A Reason to Celebrate

The questions around the house this past week were all about Ben's first July 4th. "What are we going to do?" "Where should we go?" "Are we going to barbeque?" "Are we going to the baseball game?" And on and on....desperately attempting to find a unique tradition that will become our own year after year. I have such fond memories of heading out to "our" beach house in Ocean Pines and spending the week of the fourth with family at the beach. We rented the very same round house for 10 years or so. It had a little dock for fishing and crabbing, a ping pong table for nightly tournaments, cable television, and the strangest red Ikea-like lounge chair that offered hours of entertainment as each occupant attempted to find the perfect way to balance in it (I think cousin Kea holds the record for balancing through an entire movie). Ocean City was/is/will always be a bit of dive, but we didn't know that when we were playing skeeball on the boardwalk. We didn't care to be told that ocean water is actually supposed to be blue as opposed to that unusual brown that washes up against the mid-Atlantic shoreline. It was OUR vacation. OUR tradition. OUR good memories.

I wanted July 4th to have special meaning to Benjamin from the very beginning so that in 20 years he can say "My family always did this on the 4th". But it got so complicated. Fireworks? - he's too small and it would probably scare him to death. The Mall and the parade? - a chaotic mess that would only aggravate us and kill the spirit. A picnic? - anywhere other than your own backyard would be crowded with people camping out for the fireworks later. Hosting a barbeque? - I really don't see how hosting anything counts as a day off, but I digress. After much debate, we finally decided to just head out and enjoy the beautiful weather, so we drove up to a farm in Maryland and picked blueberries. Ben slept for much of it, though he thoroughly enjoyed the tractor rides to and from the fields. We had a peaceful lunch under a tree on the farm and headed home with enough blueberries for muffins, cobbler and handfuls by the dozen. It was a wonderful fourth of July. Maybe we'll do it again next year. Why did I need to search for something so special? This is Ben's first July 4th. It IS special. He's here with us, our newest little family member, ready to experience whatever we do. Happy Birthday America! Happy July 4th Benjamin! Thank you, Benji, for making every day a reason to celebrate.