bOOM bABY!

If there was one thing that my family did well when I was a kid, it was holidays. We loved to celebrate. It didnt mater what the occasion. Both my brother and I always had a cool birthday party with costumes and cake and ice cream and lots of presents. The Easter bunny always left us lot sof eggs to find. One year I even set a trap to "catch" the Easter bunny. My parents went and bought a baby bunny and put him in the trap to make me think Id caught him. Christmas was always an extravaganza with gifts galore and a visit from Santa himself sometimes.  One of my favorite holidays was the 4th of July. We went all out with thefireworks, buying the biggest package we could afford and thewn some. Wed stay up into the wee hours of the night on the 4th lighting fireworks unti lwe were practically deaf. We even made some of our own fireworks with black powder and PVC. Since we lived in the country, no one really noticed. (FYI I do not recommend this now, the times have changed and pipe bombs are a serious crime nowdays).

I guess that Ive carried this sense of wonder about the holidays into my adulthood. I love to make a big deal for my kids and try to make the event special for them. Birthdays are a big bash, we buy too much at Christmas, and I try to instill in them the reason why we celebrate each holiday as it comes around every year. This is something that I think is missing today. Memorial Day is all about car and furniture sales. Christmas is so over commercialized I wonder if people even know what were celebrating. Easter is about egg hunts. Labor Day is all about back to school sales. The 4th of July is all about having more and bigger explosions than your neighbor. Where I live, its legal to purchase and discharge fireworks for 1 week prior to and 3 days after July 4th. Last night it started. I sat down to catch a little TV before going to bed and it sounded like a war zone outside. Bottle rockets, roman candles and fircrackers non-stop until almost midnight. Dont get me wrong, Im as big a pyro as the next guy, but doesnt the holiday loose a little of its meaning, doesnt the real reason we shoot fireworks get diluted if we do it for a almost 2 weeks straight?

Maybe Im getting alittle old, but Im not going to do my fireworks until the 4th. It will seem a little more meaningful for this old guy that still gets a little teary while singing the national anthem.