We’ve been celebrating this all week around the college delivery. We had a combined farewell dinner/15th birthday dinner out before his sister left when she gave him her present of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: both poster-sized on parchment. While I was driving home from Annapolis, he had some friends to swim at our Quarry, and then my husband and youngest daughter connected with our cookie tradition, by making small ones and fives for the rest of the family and a huge 15 for the birthday boy to frost. You can see that he did it vigorously with mounds of frosting. A little Jackson Pollock in training, his theory about frosting is more is definitely better!

He requested his favorite dinner for his birthday: my husband’s homemade chicken fingers (more like thumbs) and mashed potatoes. I don’t make or eat chicken, but the men in my family do both. This recipe is a favorite and was originally found on the back of the Bisquick box; I don’t know the recipe, but the key ingredients are chicken, Bisquick and Parmesan.

After dinner he opened his present. He was a little taken aback because it was the smallest pile of presents we’ve ever had at our house; it was really just one present with a bunch of envelopes. After he opened his younger sister’s gift of an iTunes gift card, he opened the present. I had gotten the whole extended family to collude on this gift; it was so expensive that was the only way it could happen. It was my only good idea for my book-devouring techno-geek turned fifteen. He was blown away when he opened it; getting something like this was beyond his wildest dreams because he knew we couldn’t afford it. He was absolutely thrilled with it. I haven’t seen his dimples so much since I can remember. He jumped up and down pumping his arms. He even let me take pictures. I think he felt loved, understood and validated.

We gave him a Kindle. The big nice new one. It holds up to 3,500 books – not as many as my house but plenty for a while. And his aunts gave him gift certificates to put subscriptions and books on it. He couldn’t find enough adjectives for it. Sleek. Streamlined. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome!!!

We pulled him away from it long enough to sing to him with his frosting heavy creation lit up and to have our cookies. Nice to have such a happy teen.