Monday, July 4, 2011

We hold these truths to be self-evident...

Happy Fourth! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend watching the John Adams mini-series that HBO made a few years ago with Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. I don't really read any non-fiction history books, but I bet there are some great ones about the Revolutionary period. Can anybody recommend any for me? Is Stephen Ambrose the way to go?

Pretty cool guy
My favorite Fourth of July memory is from one of the years when I was living in Germany. A bunch of us Americans got together for a bbq and brought our favorite dishes from home--I brought strawberry pretzel jello salad--and we invited all of our German friends and taught them how to do keg stands. At the end of the evening, we stood together and sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and I'll be damned if I didn't get all teary. It's nice to feel like you belong somewhere, and I think it's important to take a day and appreciate that.

Today my husband and I are celebrating the holiday by unpacking boxes and cleaning the patio. The cat is still figuring out these hardwood floors, and he's had a few Bambi moments. When he runs across the room, he sounds like a horse. We haven't gotten our grill yet, so we're making cold Turkish food for our holiday meal. What are your celebratory plans?


2 comments:

  1. I've never had strawberry jello pretzel salad. Do you just toss the pretzels in while it's in the fridge? We had chicken cordon bleu for our meal yesterday, but I did make apple pie!

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  2. That is a memory all right! Wow.

    Turkish food eh? It looks delicious. Hm. Maybe we'll have to experiment in the kitchen tonight.

    We watched fireworks on the beach. =)

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