Re-living the Revolution

Ahhh, Happy 4th of July. It's got to be one of my favorite holidays. I mean, c'mon- grilled food, cold beverages, and exploding glitter in the sky. Pretty awesome. It's too good to miss, even if we happen to now live in the country we are celebrating our independence from...so we had a

4TH OF JULY BBQ EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!!

It began with having a few American families we know over for a BBQ, then we added the missionaries, since they are American, and we thought their moms would be happy to know they are being taken care of. Next came some British friends who are American-ish (fans of America or lived there once.) Then we added the kids from our Sunday School class and their families, and some friends from the kids' school, and some neighbors, and more church friends.... and they (almost) all came!! That was the crazy part for us. Jimmy D and I seem to have amazingly lame parties at home where no-one shows up. I guess people here are still just wondering what we will do next, so curiosity alone compels them.

We grilled up a storm. Jimmy D donned his Father's Day BBQ tool belt and rocked the grill. I made rib glaze, chicken glaze, grilled corn, jell-o (well, jelly here) jigglers in star shapes, brownies, and berry pies. We made sure to have a cooler full of icy sodas, and some rednecked country music blaring through the yard. (er, garden.) And, of course we hung our American flag up outside. It was just like being at home. One of our American friends settled in by the speakers blarin' some Tim McGraw and Garth and whatnot, and relaxed in the comforting, hillbilly bliss of an American party. She kept saying, "Ahhhh. This is just like being in a backyard at home!"

As long as we had an ample supply of British Folks, we thought we'd re-enact the Revolutionary War. Not with bayonets and stuff. Don't worry. We had an American vs. British tug-of-war! The British children beat the American kids... twice.... but the American adults, after prying the English men away from the World Cup game, managed to dominate the tug-of-war. I felt so very patriotic.

We also worked in some jump-rope in the street. The missionaries can jump rope like nobody's business. I wonder if the power of their jump-roping skills alone would be enough to convert hundreds. They should go on some kind of jump-roping tour and see how it goes. They could do jump-rope chants about the Gospel whilst they jump and twirl. "Nephi, Nephi, goin' to get the plates. Beaten with a stick but didn't complain...." maybe? or... "Where did you come from, what's the meaning of life? Find out if you can jump to twenty-five!" Okay. Maybe not.

Back from the uber-random tangent and churchy links...

We ended the evening o' fun with a fireworks display... on TV. It was still pretty sweet, plus hey- no traffic on the way home!

Here are some pictures of the fun times. I only got the beginning and the end, so I'll have to ask people to email pics of the tug-of-war and jump-rope. But just trust me- they were awesome.

You know how corn on the cob is usually in a husk, and the mess it makes is...well.. a pile of empty husks? Here I could only find it packaged, so here is the mess as I prepared it:

Jimmy D grillin'

The smorgasbord of delight. Notice how happy the Americans look? Ahhh, 4th of July.

Here's the crowd for the firework display. They're soooo excited!!!

Well, friends, there ya go. I know I've been a slacking blogger the past few weeks, so to make it up to you, I'll do a post a day through Friday. Oh-yeah. Just wait. It'll be more fun than a barrel of acrobatic monkeys.