My two favorite holidays are the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. I love them because they involve food and family and no presents. 2012 has brought me two very different versions of these holidays (that I also love because of their predictability).

Matt and I spent the Fourth this year with an explosion of family and memories I knew I’d treasure forever even as they were happening. We wanted to celebrate our wedding with our Oman, Passint, and Nelson relatives in Little Girl’s Point, and as the party continued to take shape, it outgrew our wedding and became a reason to gather family together for some long overdue reunions.

It was also an important year for my parents, who celebrated their 30th (30th!!!!) wedding anniversary on July 3rd. My sisters and I planned- and with the help of our families, pulled off- a bit of a surprise outing for them to celebrate.

If you know my parents, you’ll know these things are true about them: First, they love Seinfeld. It is because of them that I have a deep affection for and knowledge of that incredible show. Second, if you visit them up north, they will take you to their favorite place, Harbor Lights, for pretty awesome homemade pizza and cheap pitchers of Leinie’s. These two facts had to be part of our plan.

If you are my parents’ daughters, you know that there were rainbows on their wedding invitations. You also know that at their wedding, at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Minneapolis, there was one song that my mom wanted played, but unfortunately, their wedding band wouldn’t play it. It was this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lK41kC15g

Speaking of Holy Rosary, this is an artist’s (my sister, Becca’s) rendition of the church. Her medium? Paper cut-outs. Please note the tiny mustache on my Dad’s face, which had to be secured using tweezers. With Andrew’s help, she also made this kick-ass rainbow cake:

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

I mentioned the Carly Simon/James Taylor tune earlier…don’t worry, we planned for that, too. Matt learned how to play the song on his guitar, and one morning while both of my parents were away from the cabin, we practiced the song as a group. And then we sang it. (And I am choking up even now at the memory.)

 

And during the party that followed on the Fourth, under blue skies and between bites of a yummy picnic lunch and conversations with relatives I hadn’t seen in years and years, I thought that it was probably the finest Fourth I’d ever spent.

We gathered on the lawn of my great-grandparents’ house, the home my grandma and her siblings grew up in. My great-aunt Diana led the charge early in the summer to paint the house a brilliant, Scandinavian blue. My parents planned the luncheon, invited our family and neighbors from the Point, and were the most welcoming and jovial hosts. My mother-in-law performed an unexpected and poignant ceremony in which Matt and I promised to be good stewards of the Point, where so much Nelson family history resides, forever. We readily agreed.

So it was pretty much an awesome Fourth of July. Everything I love about the holiday, times a bajillion.