Stepping up my Holiday Game

Last night we had dinner at Jack and Nancy's. Now if you don't know my mother-in-law, there are two things you need to know.

• Though she's an elementary school teacher, her degree is in interior design.
• She never half-asses anything. Go big or go home.

Take those two things and apply holidays. Christmas is like walking into a (Celtic) Macy's. Even St. Patty's Day gets the royal treatment. Also consider that she just renovated the backporch, which as you know is the official room of summer.

Needless to say her patriotic 4th of July spread was simply epic.

It was as sea of red, white and blue for miles. Seriously, she had a candle tree with one layer red, one layer blue and one layer white. There was a star spangled table runner and blue sparkly place mats. It was intense.

For what it's worth, this baby has been on our front door since early May.

But after seeing Nancy's patriotic display, I decided it was time to step up my 4th of July game. Thank you Target, Pier 1 and HEB for the assistance.

Tomorrow Ross will mount and hang the flag on the front porch and then our Ode to America 2011 will be complete.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get to two official 4th of July past times: a pool and a strawberry daiquiri.