Mac&Cheese Politics

I took the kids to the polls this week so that they could see our political system in process.

I expected our wait to be long.  Four years ago we waited for well over an hour, maybe two, to cast our votes, so I brought along pockets full of toys and lollipops to keep the little ones content. Much to my surprise, the lines were non-existant, and we were able to go straight to the booth. I chose a booth with a low table so that they could see me filling in my ballot - then they got a chance to fill out their own family ballots with the "special pen." What were they voting on??? . . . Our dinner - Chicken or pork, Green beans or corn, etc.

They had fun voting on what I would make that night - and then when we got home they called Daddy and asked him to phone in his vote.

So, the results of their election . . . drum roll please . . .

A yellow dinner. 

We ended up with Hotdogs, Mac&Cheese, Corn and Squash.

It was a fun way to make voting relevant to them, and it certainly gave me a break in usual lonely chore of deciding what to serve our crew for dinner.

They were actually very excited about the real election, and had loud (funny) opinions about who they thought should win - probably because of the rally that we took them to a few weeks ago.

Okay, now that I've mentioned the rally I'm going to go off on a tangent, so forgive me if this is long.  That rally taught me that there's nothing like a large gathering of people to make you feel like a lemming. (Lemmings are funny rodents that will migrate in large groups when their population becomes too big.  If the group reaches a cliff, they will pause there, but only until the pressure from the lemmings coming from behind causes them to then jump, or more accurately be pushed, off the cliff.)

So why am I telling you about lemmings? Well, when we took the kids to this political rally we waited in a gi-normous line for several hours in order to enter through the metal detectors and onto the highschool football field. Everyone was having fun, chatting and joking with one another as we waited.

After we got through security we were "herded" (there is no better word for it) toward a large stand of bleachers . . . oh how nice, you think, they got there early enough to get a "good" seat. Nope. We got there early alright, but the seats that they were ushering everyone to were not even facing the candidate. These were the backdrop for all of the TV cameras. That's right - the longer you waited in line, the LESS likely you were to be able to see the candidate's face.

So, we dutifully followed, for no other reason than the fact that the person in front of us was going that direction and the person behind was urging us forward. After reaching the bleachers one of our friends realized what was happening and decided to balk the system. He found out where the entrance to the field (in front of the candidate) was, and encouraged us to wait there. Well, there were a few not-so-thrilled volunteers who told us several times that the field wasn't going to be used until the bleachers were filled. Okay, we politely replied, and settled in with our picnic dinner as we waited. Again they would come back to our lonely group of 8 - you can't go on the field . . . Okay we replied.

After the political yahoos were well convinced that the "back-drop" for the cameras was sufficiently full, they finally let us in and we were able to find spots right in front of the podium. SOOOOOO much better than the ones they were trying to push all of us lemmings into.

Despite my sassy comments, we really did have a lot of fun at the rally. The kids sat on our shoulders wearing glow sticks and waving pompoms.  They thoroughly enjoyed joining in all of the excitement.  

Voting is such an important part of what makes our country wonderful.  I'm glad I got to share it with the kids.  And when it comes right down to it, sometimes your candidate really does win -  I got to eat Mac&Cheese for dinner, typically a no-no in this house!