In the Spirit of Independence...

I love the Fourth of July. I love that people take full advantage of their grills (we don't have one, so we take full advantage of other people's grills). I love seeing how many red, white, and blue desserts it's possible to make. I even like hearing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". But only today.

When I was little, the Fourth of July was a big deal. I always started the day by watching a cartoon on the Disney channel about a group of fireworks and bottle rockets... I haven't seen it in years and have no idea what it's called. But it was tradition for me. Then we would get ready and either go to a friend's house or have our friends come over to our house. It was always fun because we had a group of 4 or 5 families that lived in our neighborhood that we celebrated with. We all had pools, the kids all got along great, and the parents were good friends too. So we'd eat, swim, play some volleyball in the pool (it got a little competitive, I think some of them are still mad about some dirty plays), and go watch some fireworks somewhere. Occasionally we'd make our own. Our mailbox was blown up at least once.

Now it feels a little more low-key. There are fewer people around. And we're not going to watch fireworks this year. Boo. But rumor has it there may be sparklers and poppers. We'll see how Tommy does with that. I'm very excited though. I still love the Fourth of July. And it will be great to be with family and friends today.