Who is that MAN in my house?

Charlie's birthday was a couple of days ago--he just turned 18.  Where did the time go?  Wasn't it just a few jet-lagged days ago that we got back from China with a 13-year-old???

He has done an amazing amount of growing up in a very short period of time.  But he's still rather gullible.

I'm afraid I've inherited a mean streak about gift-giving jokes from my parents. They are the absolute masters of the game. They once managed to hide a piano for Christmas right in the living room--had me convinced it was something else entirely and I had to keep the secret from my little sister. I was so gullible back in the day...

We had Charlie's birthday dinner/party tonight.  Rick and I had gotten him a (used) Kindle, and I had loaded a whole bunch of free books (Goosebumps, Animorphs, Hardy Boys, etc.) on it.  Everyone else gave him some sort of accessory to go with it. 

He had said about a week prior to his birthday that he wanted a Kindle, 'cause he sees Rick and me sitting around reading all the time and wants to be just like us, I guess.  We already had it by then--this has been in the works for a couple of months.  When he said he wanted one, too, I gave him a bunch of stuff about how expensive they were and there's just no way we could afford to get him one.  He bought it, hook, line, and sinker, since he sees me constantly trying to cut corners and save pennies.

So, party time.  We started with the accessories.  He opened the reading light from my former husband, Ted.  Wasn't sure what it was, so we explained that it was for a Kindle, and now he would be ready once he had saved up enough money to buy his Kindle to read in the dark.  He nodded sagely.  Good to be prepared ahead of time.  Then he opened the Amazon gift card from his godfather--oh, wow, this is so you can decide ahead of time what books you want while you're saving up for that Kindle.  Then Rick gave him the leather cover....hey, cool, now you even have a cover to protect that Kindle you're saving up for! 

Once he'd gotten all the accessories, we switched to non-Kindle-related presents.  I gave him the information on a jewelry class he wanted to go to that month (more about jewelry later!), and my parents gave him a nice little wad of cash to put towards the class supplies he would be needing, since this would be a somewhat pricey endeavor.  His godfather's twin sister and her partner gave him a gift card to one of the craft shops where he loves to shop for beads.  So he figured the Kindle bonanza was over.

He still never suspected, when I gave him an over-sized box that actually had the itty, bitty Kindle inside, what was really in there.  His jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.  Wish I had a picture of that face, it was great. 

Nice party.  I think he'll enjoy being 18.