I do not like fireworks. My family , on the other hand, has a strange obsession with them. I have made my viewpoint very clear, but that doesn't dissuade them at all. Actually, I can enjoy them if two conditions are met.
1. I am far enough away that the explosion doesn't make my ears ring.
2. The explosives are being handled by trained professionals.

Those conditions are never met by my family, so I stay inside with the dogs huddled around my feet while my husband, children and all the neighborhood kids blow things up.

My husband is the ring leader of the gang. Do you see the warning in big red letters on the box he is holding. I guarantee he hasn't read it. If he did, he would have laughed and said, "What do those guys know anyway?"

This is what he has created. A small arsenal of explosives that stays in my house year round. I have smart children. They know these things are only sold twice a year so they stock up so they can enjoy them all year long. That means the dogs and I on on edge year round because we never know when they might be put to use. I don't even like to be in a room with a balloon so having all this fire power in my house makes me a little jumpy.

Last night was New Year's Eve so they had a great time. I stayed inside, of course. No one was hurt. No trip to the Emergency Room which I warned them wasn't going to happen even if they did blow their fingers off. They told me the fireworks were really cool looking, that is when they turned them the right way so the explosion happened in the air and not on the ground at their feet. There are some things I just don't need to know.