Happy fourth of July (yesterday)!

I joked last week with someone about how I’d be lucky to remember that the 4th of July was even significant. It’s (obviously) not a holiday here, so we are responsible for remembering without any commercial prodding. Fortunately, we did remember and managed to scrounge up a few Americans (plus one Brit) to share some burgers with to celebrate the occasion.

The three of us donned our red, white, and blue for church, but Aed definitely won the cutest ever award. He wore this blue and white striped button up shirt:


(Forgive his mess, he was eating dinner.. He spends a lot of time each day in that high chair..)

With a pair of fire engine-red overalls. It was awesome. He also managed to make his face a little more festive by hitting himself in the head with a toy at church:


I promise it looks worse than this in real life. This is his second head bruise.. I’m sure we have quite a few more to look forward to!

Our pastor (bless his heart) even remembered yesterday was the fourth, and when we got to church asked us if he should do anything special. Ian and I immediately both said, ‘Fireworks!’ He didn’t set off any fireworks, but he did say a prayer for the United States and the importance of this holiday, which was very thoughtful.

We then indulged in a post-church meal of hamburgers (grilled inside because yesterday was a lovely Scottish day that went: blustery, sunny, overcast, raining, sideways rain, repeat all day long) with all the fixins, a tomato cucumber salad, a fruit salad (strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple – almost red, white, and blue!), chips, and some toffee popcorn. I must add that it was our British friend that chose the chips and popcorn, and he chose three varieties that gave us a red bag, a white bag, and a blue bag :)

It was delicious and almost as good as grilled (outside) American hamburgers (though admittedly, I did almost gag once while I was eating my burger.. they’re just not the same! :).

I hope my fellow Americans found a way to make your Fourth special and have taken some time to appreciate the United States’ history. There is good and bad in most everything, as there is in the United States, but it is a country that many have felt was worth fighting for, hoping for, dreaming of, and living in. I never knew how thankful I was for my country until I left it.