Here is the link to my CIJ Week 1 Tablescape. I posted this on my Playing Dishes blog. Be sure to check out the weekly tables on Saturdays during July. Complete guidelines for participating in the party and entering the giveaway drawing for a tablecloth on July 25 are available by clicking on the meme in the sidebar.
I hope you have all had a wonderful July 4 and took time to honor our nation and all the brave men and women who are serving in the military in order to maintain our freedom. God bless them all.
DH and I had a quiet stay at home day. We did not even go to the town's firework show this evening. It has been a very hard week starting with the loss of our beloved dog, Blackjack. He was our late son's dog and his death this week was very hard. We lost our son six years ago Monday.
Early Friday morning, DH's only brother lost his six month battle with lung cancer. I used to love celebrating Independence Day, but have had trouble the past few years. Now, we have yet more sadness for this period of time.
A post on Cathy's Pumpkins and Reindeer blog this week made me realize that I want to refocus our holidays, especially Christmas. Although, Christmas, is a very special and magical time of year for me, I hope to make it more special and more family oriented. Our family is always together during the holidays, but even with all my advance preparation and planning and love of hosting the extended family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am wanting something different this year. I still have not decided on what to change or modify, but I do know that something is lacking.
I am leaning toward a theme like Cathy discussed on her blog. I know that I want to focus on being thankful and appreciative of what we have at the moment. However, I am not sure how to pull this all together. It will be my Christmas in July ongoing project. Thanks Cathy for the inspiration.
Since this is a holiday blog, I want to share a video that I saw on Debbie at Dining with Debbie's blog today. I remember this Red Skeleton video, but had not thought about it in years. It concerns the Pledge of Allegiance and is a timely reminder for us all to not take this sacred pledge for granted. This is a similar theme to my feelings of the week. Thanks Debbie for sharing it so that I could also share it.
God bless America and keep our troops safe.
