They order the parts through a catalog. A jeweler can show you the catalog. Just don't go to Kay or one of those department store jewelers. Go to some guy who works with actual hardware.

If you are her only child, you can put her birthstone and yours in there.

The reason I suggest this piece of jewelry, is that I think it might make her happy.