Ours will be quiet too. We just came back from a vacation so we aren't taking extra days off around the holiday. Colorado has been extremely dry, we have many fires burning. Most professional fireworks shows are cancelled and the small fireworks are banned in our county.

I think I am going to cook some New Orleans bbq shrimp for a change. We grill often so the shrimp seems more celebratory.

Likely nothing. We just got back from China so Dh isn’t taking any extra time off. I mentioned going to fireworks, which we never do because Dh dislikes dealing with crowds, and predictably he wasn’t interested. I might take the kids to the parade. . .

DD might come up tonight and stay over for part of the day for the fourth.

If not just DH and I. We will be going out with friends on the 7th. We have a tradition with this couple of going to dinner around the holidays throughout the year.

We're at our lake cabin, one granddaughter will be arriving soon to stay for a few days. Tomorrow will be a day of boating, tubing, swimming and eating. Twelve are expected, 15 may show up. Basic barbecue before the fireworks display on the lake. Our lake community collects $ for the display, last year's was bigger then those of a lot of cities. Our community is on one end of the lake, a private individual holds his own huge party and display on the south end. Fun competition best viewed from the middle where we will be on boats. Great day!

No plans...my DH also dislikes crowds, and I dislike being eaten alive by mosquitos! We bought a new grill on Sunday so maybe I'll get hubby to cook dinner.

I'm planning to work on a baby quilt, maybe do a bit of shopping.

Donna

As little as possible. It's been so hot here, and combined with the humidity it really zaps the life out of me. I'm taking the rest of the week off work, so will just enjoy downtime with DH and our kitties. Oh, we are celebrating my niece's 16th birthday this coming weekend though. I cannot believe she's 16. In my mind, she's still supposed to be about 8. Time flies.

Staying in, it's too darn hot here to do much of anything.

Since I only work part-time it ended up with me having the week off. Tomorrow a get-together late afternoon. We are up above our little city so can see the fireworks display from our front yard or even from inside the house :). Thursday to the river (mountains) to chill and enjoy the cooler temps and then some fresh veggies, ham and my fav macaroni salad! Not sure about the rest of the week. Around here most people are either taking off Mon. & Tues. and celebrating through tomorrow or taking off end of week and the celebrating starts tomorrow. Win, win!!

We hosted a clam boil on Sunday for DH’s family, a tradition started two generations ago by his late grandmother, then carried on by his mother. The tradition is now ours. It was really nice because DH’s 90 year old mother attended, as did his sister and her husband from CA.

Tomorrow our kids will all be here and we are making surf and turf, with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

It is more difficult when the holiday falls midweek.

We won't do anything special other than going out on the deck to watch the fireworks for 1/2 hour. The traffic will be horrendous in our area, so we always plan to stay home.

I'm going to my aunt's house for a small town parade and barbecue. The town only has a population of 400 or so, so the parade engages a lot of the community but is still modest in size. Last time I went, they went around the parade course twice just to make it more of an event.

Just the 2 of us. It's so darn hot here. We'll stay indoors with the A/C on and watch the Boston Pops and the fireworks on television. No special meal planned - just what happens to be in the fridge or freezer...

Relishing the extra day off. I helped someone move over the weekend, in the horrible heat, and I really don’t feel like I had a weekend at all so this holiday will be delightful.

Actually going to a graduation party for a nephew. It’s still hot here so will have to dress cool

crl, would love to hear about your China trip!

I am driving my convertible in a parade in the morning, so we are out there early before it gets too hot. It got to a high of 96 today. DH will grill some quick item such as brats and hot dogs, and MIL will come over. That's all we need. Then there are so many fireworks in the neighborhood in evening we have to stay home to keep the house and kitties safe.

We are at the beach all week. We will spend the day on the beach, then grilling skirt steak for fajitas. If we have time, we will take the kids to get ice cream at our favorite place. We avoid the crowds when it comes to fireworks. There are at least four separate shows along the 10 mile beach and from where our house is, we can see three of them. Not as spectacular from a distance but it beats fighting crowds and traffic to be up close.

