Election Day Party

Election Day has always been a big deal at my house. Growing up, I remember staying up late with my parents to watch results come in. My Mom has worked more elections than I can count. I remember taking the ballot boxes to the city offices with her a couple of times when I was a kid. I felt so important having all the secret votes in my car. There were at least 2 times (I think that was all) where we actually had the polls in our little home. That meant moving every piece of furniture out of our living room to make room for the booths. All the living room furniture was moved to the 3 bedrooms that we had. As kids we loved it! Since we were homeschooled, that meant we were home all day to watch the action and see all the voters come, and we got to have the tv in one of our bedrooms. One year I remember watching the news most of the day as a good chunk of southern California was on fire-again. And I was naughty and got to watch some General Hospital:)

My parents always taught us the importance of Election Day and what a blessing it is to be able to vote for the leader of your choice. Even if the outcome wasn't what you were hoping for. Sadly, that was the case yesterday. We were very much hoping for a different outcome, but I am grateful that over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to teach my children the importance of Election Day. Adam has been so curious to see how we vote, so after we picked him up for school, I took all 3 kids to vote with me. They proudly wore their "I Voted" stickers all afternoon and evening and were anxious to see who was going to win the election. 

I decided to make the day special, so we threw a little party. We busted out some of our red, white, and blue decorations, had some all-American food for dinner, and watched the news all evening to see the outcome. 

 After school, Adam got right to work on making some encouraging signs for the party. 

 Some of my family came to spend the evening with us. We had hamburgers (with a couple of side dishes), apple pie and root beer floats. 

 We ate and flipped through the news stations for a couple of hours hoping to hear better results. 

 I printed off some pictures of the Untied States for Adam and Tessa to color either blue or red as we saw results come in. Adam was so hoping Romney would win. He was very disappointed this morning when I told him how it all ended. 

4 more years seems so very long right now. I am thankful for the wise words my Mom and Mother-in-law both shared with me this morning from President Monson, "Your future is as bright as your faith". So now we will go on, praying that our leaders will make wise and righteous decision and I will focus on teaching my children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Making sure their foundation is a solid one and that they grow up appreciating the freedom we have and the understanding the blessing it is to vote on Election Day.