Happy 4th of July!!

Today is my favorite holiday of the year. I just love the 4th of July!! There is no stress of buying presents, no stress of cooking, no stress of which family can come and which can't. It's just the middle of the summer, when we all celebrate our freedom in the greatest country on the planet. I hope I don't sound un-religious, it's just that Christmas and even Easter have been hijacked by Santa and the Easter bunny, and we don't even have time to reflect on their true meaning any more.... When I was growing up, I had a VERY difficult father, and it made Thanksgiving and Christmas extremely stressful. But in the summer, it was a great chillaxing time. We had a beach house that we drove to most weekends, but ALWAYS were there on the 4th of July. My mother always cooked a brisket, beans, salad and sourdough bread. We never got tired of it. And since my parents went out deepsea fishing, they had tons of fun friends that came over to celebrate. I can still see my mother and Cora Keeler, after a few too many, marching around in a mock parade to patriotic music. Hysterical!! And my brother would always have a ton of fireworks that seemed to go off all weekend long. In high school my older sister, tons of friends and I would drive up and down the beach and have bottle-rocket wars, shooting them out of the back of our parent's station wagon. Aaaah the good old days.... I can still feel the Gulf of Mexico breeze those summer's nights on the sand dunes. We would drive all over the island where Port Aransas is, and the town was the most electric and the most fun on the 4th of July. So tonight, I lift my glass to wish the USA a very Happy Birthday - long may she live.

And to my precious parents, Martin and Marlene, Happy 4th Mom and Dad - I miss y'all the most on this day more than any other day of the year...