Welcome to Seven Quick Takes Friday – Christi’s style! Kerri has done a fabulous job with this regular column for quite some time now and is letting me have a stab at it for an undetermined time. As this Friday’s 7 quick takes is falling on a significant US Holiday, I decided it would be fun to learn what type of favorite memories many of our Catholic Sistas have of their past fourth of July celebrations. Not surprisingly, all of these special memories were life events that were crossing paths with this special date in the history of our country, a date that most of us associate with being the birth date of the United States. Obviously the birth of this country began several years before the first Independence Day, none the less, the 4th of July marks a momentous event in this country’s life. And so it seems does the annual Fourth of July photographed memories of our Catholic Sistas. See if you think the same, as you peruse the following photographs that various Catholic Sistas generously shared with me.
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This beautiful baby came home from the hospital on the Fourth of July. Now that’s a Fourth of July to remember. I don’t know about you – but while I remember my children’s birthdates – I’d be hard pressed to tell you the exact date they came home especially as their 13 birthdays are spread over three decades and their hospital stays varied from none to five days in length.
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The first Fourth of July that this Catholic Sistas’s baby celebrated was a miracle. Neither his mother, nor he, was expected to survive his birth, yet they both made it through. That made his first Fourth of July celebration a very special day to remember. Miracles don’t happen every day!
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These twin girls made Fourth of July a special memory for their family. After all it’s not so often that a family is double blessed as it is when twins join their ranks! It was double fun forever after their first July fourth.
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Of course, our photographed memories of births and birthdays on or near to this great American holiday don’t stop at babyhood but continue on and one lovely Catholic Sista shared a great photo of her 40th birthday and all of those amazing pies & festive cakes she cooked to share with family and friends that particular year. (We won’t say WHAT year that was – that’s a secret!)
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Life, as we all know, completes a full cycle and here we have a very, very special memory shared by one of our Sista’s – the memory of their last Fourth of July with an older family member lighting a sparkler for a younger member of the family.
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Wait, what’s this? This is NOT the White House in Washington! Its… it’s the parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada! This photo signifies a different kind of life event, that of leaving one’s homeland for another country. This picture is not one of our own as our family photos from Canada are not yet on a computer. None the less, it reminds me of the many sultry July first nights we drove to our capital hill in Canada and celebrated July First in high style. Our last Canada Day spent in Canada, we loaded all eight children into our 12 passenger van and drove over an hour to view the incredible fireworks they have every year. What we did not know was that this would be our last Canada day celebration in our own country. And with this memory – I also give a nod to our Canadian Catholic Sistas who contribute to, and read our magazine.
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Since moving here in 1997, we have gradually made the transition from celebrating our own July first holiday to mostly celebrating the fourth of July. We still make the first a little special with a treat but we mainly focus on the fourth. After all – we have added five little Yankees to our brood. Here is our third Yankee bred child celebrating July fourth in her own special way when she was three.
We are encouraged to stay under a 1200 word count in our Catholic Sista articles and since a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words, I feel that I have gone well over my 1200 limit. So I will bid you adieu and wish you a grand Fourth of July filled with many happy memories. Make sure you capture a few – just in case we do this again and need new memories to share next year!
God Bless and Happy Fourth of July
(PS don’t forget to meander over to Jen’s and see what other folks have shared with their fourth of July 7 Quick Takes!)
