With just a few short days until the holiday marking our birthday as a nation, I want to make sure I'm planning ahead to incorporate a few, fun, festive touches into this weekend's activities. So what are we doing to celebrate and commemorate what is, in my opinion, the best holiday of the summer? 

Let's start with our house itself. I wanted to honor the holiday in a way that's traditional and in keeping with the feeling of the historic district we live in, but also didn't want to add something permanent that didn't fit with our house. Therefore, I quickly ruled out hanging a flag near the front door simply because I didn't want to drill into the bricks to attach the mounting hardware. We actually looked into several antique flag brackets, but they weren't right for the age and style of the house.

Given our home's modest facade, and the fact we have only three windows, each year we hang a few small buntings from the window stills. We found a 3' size that just happens to work perfectly for the width of our windows.

To hang them, we use a decidedly low tech solution: 3M's sticky hooks and a little bit of plain wire. After cleaning the sills with some window cleaner, we attach three hooks on each window still.

We then thread the wire through the grommets of each bunting and wrap the wires around the hooks on each window. 

What we end up with is appropriately festive July 4th home decor that is a little bit different than the rest of the neighborhood.

Festive Food

No 4th of July is complete without a cookout with all of the trimmings. For this I bust out some of my best cookout recipes, traditional fare like corn on the cob, watermelon, hot dogs and burgers, some non meat options for my husband and other guests, and a batch of my personal signature baked goods -- low fat but oh so delicious and festive cupcakes. All of it is laid out using themed decorative tableware. We're not 100% sure of the menu quite yet, but we know it will surely include the easy whiskey Lemonade Coolers we covered last week.

Fun with Friends

Every year we invite a few friends and neighbors over to the house to hang out for a little while to enjoy the food we've prepared, have a few drinks, and relax on a day off from work that can't easily be beat. Nothing too fancy, just a small gathering before we all head into the District for fireworks.

We cap off the night with a trip to Arlington Cemetery on the D.C. Metro. A short 20 minute ride from the King St. Metro station, it's a rather easy trip on a very crowded night. From Arlington Cemetery we walk across the Memorial Bridge and find a little spot of grass in front of the Lincoln Memorial where we can relax and watch the massive fireworks display.

In our opinion, there is no better place to celebrate the birth of our nation than from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while watching a fireworks across our national mall with the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument as a backdrop. We've made the trip down to watch the fireworks display every year since we moved to the D.C. area in 2000, and each year we are still thoroughly impressed.

Though we have fond memories of our childhood 4th of July celebrations, we love spending this holiday in D.C. and look forward to the annual celebration. We have a standing invitation for friends and family to come and experience the event, and many have taken us up on the offer over the years. If you're ever looking for an experience that will make your 4th special, try spending it with thousands of your closest friends in downtown D.C.

What are you doing to celebrate this special day? Any plans? Fireworks displays? Special traditions that are observed? We'd love to hear all about it.

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