Fireworks

BIG Weekend - Details: #4
We shot off fireworks.

I've decided that the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. That seems odd to me since I've always been afraid of fireworks. I like watching them, but I want to be in a protected area (think under a porch, inside an RV looking out a window, or just really far away) when they go off.

The Fourth of July is one holiday that really hasn't changed too much over the years as far as family traditions go. We almost always have dessert at my Grandma's house, and then shoot off fireworks in her front yard. Her front yard used to be next door to mine, and the same people were always there. Grandma and PaPa, Mom and Dad, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Billy, and Justin and Ben. I remember picking fresh strawberries from the big garden at their old house, and trying to get inside with more than I ate while I was out there. Eating homemade vanilla ice cream, and sometimes needing a blanket to sit out in the lawn chairs to watch the fireworks because it was chilly.

Grandma's house isn't anywhere near mine now, and the people have changed, too. PaPa passed away when I was 16, my parents got divorced, and we've added lots of new people, too. In the last few years, our typical gathering included Grandma, Mom, George, Debbie, Billy, Justin, Ben, Jessi, Miranda (and usually her BFF Lynsea), Noah, Braden, Cameron, and almost always another friend or two. This Fourth of July was different, though. Jessi is in the Marines now, and working in North Carolina. Miranda was on a school trip to Germany, and Noah was with his mom. We didn't have any extra friends along for the ride, so it was really just the people who used to always be there when I was little (minus PaPa and my dad, and plus George, Braden and Cameron). OK, so that's not exactly the same, but it felt like "the old days." I kept looking around, and thinking, where is everyone? And then realizing that everyone who was there was in the room. It was nice in a nostalgic sort of way. Don't get me wrong, though, I missed the people who weren't there.

My favorite part of the Fourth of July is when we go out front and watch the fireworks. Ben and Justin have taken over the fireworks lighting (thank you!), and everyone else lines up in lawn chairs. Maybe I appreciate this part so much because I never sit in the row of lawn chairs. I always sit up on the porch - behind everyone else (remember, I like to be under some sort of protective covering when those fireworks shoot up in the air). I can look down from the porch and see everyone sitting together. I like to sit back and listen to their conversations and their "oohs" and "aahs". It takes me back in time, and it really feels like home. Braden joined me on the porch this year. I took lots of pictures (mostly blurry ones). We had a pretty awesome "grand finale."




We did the fireworks at my grandma's house on July 3rd and then drove home on the fourth. So, we got to do more fireworks at home on the night of the fourth. We did a few snakes, smoke bombs, and sparklers before Cameron went to bed. Braden got to stay up until after dark, though.




It was fun watching Braden (and listening to him - if you know him, you know that he talks constantly). He was excited to shoot off the fireworks we bought from our neighbor who runs a fireworks stand. We also got to enjoy our other neighbors' fireworks (some of them spent a LOT more money than we did)! Braden wanted us to warn him when a "big one" was coming so he could cover his ears. He kept saying, "Oh, that one was definitely a grand finale!" And then, when another one went off, he would say, "Why did they just do that grand finale?" Every big one was a "grand finale" to him. Here's our "grand finale":


I love shooting off fireworks at our house almost as much as doing it at Grandma's house. It's so neat to know that a whole bunch of other people are doing the same thing we're doing at the same time. Seeing the fireworks go off all around the neighborhood (and hearing bigger ones from farther away), really gives me a feeling of community. I do feel proud to be an American (though I can't type those words without that song - and patriotic marching band medleys - coming to mind). In America, I'm free to set my air conditioner to whatever temperature I want and chew gum wherever I please. I know those sound like weird "freedoms" to be thankful for, but when David went to Russia last October, they had to sleep with the windows open because it was too hot in their hotel room. In Russia, the government decides when the heat gets turned on and at what temperature. I also think about a digi-scrapping friend of mine who lives in Singapore, where it's illegal to buy or sell chewing gum. Our country isn't perfect, but we do have a LOT of freedoms for which to be thankful!