4th of July (and the 3rd...and the 5th...)

It's no secret: the 4th of July is my favorite holiday. There's no explanation really (and I don't feel like I should have to explain it), but I think I can sum it up by saying three things.

1) I love the color RED. And blue is a close second. (White just ties them together and makes them look good.)

2) I love summer.

3) My family can make (and eat!) a good meal like nobody's business.

Last year's holiday was a bit jaded by a few life obstacles--my grandpa's death, my little brother's departure for his mission, working through some personal problems, etc. I remember keeping tiny bits of sanity by holing up in my apartment and sewing my frenzied brains out, working on a red, white, and blue quilt. But when you stop on the way home from the Annual Waffles and Ice Cream (with the extended family) to pick up flowers for the arrangements at your grandfather's funeral, it's just not the same.

Long story short, I felt like I needed to make up for it this year by pulling out all the stops and celebrating the crap out of freedom and the 4th. And so, I did.

These cake balls were amazing in and of themselves, but Mike had the idea of putting sparklers in them. "Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it..." (Thank you, Craig, for the picture!)

Obviously, baking is how I really get into something like a holiday...my family helped with all of the decorating.

Things I have loved about this year:

* The holiday actually fell on a Sunday this year. And since Utah moves Sunday holidays to either the Saturday before or the Monday afterward, I got to go to the festivities in my hometown on Saturday and then get the Monday off of work to lounge around in my pajamas and finish my book. (On a somewhat related note--if you haven't read The Hunger Games yet, DO IT.)

* The weather couldn't have been better. It didn't get hotter than 85 degrees, and the cloud cover was perfect. I kept saying, "Could it be like this every year?" I don't ever remember it being that cool and beautiful for this normally blazing holiday. I realize that this is a stupid thing to be raving about, but who wants to stand outside for a parade when the temperature is pushing one hundred degrees and the sun is beating down on you? I will take Mother Nature's offering this year and bless it.

* Having an excuse to go nuts with the sugar (among other junk food). Cake balls on Friday night were the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to my sensible eating. Cupcakes and homemade root beer and taffy and burgers and barbeque pork... America knows what it's doing as far as us shoving our faces full of fatty and sugary goodness. Who says you can't buy happiness? It's as close as a good potato salad. Good thing this isn't my normal nutritional strategy, though. No wonder Michelle Obama's trying to fight the childhood obesity epidemic in the US...

Anyway, tomorrow it's back to the usual day-to-day, unfortunately. For now, I think I'm going to go take a nap and dream of sugar plums--wait, wrong holiday. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson? Yikes.