Memorial Day honors those who have died while fighting for our country as a military service member. 

The federal holiday is celebrated on the last Monday in May every year.

Memorial Day originated after the Civil War to honor the soldiers who gave their lives — and was formerly known as Decoration Day. 

ON MEMORIAL DAY, LEAVE AN EMPTY SEAT THE TABLE FOR THE ‘MISSING HERO’ WHO GAVE SELFLESSLY FOR OUR FREEDOMS

It wasn't until 1971, with President Richard Nixon in office, that Memorial Day was made a federal holiday by Congress.

Celebratory Memorial Day weekend activities happen across the United States and is a day in which Americans beam with pride. Often, Americans will attend a local parade as well as barbecues accompanied by burgers, hot dogs, American made beers and cocktails. 

Sipping on a cocktail next to a newly opened swimming pool is also a popular way to spend Memorial Day.

Here are a few refreshing and festive cocktails to enjoy Memorial Day weekend and a special recipe for those who prefer a mocktail.

Ingredients for blue pineapple cocktail:

In a glass, pour in the rum, blue Curaçao, pineapple juice, and lime juice and fill the glass with ice. Here, you’ll want to avoid using soda water for the added sugar. Cue the hangover headaches if you add too much sugar to this drink.

Fill the rest of the glass with plain seltzer water. If tonic water is the only plain carbonated beverage available to you, use that, but seltzer is preferred.

Stir the cocktail and serve with red, white and blue glass accessories.

EVERY DAY IS MEMORIAL DAY AT DOVER AIR FORCE BASE

This recipe serves one. Double this recipe for each guest you intend to serve.

Red slushie ingredients:
1 ounce of vodka
2 ounces of lemonade
1 tablespoon of maraschino cherry juice
Ice

White slushie ingredients:
1 ounce of vodka
2 ounces of lemonade
Ice

Blue slushie ingredients:
1 ounce of vodka
½ ounce of blue Curaçao
2 ounces of lemonade
Ice

Begin by blending the ingredients of the blue slushie and pour it into a glass. Then, blend the ingredients of the white slushie and slowly top the blue slushie with the white. Avoid combining the colors. You’ll want to ensure the mixture is smoothie-like vs liquid to allow the layering.

Lastly, blend the red slushie mixture and slowly top the white slushie creating a red, white and blue cocktail.

MEMORIAL DAY SHOULD BE EVERY DAY IN AMERICA

Start by cutting the stems from the strawberries and washing your fruit well. Rinse the blueberries and set them aside.

In a blender, first add the filtered water and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Next, add the sugar and strawberries. Include as much ice as the blender will allow for now. Blend well until the ingredients are smooth. 

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Once blended, you can add more ice as the mixture will become more liquid than frozen mocktail. Blend again until ice is smooth vs chunky.

For serving, a few ways of presenting will work. You can pour the entire blended drink into a pitcher, garnish with blueberries and leave glasses aside for guests to serve themselves. You can also add blueberries to individual glasses and pour as mocktails as desired. 

Lastly, feel free to make a "make your own mocktail" station and include glasses, a bowl of blueberries, a bucket of ice just in case and your mocktail mixture.

For an extra garnish, wash whole strawberries with the stems still intact. 

Cut a small slice from the bottom of the strawberry up and sit on the edge of each glass or aside for guests to take and apply themselves.

This drink will be more pink than red, so feel free to include Memorial Day-themed drink decorations, including American flag toothpicks or umbrellas, red, white and blue straws — or you can rim the glass with blue-colored sugar.

If you like this recipe, but you want it in cocktail vs. mocktail form, top each glass with 1–2 shots of strawberry infused, citrus or plain vodka. 

If you want to blend it for a whole pitcher of cocktails, include 6 cups of water and 2 cups of vodka vs. 8 cups of water.

The agreement reached Saturday night between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden is an historic first step toward shifting government back toward common sense and conservatism.

It is a step toward creating a smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation, economic growth, prosperity, and more take home pay. All of this will also strengthen Social Security and Medicare.

I emphasize it’s a first step because that is what I lived through in 1995 in our first year as a Republican House majority (the first in 40 years). Step by step, we got budget changes, moved from welfare to work, cut taxes, and reduced bureaucratic regulatory overkill. We launched a generation of prosperity built upon the foundations that President Ronald Reagan created in the 1980s.

The Contract with America Republicans did not leap to four consecutive balanced budgets (the only time in our lifetime). They calmly and methodically took a series of steps that moved the government back toward conservatism. (Remember, President Bill Clinton announced at the 1996 State of the Union that "the era of big government is over." This infuriated his allies on the left.)

BIDEN WANTS TO BLAME DEBT CRISIS ON THIS GROUP BUT CAN'T AVOID OWN ECONOMIC INCOMPETENCE

I outline how we shifted government from the left to the right and achieved welfare reform and four balanced budgets in my new book "March to the Majority." This debt ceiling agreement is precisely in the tradition of how we operated to profoundly change Washington.

When you hear complaints from some on the right, remember they are arguing from a mythical belief. Somehow, they think defeating this agreement would improve things. They could hardly be more wrong.

By passing the original debt ceiling bill, House Republicans set the stage for a profound shift in the center of gravity in Washington. Suddenly, for the first time in decades, the House Republicans were negotiating with the Democrat president. The Republicans in the Senate, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, were supporting McCarthy, R-Calif.

Suddenly, President Biden’s refusal to negotiate collapsed. Changes which the Democrats thought could never be made were being made. This was exactly the pattern we had in 1995 as we began to assert issue dominance.

Consider what this new debt ceiling agreement, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, accomplishes for conservatism:

Again, this agreement is a powerful first step.

It will be followed in the near future by a second step when Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, unveils a 10-year plan for a balanced budget.

Then the stage will be set for a series of appropriations fights this fall which will be shaped by the various investigations into corruption, criminal behavior and incompetence.

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I learned a lot working with President Reagan. He always said if you can get a 70% or 80% deal, you take it and come back for more.

Every House Republican now faces a simple choice: Help take the first step and move on to even bigger steps – or fight about it and hand the initiative over to President Biden and the Democrats.

The choice is simple. They can support a more conservative future – or prove Republicans can’t govern even when they are winning.

The lessons of President Reagan and the Contract with America are clear.

They should all vote "yes," and prove the House Republicans are now leading the future of America.

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For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.