Make Your Own Tradition

Fireworks on the 4th of July haven’t quite worked out right for us in recent years. Zach loves fireworks, and isn’t bothered in the least by the sound. Josh loves the visuals, but the booming audio is unbearable for him.
For several years, we would sit out on our front sidewalk, where we could see the shows from several neighboring towns, and barely hear the crashes. Still, it was too much for Josh, so he would sit in the house, watching through the front windows and yelling out to us that he could still feel the booms.
Well, and entire summer at Disney World seems to have slightly loosened Josh up; in fact, when we were there again in April, Josh even endured being out in the park during a fireworks show one night.
So how did we watch fireworks this time?
Everyone curled up on our king-sized bed, watching out the bedroom windows. And as we did, Josh hummed “The Star-Spangled Banner”. He was determined to make his musical addition end with the show, so he kept looping back into the song as he neared the end. At one point, he switched to “Yankee Doodle Dandy” for a while, and I coaxed him into a little bit of “1812 Overture”. Still, we ended up back at “Star Spangled Banner”, and as the finale filled our window view, Josh broke out into full-throated joy: “O’er the land of the free/and the home of the brave!”
It was magic.