Happy Fourth of July!

       I had grand visions of a big -- or at least stirring -- Fourth of July celebration this year. Several things conspired against me, not the least of which was that we live in Switzerland, where the Fourth of July is just the day between the third and the fifth. The American International Club does host a gathering, but it was going to cost us 35 chf each, and it was not clear from the webiste if there were even going to be any fireworks. Location was not my only adversary, however. With no holiday from work, Eric would be home late and have to awaken early -- not a combination conducive to extended festivities. Furthermore, he was not the only working member of the family. Drew has begun his summer job at a nearby pony camp (turns out he's allergic to ponies, but that's another story). He wouldn't return home until after 7, and would have to be back at 8:30 the next morning. Plus, he had spent Wednesday night in the stables, so was pretty tired to begin with.
       Thus, a quiet evening at home seemed like our best bet. Our American friends were all out of town, so it would be just us. I hadn't started planning early enough to order paperware, but I did find some red, white, and blue napkins (although I had to combine two napkins to get all the colors).

I thought the knife-and-fork arrangement looked vaguely military.

       I decided we'd have a traditional cookout (except that in addition to burgers, we had these delicious white sausages wrapped a bacon -- a little Swiss touch to the day). Seeing as neither Lucas nor Johanna was gainfully employed, I told them they had to help with dinner. Lucas offered to make a chocolate pie for dessert. Johanna wanted to make dessert, too, but agreed to make Grandma Emy's potato salad instead. A barbecue cannot be built on sweets alone.

Drew with the food.

The food. The laptop is there for Spotify, which provided our  patriotic accompaniment.

The chocolate pie.

The chocolate pie with a sparkler falling into the cream and making a burnt spot.  Unfortunately, the burnt spot didn't taste like creme brulée, but like burnt.

         I am not the full-time griller in the family, but Lucas and I did our best to start the charcoal and get the burgers and sausages on. We were thankful when Eric came home to rescue us (and the food) from cookout incompetence. Dinner was delicious, if low-key. Then we decided to spend the time between finishing the food and dark in watching 42, the new movie about Jackie Robinson. What's more American than baseball and the struggle to overcome racism? The movie was enjoyable and well worth seeing, although I think the story of Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey deserved an even better film to tell it. The movie took us until 10:30 (22h30 here in Geneva), when it was time for the best version of fireworks we could muster -- some sparklers I found at the grocery store.

We decided that since the sparklers were for sale in the grocery, they were probably legal.

And anyway, our driveway isn't very visible from the street or any other houses (a fact that the burglars last year appreciated as well).

A cooperative ball of sparks.

Drew showed us how to use his camera to do light painting, which added some panache to the display. This is my attempt at "USA."

. . . and Luc's attempt at a lovely design . . . 

. . . and one of the stars from the Stars and Stripes.

Johanna impresses even herself.

Eric controls his enthusiasm.

      So that was the Fourth, Alien in CH style.