The Fourth of July is not generally one of the holidays my family reserves for massive celebration – such festive outbursts are usually saved for holidays with more cultural meaning to our family, such as St. Patrick’s Day in March and Dia de los Muertos in November – but I’ve found that nearly any day away from work becomes a cause for cooking out and generally making merry in one way or another.

The kids are a big reason for this, as our society sucks evermore of our time away and gives us less for it while politicians prattle on about the dissolution of the family unit, as is the desperate need for respite and fellowship.

And so it was that I began preparing for my Independence Day festivities – a morning spent picnicking alongside the creek with my children and an afternoon spent poolside with my brother and sister, nieces and nephews, cousin and mother and the rest of the family, with the cooler full and the grill sizzling – only to find out that I’d be pulling the morning shift at the newspaper office.

With my wife at work and everything else shutdown for a star-spangled vacation, there was only one option: my son and daughter would have to pull journalist duties alongside their father.

To my moderate surprise, made such by my children’s general excitement at doing anything with their father, the kids were overjoyed to spend the morning with me finishing up the paper and shooting photos of the Empower Music Festival’s opening.

After I finished up the news pages, while the kids devoured a snack and watched a Pixar flick on the oversized television set in the newsroom, we hit Water Avenue and started talking with those on the scene and shooting photographs.

The kids wrapped their arms around everyone I spoke with and sunk in and out of conversations effortlessly, obviously overtaken with curiosity about the scene and the people ensuring that it unfolded correctly.

I bought them a watermelon-infused lemonade and we walked the streets for a bit and took a short walk along the Edmund Pettus Bridge before the work was done and we were headed to the family festivities slated for later in the day.

It occurred to me later, when my children were speaking excitedly about the day they’d had working with daddy, that the modern parent has to carve out a vacation or a holiday for their children wherever it can be found – like an artist who turns a block of wood into some ornate craft, today’s parents have to make magic where previously there was none.

The hours away are longer than they used to be, the bank account more malnourished and the energy levels all but depleted, but joy can be found and even crafted if we but take the time to find the shine in the dark, to cast aside the inconveniences and mold them into adventures and experiences still worthy of our children’s spirited nature and our family’s health and growth.