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Sixteenth Birthday Dinner at Home

·Truckee, California·#family#birthday#autumn#home-life#sweet-16
A young person smiles behind a table with a lit 16th birthday cake and a drink.

Sixteenth birthday dinner tonight, everyone around the table at home in Truckee. After the plates were cleared out came the cake — layers with dulce de leche and caramel dripped over the top, carried in on the big pottery platter, with a green polka-dot 16 stuck in the middle.

We sang, she grinned through it, then leaned in and took both candles out in one go. Sparkling something in the tall glasses. Whoever ended up sitting by the window got to watch the whole thing twice in the reflection.

The caramel had run down onto the plate by the time we cut into it. Nobody complained.

A smiling young person sits at a table with a birthday cake displaying "16" candles, a drink, and a knife.A young person looks down at a cake with '16' candles on a table with a drink, indoors.A young person with brown hair blows out "16" candles on a small cake on a table.A person blows out "16" candles on a round cake topped with caramel and chocolate on a dining table.

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