Happy 5th!

Yesterday, Today and, apparently, Forever:

We celebrated the Fourth at my uncle's house yesterday afternoon/evening, and had a great time, even if the temperature was set to London Broil. Now I know how food baked in water-bath feels. Holy crap! Hot and humid as hell. Like my hormones were stuck in Super-Hot-Flash mode.

Not as many of the relatives came this time, but we still had fun. My cousin Kyle, who's in college, makes a mean chili and cooks pretty good burgers, and we had new potatoes and grean beans, potato-cheese casserole, chips and dip and -- of course it wouldn't be a family get-together without sweets -- homemade sherbet, cake, cupcakes and bread pudding.

I don't know if I'm mellowing as I get older or if it's got something to do with impending grandmotherhood, but I had a good time with the kids last night. There was Caitlin, our little princess, and Colton, who's so sweet -- and so amazingly stubborn for a two-year-old. Chase, who thought everything in the world was a snake (his favorite firework), and Hailey ("will you take me for a wong walk in the gwass?") and Charlie, our teenaged bullrider who looked awfully cute with his straw cowboy hat, and Lindsey, who loves school and couldn't remember my name longer than the second it took me to say it. And Hayden, who preceded every ear-shattering bomb and rocket with "Fire in the hole!", and Ranger, who's related to one of my cousins by marriage, which makes him pretty much family, and Rachel, who's gorgeous and probably wouldn't appreciate being lumped in with the kids now that's she just about out of college. (Though I think I was married and pregnant before I was allowed to sit at the adults' table at family holidays.)

The kiddo and wife (have I mentioned pregnant wife??) didn't make it home, but they're planning a visit later this month when her birthday rolls around. Hopefully next year they and grandchild will be here for his introduction to one of our family rituals.

My uncle Eddie loved fireworks, and when I was younger, we often celebrated the 4th at his house. I remember him telling all of us kids one time years ago that the longer we clapped and oohed and ahhed, the longer the fireworks would last. He died about twelve or fifteen years ago, but I thought about him last night as I sat holding his granddaughter, the aforementioned princess, on my lap, telling her to clap and ooh and ahh to make the fireworks last longer.

All in all, it was a pretty cool evening. Even if it was hotter than hell in July. (Oh, wait, I'm sorry -- "hell in July" is Oklahoma.) Even if we did get a deluge (fortunately, after dinner, and fortunately it passed in time for the fireworks. And the kids had a great time playing in the rain, though it made our "wong walk in the gwass" awfully wet.)

Hope your Fourth was great, too -- and that your Fifth has been none too shabby.

Rachel5:29 PM