Happy 4th of July!

So, it's time for us to celebrate our independence and the birthday of the United States of America! I have come to appreciate the freedoms we have in the US a lot more since moving to another land... it's pretty cool. It's almost like I'm more patriotic living here than I was while living in the US, and the holidays are actually missed rather than taken for granted.

While the rest of you will be eating corn-on-the-cob and hamburgers, we're going to have a party of our own tonight. We have a group of friends coming over, and just so happens that it will be quite an international crew - American, Dominican, Argentinian, Columbian, Venezuelan, Cuban. We were going to invite our Honduran friend, but she runs a salon and can't get out early enough to do stuff like this. :)

I think the menu will include Argentinian churrasco, Idaho potatoes, Dominican bread, Kentucky salad and Ghirardelli brownies (I don't care where those are from, but I'm PUMPED we'll be eating them!).

At midnight the US Embassy has a fireworks display, so it will be fun to climb up on our roof and watch the "boomies in the sky" as I used to call them... we miss you, and our country! Enjoy every minute with friends and family today!

July 4, 1776 - After various changes to Jefferson's original draft, a vote was taken late in the afternoon of July 4th. Of the 13 colonies, 9 voted in favor of the Declaration; 2, Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted No; Delaware was undecided and New York abstained.John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. It is said that he signed his name "with a great flourish" so "King George can read that without spectacles!"