February's Rituals: Voting and Valentine's Day

Mike has certainly done his part in instilling civic duty in the kids from an early age. The polling place for our area is in the high school which is literally down the street from us, and the kids always accompany Mike to all election-related events.
So Tuesday was DC-MD-VA's presidential primary. On the way over, Mike asks Justine: "Justine, who shall I vote for?" Justine: "Ummmmm... Mom!" That's my girl!!! Of course, once Mike and the kids were in the polling place, Vasco insisted that they vote for Santa. I should say that both Santa and I are pretty decent choices. Santa, however, may have a better chance, rosy cheeks, name recognition, reindeer and all. Not to mention his bribe potential is slightly superior than mine!


On to Thursday... Happy Valentine's Day to all! Mike and I decided to have a romantic dinner at home after the kids go to bed, complete with carry-out Indian food, wine, a real tablecloth and candles. So Mike drives off to pick up the food, while I am trying to set the table. I start pulling out the fancy dishes from the cabinet for the occasion, and see the kids carefully watching me, entirely puzzled. A few seconds pass, and Justine ventures: "Ummm, mommy what are you doing? Is the roof leaking again?" After I practically peed my pants laughing, I tried to explain that our roof was just fine. I think they ended up convinced that the roof was fine, but their mother needed a few shingles replaced.. (side note: our roof did develop a slight leak a few weeks ago, and it leaked directly into the dish cabinet. If you haven't figured it out by now, we did have to remove all dishes and glassware from the cabinet).