"Oh really. He's usually such a stickler for that kind of thing." He'll have to hassle "Omom" about it later.

"Thank you," he says. "Really. Maybe I'll have to throw a private shindig on campus. No family drama allowed." That would work. Just the people he cares about coming to share his birthday? Well, perhaps not all of them, but a token gesture at it. He doesn't want anything particularly exciting anyway.