Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Diplomas for Graduation (2024)

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my affiliate disclosure for more information.

Smoked salmon, scallions and dill fleck whipped cream cheese filling that is tucked into these mini diplomas. An appetizer must for your graduation party!

Today is the last day of school for my boys. It marks the end of homework, packed lunches and early morning wake-up calls for the next several weeks. It also marks the end of elementary school for my oldest son Jack. I’m still trying to figure out how that happened. Come September, I’ll be mom to a middle-schooler. Life will be all pre-teen angst and mom-you’re-so-emabarrassing-eye rolls. Somehow mysweet, little round-faced boy has been replaced by this mildly surly kid thathas put the kibosh on any “mom contact” outside of ourhouse. As middle school approaches, I expect my very presence will be enough to mortify him in front of his friends. But the truth is, I not only get it, I welcome it.

I remember a day when I was probably around Jack’s age when I began to strive for my own independence. I was walking down the street with my mom, when she reached out to hold my hand as she normally would. I took hold at first, then quickly dropped mine away. My mom looked crushed. And while my heart twisted when I saw thatlook on her face, I kept on walking, hands at my sides, trying to act like that grown up girl I so wanted to be.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to hold her hand. Of course I did. It’s just that I wanted to be that girl that didn’t need to hold her mom’s hand just a little bit more. And now I see that transformation happening within my own son. He’s still a ball of love at home, but one foot out that door and his game face is on.

While it does sting a bit not to be able to give him a squeeze at the end of a winning baseball game or when I drop him at a friends, I also know that it’s all part of the job. I recognize that he needs to push me away just enough so he can continue to move forward. And I need to be able to give him that space so he can develop, occasionallyfall down and hopefullypick himself up without me reaching out to give him a hand.

Even thoughI usually fall into the “it’s not really graduationuntil you’re a senior” camp, todayI’mtaking a moment to get a little warm and fuzzy. I’m celebrating my elementary school graduate with a special little appetizer diploma. I’ve blended cream cheese (his favorite) with dill, smoked salmon, lemon and scallions and wrapped it up with crunchy cucumbers and smoked salmon inside a whole wheat wrap. It’s knotted together with a chive and rolled to look like a diploma…the perfect appetizer to serve at a graduation party.

As my little graduateheads out the door for his last day of elementary school today, chances are he won’t look back to see me waving goodbye. But I think he knows how proud I am of the young man he’s becoming and how grateful I am to behis mom. And I have a feeling that when he rushes in after he hops off the bus at the end of the day, I’ll get that big hug I’ve been waiting for. I’ll just be sure to close the door first.

75