{Chasing Dollars on Gold Sand}

Sitting on "It's a Small World" cruising through all the countries, we came to Aladdin's country where the transportation mode of choice is....flying carpets. Of course. Helllloooo! I sat there dreaming about how awesome that would be. To all just be flying around on carpets. And my next thought crashed all my dreaming...If we did it everyday, we wouldn't even know it was awesome. Another everyday magic that we take for granted, that's all it would be.

I love love LOVE 4th of July. Like LOVE IT. I can't quite tell you why. It's gotta be some combination of the BBQing, swimming, and fireworks. And it's definitely the day of the year I feel most patriotic. I want to pass this love on to my kids. And I want to use this Holiday- like all the other ones- to create Tradition, one of the agents were trying to use to bond this little crew of ours.

But that can be a bit daunting for me. All this tradition, tradition, tradition. Because being on America's Top 50 Indecisive People list, which sounds like an absolute privilege, really cramps my style. I over-think everything and decide on next to nothing. Did you hear that? Decide on nothing. Which makes it near impossible to develop tradition. But I want to give my children the absolute best childhood....EVER....which means I need to make some tradition decisions like ASAP. Or else it won't be tradition.

We went down to Coronado this weekend with the Desai's. Christy- who is anti-tradition because of the stress and expectations that accompany it {hmmmm...can totally relate!}- has somehow made it to Hotel del for quite a few of the 4th of July's since she moved here. Ironic? The Hotel puts on a fun 4th party- smore's, unsupervised crafts for the kids {they specified that, not me!}, a live band, fireworks, etc. We were listening to the music, and that music triggered a memory.....The VP Fair or Fair of St. Louis. My parents used to take us kids downtown for the fair most 4th of July's when I was growing up. And there was always live music. We might have even called the VP Fair tradition in the Pope family. I don't remember. 

In all this pressure I've put on myself for deciding upon and establishing tradition-- all this OVER-thinking and UNDER-producing and getting caught up in what I'm NOT good at...ie: decorating for holidays, matchy outfits, traditional food, doing the exact same thing for each holiday...

 I kinda forgot what I AM good at....

And that is just getting out and doing something special.

I also almost forgot that, to me, that's what is important. That is tradition. Passing time doing something memorable and fun together. We don't have to do the exact same thing every year to anchor us as a family. 

After a night of music and fireworks, there I was with my kids at the beach, waiting for each crashing wave to wash back, hungrily looking for those cute little sand dollars- a throw back to a couple of our summer vacations as a little girl in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Wading out into the ocean, skimming the floor with our bare feet, hoping to come across a sea creature that we could rescue with our own two hands- pulling out a star fish or sand dollar. The kids eyes were wild with excitement and hope. Who knew you could find sand dollars on the coast?!! They sure didn't and I had forgotten it possible. My memory stayed trapped in the 10-year-old me, isolating that magic ONLY to Ocean Isle Beach. Yet here I was, as equally enchanted as my 7, 5, and 3 year old. And would you ever believe that all this sand dollar searching took place on a beach speckled with gold flecks, causing the most amazing shimmering and glimmering you've ever seen on sand? I kid you not.

We might as well have been flying on magic carpets.

There's no better non-traditional traditional way I'd rather spend my Holiday, even if it's only for this one year.