We had a remarkable Fourth of July today, and as you can see above, the night was perfect for us for neighborhood fireworks. We talk about that protective bubble that seems to keep our neighborhood from getting rain even when there are pop-up showers all around, and tonight that was certainly in our favor. The forecast was spotty all around with rain showers all over, and just as always appearing as if they were heading in our direction, only to dissolve in the skies before arriving here. We actually never really gave it too much thought, just assuming it would all work out and sure enough, for us at least, it did. We had a great night.
Our day started out relaxed on the back deck, as it tends to do lately. Mom and I do our online world puzzles there, and have tea (as there is no harbor to toss the tea into). One thing I did was put our new American flag up on the front porch to complete the decorations out there.
Our house is looking very patriotic and festive today! We did some searching online for a flag, and we rejected several online offers from some pretty mainstream sources, just because the flags and posts were not made in America. We just thought that was too much. You can't buy an American flag from some other country, right? Anyway, we found one locally and put it up there today, appropriately enough on the Fourth of July, and now the front porch looks very nice.
The mailbox looks nice too! Although, Mom partially did this to stop the bluebirds from using our mailbox as a toilet! They still land on the one part, but at least the mailbox looks nice too. And so does the inside of the house, of course.
Our patriotic tree was plugged in and looking nice there. We had a good breakfast in a skillet, and while we were eating, we had our usual patriotic tunes playing. Phil Driscoll's "Celebrate Freedom" is basically mandatory listening in our house on these American holidays. We have a few CDs from the Voices of Liberty too, and this year we even added a collection of patriotic music from the Gaithers. But on the way down to Aunt Shain's house, we listened to Adventures in Odyssey, which was such a wonderful broadcast we used to listen to each night. I found a set of these CDs that had a patriotic theme to them, and on the way down to Sugar Hill, we listened to an adventure or two about Paul Revere, some brave Revolutionary War soldiers, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
We arrived at Aunt Shain's this afternoon and had a meal cooked out on the grill, complete with salads and desserts. We celebrated Hannah's birthday too, although you don't see her in the photo above. Not everyone is in the picture above, actually, because we didn't think to take it until later.
There's Hannah. Oh, and the pet lizard they call "Morph," named after the strange creature from "Treasure Planet." And yes, now I have to see that movie again. Anyway, it was a nice time. We had a big meal, did a lot of conversing, and even got engaged in three pretty lengthy rounds of "patriotic Uno." It's just basically a standard "UNO" game, with pictures of patriotic things on each card, like the Statue of Liberty, Route 66, and a log cabin. It was fun, and it was a really nice afternoon together, one we haven't shared in a while because of crazy schedules. But we made it work, and it was totally worth it.
Once home, we rested, got cleaned up, and then it was time for the huge neighborhood fireworks display.
It all starts across the street. Maddie loves our neighbors across the street, who put on a huge fireworks show, and it keeps getting bigger each and every year.
We all gather in their front yard and watch the colorful explosions above, always remarking about the rainfall of debris that showers down upon us. This is such a great tradition for us, and to think we used to drive off to places like the Mall of Georgia or Helen or some other place like that to catch a big fireworks display. Ultimately though, things have changed so that we can see the same exact level of quality literally from our front porch. We go across the street though, because one of the best parts of the holiday is watching these fireworks together with friends and family.
This one looks like a shooting star, doesn't it?
Everyone is there in the front yard, watching one after the other go up to decorate the sky in a fiery explosion of color.
I love this shot here too. You can see the moon amidst all that, a tiny crescent a little over midway up. You can also see the tremendous cloud formations in the distance, yet another approaching thunderstorm that was jealously adding its own light show, watching our neighborhood celebrate, and then moving off and away.
So eventually that show was over, and as usual, Maddie and I took our chairs around the bend to another part of the neighborhood. It's so close you can easily walk there, and it's so close there's no mistaking the sound of it: these other neighbors put on a show that is simply incredible.
They do this for the community each year, and the crowd that comes to see it grows more and more each year. We found a spot with our chairs, and just sat to watch each launch as folks were blasting patriotic tunes from their speakers. We heard "I'm Proud to be an American" about six times, I think...!
They added a few American flag light decorations to the fence at their house this year, which made for a nice picture series for these fireworks.
Eventually, we had to get back. The rainstorm never came, although by the time we got back to our house, there was a tremendous crack of thunder. Still: heavy cloud, no rain. That was okay for tonight.
It was a wonderful Fourth of July today, just what we needed. It was such a full day too. We'll all get back to work tomorrow, but today was certainly a great change of pace, and a really nice day to stop and celebrate 246 years of the greatest country on earth.
It was pretty late when we were ready for bed. We read a little bit from our recent adventure, and we said our prayers too, grateful for a nice day. Soon enough, we were all asleep, exhausted from the fun-filled day. Maddie got a few pictures today too, including this very nice one of the fireworks this evening. We'll close with this image here.
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