July 5 – “Good stuff”

We had a regular Fourth of July family picnic yesterday.  It’s been a while.  We had the Galveston Vaughans and the LaMarque Vaughans all here.  We did miss the Waco Vaughans, though.  They got Corona’ed.  No, they didn’t get the disease.  They were just being cautious with travel.  Gotta protect those youngsters, you know. 

Nathan took over the grill for the day with no complaints from me.  He is quite the master chef when it comes to grilling.  Burgers and hot dogs and even a few brats that he and April brought along all made their way into the flames.  That would be literally.  Something was weird with the grill that made it almost impossible to control the flame.  Made for an exciting few minutes of cooking, though.  Lots of fire flaring up.  Nathan even singed a few eyelashes.  Good stuff. 

Meanwhile, the ladies were getting together some really good dips.  April brought a spicy cheesy dip a swell as a French onion dip.  Good stuff.  Christina was in charge of desserts.  She brought her signature chocolate pie as well as a cherry crisp that was, well … good stuff. 

After lunch the younger kids went outside and played in a swimming pool brought from LaMarque.  Ezra was fascinated by the bubble machine April set up.  And while all that was happening, the older kids and adults gathered around the table for a rousing game of Telestration.  It was tough for the first borns in the group to play with no rules and no clear-cut winner or loser.  But hey, it’s my game.  We play by my middle child rules – just for fun.  And it was a lot of fun.  Again … good stuff.

Now last night, after everyone was gone and we settled in to watch a good Hallmark movie (which, by the way was one of the clues in Telestration.  How would you draw a picture of “Hallmark Movie”?), the fireworks began.  With the city display getting Corona-canceled, people all over the city were out and about exploding their own.  My fire department app was going off constantly with calls about someone setting off fireworks.  And speaking of being set off, Freddy was going pretty ballistic.  At first she just couldn’t get settled.  Then she jumped on the couch next to Chris (One of her favorite spots).  The she crawled into her lap.  Then she moved in between us.  Finally she snuggled herself as close to me as she could.  I put one arm over her body and held her head so her ears were covered.  That did the trick. She finally stopped quivering.  She wasn’t all that happy about going into her room for the night, though.  Chris had to really coax her.  She made it through the night just fine.  Good stuff.

Psalms 98:1 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and hos holy arm have worked salvation for him.”

Father, thank you for family cookouts, fireworks and great reason to celebrate.  Amen.