We had a July Fourth (on the third) get-together, to watch our town's fireworks from our backyard (since we can see them from our backyard, thank everything) and, alright, so we could also enjoy this delicious sparkling grapefruit sangria.
After the fireworks, we pulled out some paper lanterns*, like we did last year, and had everyone write down their personal wishes for the rest of the year. We wrote down things like travel and happiness and babies (not me, promise) and health and more gratitude and also lots of winning lottery tickets.
Then we lit them and let them go.
It was a wonderful moment--well, once we got over the fear of burning our town down--to see more than a dozen lanterns, covered in wishes, floating away. Now, if anyone at our party actually does win the lottery, I sure hope their memory serves them well, and they toss a few bucks our way.
And we'll do it again in 2015.
*We bought a multi-colored pack, and you can buy a similar set on Amazon here.