The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays, and if you had spent one with my extended family I'm sure it would be your favorite too. I'll give you a glimpse of the amazingness that is a Cornwall 4th of July Celebration:
Everyone on my mom's side gathers at my grandparents house, and with my mom having eight kids in her family there are a lot of us! It starts with a flag raising ceremony by the scouts in our family, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and an opening prayer. Then there's a little devotional service with stories or scriptures about our freedom and then my Grandma and Grandpa usually say a few words. It's good to start the day off right, thinking about all those who served and sacrificed (and still are!) for the blessings we enjoy every day. Then the partying starts...and goes all day! My grandparents live in a small town and there is a great parade every year that still throws candy. I was horrified when I went to a parade a few years ago and NO ONE THREW CANDY. What kind of parade is that?! For the rest of the day there are mounds of salt water taffy and tootsie rolls all over the place.
Following the parade there is a feast of fried chicken, potato salad, jello salad, watermelon, baked beans, a million desserts, and the BEST THING of all is the HOME-MADE ROOT BEER. If you've never had home-made root beer, put it on your bucket list because life is not complete until you've tried it. When I was younger my cousins and I would drink so much of that stuff it probably replaced the blood in our veins by the end of the day. Delicious.
Games and relaxing and sometimes a huge slip'n'slide usually follow. And when it gets dark, a family firework show. It is one of the best days of the year. Freedom, faith, family, and food. Nothing better than that.
Well, we are a little far this year to attend the party and I missed it terribly. But we did have a good day. Gavin had to study most of the day as the Bar is getting closer, but we did have fried chicken for lunch (to keep with tradition) and got out to the see the city's firework show. It was much better than we were expecting and we were quite impressed. Here's some pictures of Emery in her red white and blue!
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| One cool chick. |
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| Too bad she won't keep them on longer then 2 seconds... |
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| My mom sent Emery her little outfit in the mail, along with some taffy. It's not 4th of July without it! |
Oh my gosh!! We totally missed the Cornwall bash too so we kept the tradition and had fried chicken and potato salad :)
ReplyDeleteThat does sound like a great celebration. Sounds like something I need to re-create with my little family. Especially b/c I've got some really tender and strong feelings about this country and its birth.
ReplyDeleteLove this post! Nothing beats 4th of July at G & G Cornwalls with the whole clan! I don't know if I'm ever quite as homesick as I am on the 4th. I almost bought a big jug so we could make homemade root beer this year... maybe next year. :)
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