Thank You: I like the diploma idea (along with the others!)

Gladys, thanks so much for your extensive recipe suggestions. In reading them, I think I recall seeing my grandmother (my dad's mom) make some of these things. (She died at the age of 99, when I was 25, so I was so lucky to have had her in my life...) She did not own a cookbook - the recipes were all in her head - but what you've suggested sounds a lot like what 'homemade' or made from 'scratch' food that she would prepare. Now it's nice to have a recipe that might be similar to how she prepared many items that hopefully, will be a surprise to him while conjuring up childhood memories of her cooking. Concerning the diploma of his accomplishments: I love the idea esp. since he never completed grade school (was a very sick child from many of the illnesses that children of today are protected from via vaccinations - and when he was not ill, he had to work to help in supporting the family - like many children of that time.) Since he's had to live vicariously through me concerning a diploma (both high school and college), I'd love for him to have his 'own'. But what are some ideas for that diploma as far as wording? Do I merely suggest that his accomplishments are just his life and the family he began with my mother? Is that too mushy? Any websites or poets, great authors, speakers, etc., that you'd recommend I research for quotes, etc.? I love the idea of having family members and a few special guests sign it.