I’m just thankful to have my whole family together. Dh learned right before vacation he has to go to London ASAP and we were worried he’d miss vacation. He was able to hold off but leaves the day after we get back. Additionally, ds17 found out the day before he left that his old job at the golf course was available and they wanted him to start right away. Fortunately the paperwork required a couple of days for processing, so he was able to postpone his start date such that he only has to go home from vacation a day early.

looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow! Just heard in the news that the heat wave peaked today and slightly cooler temps are predicted for tomorrow. Hurray!

We can see most of the city fireworks show from our backyard and will watch from there. I think we're also grilling ribs. It is just the two of us and promises to be a laid back day.

I will be getting up at 5:30 as usual to go out and water flower beds. It's so hot here ( KC) that I don't know anybody doing a BBQ. No one wants to be outside. In town daughter is sick ( summer flu?) so they won't be coming over. No worries, I can entertain myself easily.

Just DH & me here. And it's so hot & humid I can hear my hair frizz when I step outside. We'll grill a steak and if it's tolerable, sit out on the porch swing and watch the neighborhood fireworks.

Living in the edge here.... LOL

Since we are already near the beach, we pretty much stay put, to avoid the traffic. When we lived in Venice, we would walk to the beach (and avoid ALL driving), but now we would have to bike to the beach, and so we'll stay in and work in the back yard. It won't be hot here until Saturday and Sunday. Bike trails here are dangerous on July 4. On one 4th I had three minor accidents in one day, due to the crowds at the beach. People tend to ignore the "BIKES ONLY" signs on the bike paths, and that causes a lot of accidents. Some (especially Japanese tourists) possibly cannot read English, but most can.

First time in about 20 years we haven’t been at our cabin. Just decided we didn’t want to take a bunch of days off this week and that it was time for a change. I’m catching up on stuff I need to get done then getting together with neighbors later In the day and watching fireworks from our front yard. Been very busy at work and traveling so nice to have a day to just decompress without having to go somewhere or entertain.

We're going to a brunch overlooking the parade tomorrow morning. I've been in a creekbank cleaning frenzy the last few days, clearing out brush, dead limbs, trash!, old cattle fencing, etc. to enhance the view from the house and create a casual sitting area. I still need to haul some sticks and limbs up to the brush pile for the landscapers to haul away when they come back to finish the irrigation system and sod the yard, so I'll probably do that in the afternoon, just in case they finally show up on Thursday. Tomorrow night we will probably grill with the kids and maybe some of their friends and watch the laser show downtown from our deck, if we can see it from here. We get a great view of fireworks from our deck, but it is too dry this year and the town is doing a laser show instead.

Breakfast out on our front portal, then heading to our village’s parade. Making homemade ice cream. Do some gardening before green chile cheeseburgers and corn on the cob out on the grill for dinner . . . and, of course, homemade ice cream for dessert. Both sets of best friends are off on vacation this week, and DD is in grad school up in Colorado, so it’s just DH and myself this year. But, DD gets here on Friday and the three of us leave soon after for our own vacation to my hometown in Michigan on one of its beautiful Great Lakes with my huge family there. Can’t wait! In the mean time, I’m packing and cleaning the house for our house & furkid sitter.

Just hanging out at home ... a break from the GC working on our kitchen remodel.

I might go check out a rescue group that has a dog that caught my eye ... do I really need a third dog! Where do I tell DH I am going when I leave the house with our dogs to go meet the rescue dog!!!! I usually like to check out a dog first and then drag the rest of the family there. I'm the main caretaker, so if I don't feel a connection with the dog we aren't bringing it home.

Nothing much. No parade here since so many people go away. The “big” parade is Memorial Day. I guess I’ll do every day things during the day and burn a burger later. I may ask some fiends to come by if they are not busy. I did buy some fireworks, but will feel kind of silly setting them off by myself!

I thought about breakfast in the garden this morning, but it's so warm and humid already. Plus those biting flies are really pesky lately.

I'm happy to hear that others are planning a quiet 4th, too, and crl, my DH doesn't like fireworks and crowds either. My kids never liked them when they were younger, so we just never got into the tradition of going. DS and I may go to the parade in our old town (we can park in my aunt's driveway just a block from the route!).

