Independence Day!!

Woohoo!  Happy 4th of July everyone! 

I have TONS of wonderful memories of the 4th of July with my family growing up.  We lived right next to my grandparents in the country, so we always shot off fireworks from Nana & Papa's big driveway.  Sometimes it was just my immediate family and Nana & Papa, sometimes it was ALL the cousins, aunts and uncles.  Nana and Papa had a big inground pool so every 4th of July celebration included a swim (weather permitting).  Usually we'd wake up, make some kind of food for the afternoon celebration (remember that United States jello mold?  I do...we had that every year!).  We'd then go buy some fireworks, come home, shoot off a few Black Cats (those were the firecrackers I remember), then go swimming for the rest of the afternoon!  Then it would be time to eat, and we'd have fried chicken (or bbq/grilled chicken or pork or beef), jello, slaw, potato salad, and ALWAYS ice cream. 

Side note: Nana & Papa's house was FULL of sugary sweet good stuff...ice cream, M&Ms, cookies, Hershey's Kisses...you name it they had it!  My youngest brother once told my mom that "going to Nana & Papa's is like going to a concession stand, but you pay with hugs and kisses!"...awwww!

After the feasting, we'd always swim until it turned dark, then we'd start up the fireworks.  Sometimes my uncle would bring fireworks from Arkansas...we lived in Oklahoma and you can only get so much firepower there apparently...oops!  The fireworks he'd set off were LOUD and HUGE and AWESOME! :)  I remember loving that sooo much as a kid!  I also loved the Saturn Missles...the little box of what looked like plastic bullets that would whistle really loudly and shoot off one by one (and sometimes if you got a crazy box they'd chase you...that was always a little thrill!).  But, true to my girlish form, I really loved the pretty stuff...cones, fountains, and "big boomers" as we liked to call them. 

Now as I sit in my house in Dallas, I like to remember those times...although Nana & Papa are gone and the cousins have all spread out, grown up and have their own families, it's fun to remember the swimming, food, and fireworks with family.  I'm very grateful to have these memories and I'm grateful to the men & women fighting for this country to make sure the next generation has the opportunity to make their own memories.