I survived the 4th 7-5-11

Don't get me wrong, I really like the 4th and certainly want my children to enjoy the celebration. The survive part is that this is our first Independence Day "on our own" and that was a little harder than I'd expected it to be since I was just thinking in terms of it not being the first one since John's death.

Christmas and Independence Day were always John's favorite holidays, I think because they gave him a chance to share both anticipation and a certain amount of pageantry with the kids. Last year we went to the house of one set of friends for fireworks on the 3rd and then to lunch and watch the municipal display with another set of friends on the 4th so we didn't need to think about much except what to bring to add to the snacks, which is probably just as well as I'm sure we were still in shock since it was only a couple of weeks after John had passed away.

I do think this year went well. I read the Declaration of Independence to the kids, we listened to patriotic songs on the computer, had a strawberry/blueberry trifle for dessert, watched the municipal fireworks with another family in the neighborhood, and then walked home and set off our own. All in all a successful day an done I'd like to see repeated in the years to come. I'd just not realized until about half-way through how much John's excitement about the holiday had always supported my own and, with the fact that I'm kind of focused on getting things ready for our up-coming trip, how much quieter I needed the whole experience to be.