ETA: I'm in the right neighboorhood; John's plans for her are perceived as a baleful menace instead of the nice gesture that everyone else sees. If you don't believe me, remember how she reacted to a similar 'threat' last year.
Panel 1: We start off with Mike handing Elly a handmade Mother's Day card. He says "Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!", Lizzie says "Yah!" and Elly, who's in her housecoat, says "For me?"
Panel 2: Mike says the handprint she sees is Lizzie's and the love heart is his. She sort of knew that anyway but doesn't want to mess things up by saying so.
Panel 3: John, who's holding Lizzie in a safe manner, tells Elly that this year, he thought he and the kids should give Elly the gift of time.
Panel 4: He's taking them out for lunch and a movie so she can relax. He means well, of course, but has yet to learn that 'relax' isn't in her vocabulary.
Panel 5: That's why his suggestion that she could take a hot bath, read a book or do anything else that would make her day perfect is met with a polite but confused smile. What would make her day perfect is if he told her to shave sheets or dust the attic.
Panel 6: He gives her a peck on the cheek.
Panel 7: As he puts Mike's jacket on, he says "Whatever would make you happiest, that's what we want you to do."
Panel 8: As he heads out the door, she calls to him. He says "Uh hun?" to find out what she wants.
Panel 9: What she wants to know is if she can come too.
Summary: This, by itself, is a benign outing that will no doubt grace many a fridge door; it's nice to see that Elly wants to be near her family. It's too bad that it's surrounded by crap like "Abandon hope, ye who enter here." and is the immediate successor of a strip that had Elly spend a day to herself "earning" the right to have time to herself.
ETA: Check out the Mother's Day banner. Wanna bet that it's what a Panel 10 would look like?
