Happy 4th of July!

I believe this is by far my favorite holiday.  It brings back so many good memories for me from childhood.  Every 4th of July when I was younger, my grandparents would have the Haughton Family Reunion at their house on the lake in North Carolina.  It would be all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and some other extended family.  I used to look forward to it all year because I got to spend some extra time with my cousins I didn't get to see as much as I wanted to.  My Dad's side of the family is very large, with 6 kids (including my Dad), and 13 grandchildren.  My aunt adopted 3 more children which raised that number to 16 when I was in high school.  We would set up camp in my grandparents den downstairs with our sleeping bags and watch movie after movie, play pool, play hide and go seek on their land, pick blackberries, freeze our butts off in the pool in their poolhouse until your lips turned blue and you couldn't feel your legs, water ski, tube, and just visit.

On top of all of that, my very favorite memory is my Paw Paw's fireworks show.  We would start the evening out with a huge dinner.  Then we would have the "kid toys" of sparklers and other small relatively harmless fireworks toys that we could set off:  the white things that you can throw on the ground that make a pop noise (I can't think of what they're called), the helicopters, spinners, etc.  After this and once it was dark, we would move around back towards the lake.  They have a large lawn leading down to their dock and boathouse.  My grandparent's friends would come over and all of us would set out chairs and blankets.  Boats would be in the cove set up for the show as well.  My granddad would blast Patriotic music from the deck which included several John Philip Sousa marches.  My favorite:  Stars and Stripes Forever. 

I just love Patriotic music.  On top of just the beauty of the music, it reminds me that there are thousands of American soldiers fighting to protect our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.  This year marks 235 years that we have been an independent nation.  A HUGE thank you to all our troops overseas fighting for our country and freedom. 

Today, we have enjoyed smoked ribs that Michael made all morning which were excellent, beautiful weather (though it is very hot), and just relaxing.  Tonight, we will hopefully see a fireworks display because I LOVE fireworks.  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday and remembering our troops who make it possible for us to celebrate this day.  God Bless America!