our independence weekend...

It sounded like a second Revolution around here Sunday night. The fireworks were triumphant and spell-binding, and we were right under them for the official city show. Then, our neighbors kept their own privately-funded show going until the wee hours of the morning. It was quite festive.

To prepare ourselves for the festivities, Husband cooked a secret family recipe on Saturday night. They call it "Shields White Sauce Chicken," and it's so rich and delicious we only allow ourselves to indulge in it once a year... always in the summertime.

And we ate it on the coffee table (which is actually an overturned crate I finagled from my brother who finagled it from my aunt) in front of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which was as weird and creepy as one would expect. I loved it. It was brilliantly imagined and skillfully executed. Not to mention the phenomenal costumes, sets, and acting.

On the Fourth, we took Khan to the city festival.

(This post is a little out of order. Notice I am taking you from July 4th to July 3rd back to July 4th? Don't get dizzy!)

The "live music" on the river turned out to be a very talented swing band made up of soldiers.

I overheard someone comment, "This is the kind of music I picture the soldiers playing in the World War II camps for entertainment." It did seem like they came straight out of the Swing Era, still in uniform. Can you see the drummer in the middle on the stage? He was performing a drum solo, and once it was finished the trumpeters wasted no time picking up the beat.

We watched them until nightfall, and they played up until 5 minutes before the fireworks began. It was so symbolic, as if they were playing on base as victory was sought and wrought.

And as with every Fourth of July, I was struck by the last verse of "Oh Say Can You See," which it seems I only hear sung by soldiers and church congregations:

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, whether or not you were celebrating the United State's Independence Day!

More to come...