Random Thoughts

Halloween - a friend took pictures for us that night, but hasn't sent them.  So we have no family picture from Halloween.  As I was handing out candy with Tiago, I started questioning why they even make banana laffy taffy.  Strawberry is so good, and the yellow ones are just awful.  Not even the kids wanted them, although they were the first candy I made sure to get rid of.  (Am I the only one who strategically hands out candy?  If I'm going to have left-over candy, you better believe it will be the good stuff.)  Also, note to self for next year: don't buy chocolate!  I think I ate more candy in the two weeks before Halloween than in the 2 weeks after.

And the next morning, I jumped in the car and heard Christmas music.  After being in Germany for 3 holiday seasons with no Christmas radio, it is still refreshing to hear holiday music...even in November 1st.  Tiago loves to point out when Silent Night comes on the radio (one of his faves) and likes to sing along with "Feliz Navidad" -- fitting for a semi-Spanish-speaking kid.

I do have a few pictures of our house decorated for Halloween.  It was sad to take it all down; Tiago, particularly, loved pointing out the werewolf and bats ("baps").

The Election was all around interesting, and probably a fascinating study on human behavior.  I was fairly certain Hillary would win, and was quite surprised Thursday evening to see Trump was ahead.  We voted by absentee ballot a month earlier, so the excitement (or turmoil?) of "who to vote for" was long past.  It wasn't ever a big question for me: I didn't want to have Hillary as president, and I vote in a swing state (Ohio), so I voted Trump.  In the weeks leading up to the election, social media was full of people declaring they would "vote their conscience" by voting for neither Hillary nor Trump, and voting 3rd party instead.  Well, I'll publicly declare that I have no guilt on my conscience.  I never chose to have Trump as the Republican candidate, and think he has no morals, but I also feel like he will make more conservative choices than Clinton and, now that he's won, I'm a little curious how the next 4 years will go.  

The day after the election, I was a little surprised by social media.  People that voted 3rd party were expressing sadness over their candidate losing.  (Really?)  Hillary supporters were baffled -- we're talking deep mourning because they hadn't actually considered that their candidate might lose.  They seemed unaware that there was this other half of the country dissatisfied with how the government was being run.  I also know a lot of people who are Republicans that voted third party who kept defending themselves by saying, "Well I didn't vote for Trump."  You're welcome.  I did.  He is a far cry from the candidate I would have picked in the primaries, but given the options in the general election, I pick him.  (Surpreme court justices, health care, national debt, abortion, military support, etc.. just a few reasons.)  I'll take it upon myself to make sure my kids are correctly taught good morals. 

In other news, it was 75 degrees here yesterday.  Middle of November.  It's a little crazy.  I have yet to start layering clothing, and since I have several new sweaters it's a bit disappointing.  But I'm sure winter will arrive soon enough.