I’m not here to talk politics – I have before, and if you’ve been around me for any length of time, you know where I stand with them anyway.
I’m here to talk about the experience of yesterday. We always take Sheffield with us when we vote – we think it’s important to show him the importance of voting, so we went right after we picked him up from school. When we pulled up into our polling place, there were cars parked everywhere. During the last presidential election, we seriously stood in line for fifteen minutes – in and out. This year – there were so many people in line! We actually couldn’t believe it – and everyone was wearing a mask! Everyone! Even while outside in line. People were chatting – and not about politics. Just being nice to each other. It was pretty amazing.
At some point we were told that we were the polling place with the longest wait time, and that they had already run out of ballots (EEP!) once that day. At some point, the poll workers brought pizza around! I had heard of the Pizza at the Polls thing, where people could send pizza to people waiting in line to vote- and thought what a great thing to do. Sheffield was definitely a fan. I love that the slice of pizza is as big as he is!
All in all, we waited about two hours and fifteen minutes to cast our vote. And it may have been a pain in the ass to wait in the cold, but it was also amazing to see all of those people showing up to vote.
We always snap a family pic after we’re done!! I love how they always give Sheff a sticker, too. The man last night said, well you had to wait in line too. It was so sweet.
After that, we headed downtown to see the Dia de los Muertos altars. It’s always been something we’ve enjoyed doing, and ever since Sheffield has watched Coco, he’s gotten a better understanding of it. My two favorites were the John Lewis and RBG altars. So appropriate for voting day! Aren’t they beautiful?
When we got home, we all got changed into snuggly clothes- Sheff had his dinner, and then came in to join us on the couch for the Great British Bake Off. We had made the decision that we were not going to watch the returns, so after Sheff went to bed, we made a charcuterie plate and binged all of the old seasons of GBBO and enjoyed a bottle of wine. It was a really nice ending to the day.
That is a big slice of pizza! I love that you guys have an election day tradition as a family.