How to surprise the teenager who thinks he knows all my tricks...

He turned 16 today and all my son expected (or wanted) for his birthday was money.  Nearly everyone obliged--Gramma, uncles, aunts and even me.  I do however have to keep it creative.  I have told you before that I don't like to give money--I like to put a little personal touch into my gift giving.  I finally finished my niece's gift, but I forgot to take pictures so I'll just tell you about it.  She's always wanting jeans to destroy so I put together a Blue Jean Destruction Kit.  In a huge hatbox were several pairs of jeans from the thrift store (only nice ones, and in different styles), a small spray bottle of bleach water, a pumice, razors, tweezers and scissors.  There are some great DIY tutorials online that take you through the steps, which may sound silly, but there are certain methods for taking out threads and making fringes which do give some pretty cool results.  My favorite is the method of taking out the vertical threads only, leaving the white horizontal threads so you technically have a hole, but it remains partially covered.  I'm sure it will keep her busy for awhile, and by the time school starts, she'll have a bunch of jeans that bear her personal touch.

Now for my son's birthday surprise today.  He loves Lindor chocolates, so I bought him a box.  He was on his way to school so he didn't get around to digging in until late in the evening.  He was shocked:


His favorite--- Lindor Truffles.  A must have for the Christmas stocking, Easter basket (yes I still make them!) and any other very special occasion.

 I was working after he went to bed, so no "natural light"pictures.  Nope, just these wonderful "golden glow" pics.  So I carefully removed the gold seal and the tape that held the ribbon in place.

 Carefully slid off the paper band.

There they are!  The crown jewel of candy, according to my son.

 I opened some of the wrappers, then wiped off any leftover chocolate with a paper towel.  (Keep a bowl handy for the extras!)

And here's where the money comes in...

It took awhile, but I replaced the candy in about 10 wrappers with bills!  I started rolling and folding it, but it was too obvious that there was no truffle in there, so I started just balling the bills up until I got something that resembled a sphere, then rewrapped each one.

And now to put it all back together...

I guess I used a flash on this one..

 Sneaky!  Honestly, he didn't suspect a thing until about 8:00 tonight, when I heard a very drawn out MOMMM...?  Of course he opened them all.  He was really happy and so was I because I can still surprise him...and have him say it was a cool idea.

So Happy Birthday Chaz...you're an awesome kid.  Here's to many more years of birthday surprises!