God Bless America!

Well, I have officially celebrated (and survived) my first 4th of July as a Permanent Resident! And like every other American, we marked this holiday by lighting off Fireworks in the backyard!
Now, being from Canada and growing up in the city, I can't say that this is an activity that I had ever really participated in. And up until the big event, I was quite skeptical about it's awesomeness - even though Jordan kept telling me how fun it was and yadda yadda yadda... my thought was 'why spend money to buy our own when there's tons of FREE firework shows going on?' Oh, how naive I was.
Sunday night we went out to the backyard and not knowing what I was to expect; Jordan lit a row of insanely loud crackers and threw them to the ground! After my initial shock and desire to cry had worn off, I realized that it was love at first fuse for me and fireworks. Pretty soon I wanted more to be lit; bigger ones, louder ones! As the festivities went on, I even shot some off myself and experienced the thrill/terror of lighting the fuse and then running like hell!
All in all, the night was a success - nothing burned down and only Jordan sustained minor injuries to his thumb when he didn't quite throw some crackers down fast enough. But I think the fact that I admitted he was right about the fireworks, probably helped to ease the pain a little!
So for now, I am just counting down the days until the next fourth of July when I can again feel the American Spirit exploding in the sky above me!