The Unexciting 4th

Shouldn't holidays be fun and exciting? I know they were when I was a kid. Maybe something happens when you grow up that makes them just normal days. Maybe when a holiday ends up on a weekend it isn't as fun because it really isn't different from any other day of the week. My fun filled day started with finishing painting my furniture. Then we had lunch with my greatgrandmother. Then I took a nap. Nothing exciting...no picnics or parties or fireworks. Of course, there are plenty of activities around the Dallas area that I could have attended. But something about fighting huge crowds and sweating in the bright sun just doesn't excite me. Maybe if I lived where it isn't 98 degrees with high humidity I would enjoy it more...

I remember when I was a kid. We would wake up early and be so excited about the day. We would go out to the "farm" (really just my grandparent's house which was way out in Rockwall...of course back then Rockwall was still the country and there weren't huge housing developlments). We would get to go to a firework store and by all kinds of fireworks. We would then spend the days playing with Blackcats and those kind you threw on the ground and they popped. We would stick blackcats everywhere. We would blow up ant hills and crawdad holes...we would sting them together to make bigger explosions...it seems like we never got too hot or tired to blow up firecrackers. Really we were just killing time until it got dark. Then the dads would shoot off the huge fireworks and we would have our own display. It was so much fun...it was always sad when the last one would go off and the night was over. Now that was 4th of July as it should be.

Somewhere along the way we grew up, my grandparent's passed away, and we no longer had a place to shoot off our own fireworks...maybe that is when the holiday became just another day. I am curious to see if the fun will come back when I have my own children some day. There is something about being a kid that makes the holidays that much more exciting. I guess only time will tell...for now I will be content to enjoy a relaxing day in the coolness of the airconditioning...watching movies and taking naps...

Happy 4th of July!!!