Give a gift like that and you can expect mommy dearest to throw a little guilt your way: “Oh, it’s okay, anything you get me is special,” she says, then goes back to fawning over the antique earrings the favorite child gave her. This year, make sure it’ll be you giving the extra special gift:

No female — whether 18 or 118 years old — will ever scoff at a day at the spa, making a massage the ultimate safe gift. The spas below all offer gift certificates, with each promising a unique brand of luxury.

The Mohamed El-Soghayer Spa offers a delectable mix of massages and facials. The Moroccan Bath costs LE 295 and includes a collagen facial. A firming procedure for the face is LE 400, while the simple cleansing mask is LE 300. For a more affordable gift, there is an hour-long Swedish massage for LE 150 or a Thai massage for LE 220.

The world-famous French cosmetics giant Clarins Spa offers a pro-firming facial and massage in a package costing LE 800. La Rose offers a more specific procedure: with a gift certificate costing upwards of LE 250, they meet with the client first and then offer expertise for what needs to be done. The facial costs LE 250, with specials ranging from herbal to anti-aging. Massages cost LE 200 for 40 minutes and LE 250 for one hour.

Now for the crème de la crème: The Four Seasons Nile Plaza Spa offers a package most women would kill for. After a water cleansing scrub to clean out the pores and rid the skin of any shred of dead skin, the lucky lady is then wrapped in a seaweed body mask and finished off with a 50-minute massage. Now, all of this doesn’t come cheap (LE 1,150) but isn’t mommy’s love worth every piaster?

Mothers spend ages collecting memories, taking pictures and gathering mementos of all your precious moments, but they hardly ever get the chance to do the same for themselves. Surprise your mother with a scrapbook of her life’s keepsakes from childhood (hers) through today. Include baby pictures, photos of her childhood with her parents, the college years, her engagement and wedding, and her adulthood with friends. End on an emotional note by including pictures of you and your siblings together when you were kids, family vacations and occasions and major milestones in your life, including your graduation, engagement, wedding and so forth.

Mother’s Day is a time when we get the chance to show appreciation for the hundreds of special moments our mothers made possible. A scrapbook is the perfect place to capture all those moments, and to show her how much she has done for you. Nicely bound blank books, perfect for scrapbooking and running from LE 50–100, are available in the Khan Al-Khalili, at stationery stores, and at Diwan bookstore in Zamalek.

Cooking, cleaning, raising children, looking after a family and a husband, and working — all while keeping a warm smile on her face and an open heart — can be pretty hectic. Mothers are often the ones to help relieve our stress and make us feel more comfortable, but we hardly notice the stress in their lives. This year, arrange for a peaceful getaway where she can relax, enjoy, have fun and simply let go.

With Mother’s Day coming up on a Wednesday, you can arrange for a four-day vacation (if you’re able to talk her boss into giving her two days off to surprise her, that is), or simply arrange for a short trip over the weekend. For a long weekend, take her to relax and enjoy the sun on the warm Sinai beaches. For a shorter weekend, book a room in Stella Di Mare Ain El-Sokhna, which is only an hour-and-a-half drive from Cairo and has beautiful relaxing weather.

As difficult as you may think it is to buy a gift for your mom, all it really takes is some concentration. Take the road less traveled and spend some time choosing something she’ll fall in love with. To find something for the house, head to Karizma in Mohandiseen, a unique little store providing the latest in strange and literally twisted glassware. When in doubt, go for the vases. With a huge selection of different colors, shapes and sizes ranging in price from LE 150–350, you will find that perfect piece to complement the rest of the house. Karizma also offers an array of wine glasses, champagne flutes and brandy tumblers that would complete any bar for LE 45–50 per piece. Slant it up a bit with slanted pitchers (LE 218) and glasses (LE 65 per glass) — and don’t worry, they don’t spill.

If you’re not so sure about dishware and household items, White House (on Laselky St. in Maadi and Gameat El-Dowal El-Arabia St. in Mohandiseen) offers more relaxed and chilled-out gifts. This authentic furniture store sells both retro and modern wares: Beanbag chairs that can be thrown around anywhere in the house cost between LE 450 and LE 750, while lamps in diverse styles start at LE 800.

For the more technologically inclined mother, check out MP3 players and phones. Nobody is against receiving a practical gift, so head to Virgin Megastores in CityStars for the latest range of Apple Nano iPods, selling at LE 1,800 for the 4GB model. The latest mobile phone from Motorola also doubles as a music player — the KRZR can be found for LE 2,600 at the Mobile Shop and RadioShack chains, located throughout Cairo. For a less complicated model, check out the LG Chocolate, now available in brown, white and pink. It is the ultimate feminine phone.

For a working mother, the new Nokia E61 doubles as a PDA. It retails for LE 2,800 and is available at Nokia (Tel: 19900) and i2 (Tel: 19606) across the nation.

We barely spend any quality time with our mothers — we’re almost always too busy working or going out with friends or with our own families. What would be better than giving her a gift you can both share, one that would help you spend more time together?

Guys, you might not like dancing, but you mother will probably enjoy taking a dance class where she can both dance and show off her sweet and caring baby boy (yes, you may have your own children, but you are still her baby boy). Arthur Murray Dance Studio offers a one-month package starting with a free session to help you choose your favorite dance from their wide range of dances offered and ending with a ballroom dance party.

For the ladies, your mum would probably enjoy her daughter taking her to a workout class. Try aerobics, yoga, Pilates, or an unconventional workout such as kickboxing, offered at Samia Allouba’s Creative Dance and Fitness Center, or Tae Bo, available at Gold’s Gym and World Gym. This will serve the dual purpose of keeping you both fit and healthy and providing an opportunity to spend quality time together, which your mum constantly yearns for. et