Some year I want to go do Denmark for the 4th of July celebration there!

Celebrate the 4th with the Danes

Looks like we are going fishing. Dh offered and dd chose fishing over a parade. It makes for a long day, but we can take our poor doggie swimming so that’s a plus.

Gciencechick, China was awesome. Still downloading pictures but hopefully I can start and thread and post a few soon.

Same as every fourth: fly family and a few friends to NYC for dinner and fireworks ar Top of the Rock. Happily our Gulf Stream allows room to stretch out for sleep on return 2 days later

We are usually at our beach cottage for the 4th, but having just moved, DD and DH having to work Tues and Thurs, and the midweek holiday...we are home and happy that we have AC! We have 5 guests plus the 4 of us coming for BBQ dinner, though we’ll eat inside rather than on the hot patio. We are in the midst of a pretty unpleasant heat wave. Instead of fireworks, I think we will all play LCR (for $1 bet each) — we played with this same group (which includes a couple of teens) before and had a lot of laughs.

Ahem, Martinca. You forgot to pick me up! You have your own plane?? Where do you stay when in NYC?

We always celebrate on the third. Our neighbors a couple of miles away (only neighbors in that direction) have a super large dinner and everyone brings their fireworks which takes a few hours to set off.

I left early, we've had unusually high heat since early May.

Sounds awesome, martinca_gw.

Here we are lined up for the parade of a nearby town. I drove the mayor and his wife. It wasn't too hot in the morning, and the time we drive in the parade is only about 20 min. Then we drive some back roads, which is way more fun than the parade, back to our meeting point.

Damn, I was all feeling jealous martinca ;)

For July 1 we had a lovely picnic in a seaside park with my sister and her family. The heatwave has finally reached Nova Scotia.

Well, I showed it to DH and said "gee, and I'm just happy to drive the Mustang on a nice day."

LOL Martinca! When I read your post I was thinking, gee didn't realize we had such upper crust here!

Thanks all for sharing your holiday with us. It's been unbearably hot here in NE PA as well. Big thunderstorm moved through yesterday mid day. It just made it more tropical as it moved out. But a little breeze picked up by nightfall and we enjoyed some wine on the lake dock while watching fireworks.

LOL. My feeble brain translated “Gulf Stream” to “air stream” and I thought you were in NYC in a camper. I thought “weird, but whatever...”

Ha ha sueb20, that's what I wrote first, and before I corrected it I had the same vision...big ole' camper right on fifth in front of the park!! ; > O

Martinca, I will never forget an article once in one of the very chi-chi decor magazines, about a woman and her decorator who remodeled her private jet(!). The line that will live in my mind was one of those obnoxious humblebrag little jewels along of the lines that the Mrs. 'just wanted a new bathroom cabinet with a drawer for her makeup on the jet'. Oooooookay ;).

As for us, we had a wonderful 4th. We're down in the Keys house for the week; my daughter and her lifelong BFF (we think of her as our second girl) are down from DC-fun fact, it's been cooler in Florida than where they live!-and my DIL had the day off so was here too-son had to work. My sister came down and we went to the local parade which happens to stage and launch literally at the end of our block so a coupla folding chairs and bingo, morning entertainment. Then another friend of daughter's drove down, my dad spontaneously decided to come as well and we also had my cousin, her husband, his sister and BIL who sailed their boat down for the holiday week. Some folks went out diving while others lounged beside or in the pool. We did a simple cookout, and by early evening some of the young folks went out to party and see fireworks, the local visitors went home, my sister decided to stay overnight and a wonderful time was had by all.

This house has turned out to exceed our wildest hopes as a gathering spot for holidays so another lovely memory of a perfect day is in the books.

I know an instructor from the Y who got lost with a fifth wheel camper in Manhattan. So, yeah, pretty funny, but people were very helpful with them finding their way.

I wish my 4th was as quiet as some of yours! DD had 40 of her closest friends over for a pool party. Started at 11am, ended at midnight!

just perusing this and lol about martina omg!! you got me!!