Mommy Style Monday: 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

Growing up, the 4th rivaled Christmas as my favorite holiday.  I came from a fairly small town in Northern Utah that did the 4th right.  I'm talking PATRIOTISM in its finest.  Think of neighborhood BBQs alongside a full week of celebrating.  Think of a HUGE parade down the center of town, a parade in which half the town set up lawn chairs to reserve spaces days in advance.  A parade where the second half was devoted to a giant water fight, with both sides participating.  I recall one year as a participant in the parade (my one and only year as a cheerleader), getting an entire cooler of water dumped right over my head by two complete strangers.  If that's not a blast, I don't know what is!

And the fireworks!  Don't get me started.  Seriously, there were fireworks across the whole valley.  My family made a tradition of hiking up the mountain and watching the display, voting on which city had the best ones.

Once Brad and I moved to Northern California, I quickly learned that the 4th of July was not at the same level of fanfare I was used to.  The town parade left me feeling disappointed, and fireworks were kind of blah.  I was underwhelmed by the sense of patriotism and love of country.  At least we still had the BBQs, and that helped.  A little...

OK, so maybe this post is just me ranting about my disapproval of my current home's celebration of this important holiday.

The past few years though, I've enjoyed walking with my neighbors to our small, local parade and having a BBQ with a few friends.  That smaller celebration has been enjoyable, too.  And I've finally come to the conclusion, that I can set the tone in my little family.  We can hang our flag, wear our red, white, and blue, and enjoy our time together.  I can help my little ones appreciate how blessed we are to live in the good ol' U.S. of A., because we are so, so blessed.

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