The Thrills of Thirteen

No little kids in our household anymore.  Nope.  We're overrun with teenagers.  Two to be exact.  Our little man celebrated this rite of passage yesterday.  No party. No friends.  Just a dinner at Longhorn's.  It's what he asked for.  He made the guest list - mama, daddy, big sis.  He chose the menu - tonions, 8 oz. renegade, salad with ranch dressing, loaded baked potato, dessert sampler.  He's been going over it with me for the last two weeks. He thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, the wait staff came and sang to him.  They even brought him some ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream.  He was more impressed that it came in a margarita glass (should I be concerned?).  The best part was listening to him genuinely and sincerely tell his Daddy and me "thank you" more than once.  His appreciation was immense.  It was his night and his meal and he loved it.
What did our birthday boy get?  A long coveted Xbox 360, but he got that a couple weeks ago.  So he needed something to receive on his birthday.  His Daddy got him some more tools (it was the last set that would be American made in a certain brand.  Apparently it's a big deal to them and they bonded over it.) His sister gave him some Zombie Blood - energy drink in a pouch.  From me?  One happy and one angry Sasquatch (Jack Links beef jerky) and a Real Tree energy drink in a cool aluminum orange blaze camouflage bottle.  Silly gifts, yes, but he thought they were great.  He even bought himself something.  With some money he's been saving he purchased a knife he's had his eye on for a while - a Bear Grylls Gerber survival knife.  I think he like's it best of all.  One, he had some money to treat himself and who doesn't like that? Two, it's just plain cool.  Hey, it's Bear Grylls! And, who knows when Aaron might find himself in the wilderness and having to use his knife to dig up some elephant dung and squeeze water out of it to drink in order to live? (Yeah, thought y'all would like that!)