LOL,
Honestly, you can't buy these memories. If Jr. walks into the den tomorrow and tells me he's done, I'd tell him, "Thanks, It's been a wonderful ride."
I'm an engineer by trade and can't help but "run the numbers" on all the money we spend getting ready for college, so I tend to lament in my posts.
I have a sign in my office that says, "I spent all my money on baseball & beer, the rest I just wasted". It's sincere. We all have vices and mine is spending it on what my kids love to do. Son is baseball, daughter is softball. As long as they have fun, I'll have fun with them and spend whatever it takes to make them better, so long as they have fun doing it and want the extra work.
I wouldn't even consider doing anything differently, but find it funny we talk about these kids as legends (on message boards like this), but have to deal with teenagers who 'point and grunt', sleep till noon unless interrupted, and can't organize their thoughts. Just last night we were talking about finals and my honors student said they aren't for a while. I told him, "look at a f****g calendar, they start next week!" after a brief argument, he rebuted with, "Oh".
Happy Christmas to all my fellow parents...
We're turning the planet over to these kids in a few years...