America’s 250th, Celebrated at Home
This year’s Fourth of July marked 250 years of American independence. We celebrated it the way we spend every July, with a small gathering of family and friends at our home in Hawaii.
The Menu
Dinner opened with passed appetizers, including franks in pastry, mini cheeseburgers, and classic deviled eggs. From there, it moved into a Roast Peach & Arugula Salad, followed by a full spread built around the holiday: Smokehouse BBQ Chicken and a Texas Style Smoked Beef Rib anchored the entrée, rounded out with cornbread and all the classic summer sides. Dessert closed things out with a classic apple pie, and celebration cake made for the occasion, vanilla layers with buttercream, marking America’s 250th.
Specialty cocktails were created just for the night: a Red, White and Spritz with rosé, soda water, lemon, and Aperol-strawberry ice cubes, and a Star Spangled Sour with greenhouse gin, blue curaçao, luxardo liqueur, and lemon.
The Setting
We started with a mood board and built the evening from there. The table stayed true to the palette, with woven red, white, and blue placemats, navy fringed napkins tied with red-white-and-blue rope, and engraved USA-shaped place cards marking every seat. Florals were thanks to @meraki.hawaii, who filled the main table in red garden roses, white ranunculus, blue cornflower, and anemones, with blue hydrangea arrangements filling out the surrounding tables.
Outside, the pool carried the celebration further, with “USA” and “250” spelled out in floating letters and oversized white orbs drifting across the water. A flag flew from the lanai all weekend, its circle of stars wrapped around a bold “250” at the center. Even the MOKE got dressed for the occasion, trimmed in red-white-and-blue tinsel garland, and the girls posed for their own portraits alongside it, dressed in their Fourth of July best.
We celebrated with Bob, my sisters Kristin and Meg, and Juan and Isabel, closing out America’s 250th with a warm, breezy summer evening, and the flag still waving. Here’s to 250 years.
Xx,
