Election Day!

What's more American than a democratic election?

A bake sale to raise money for schools.

I spent the morning at the Alki Community Center polling station, at a table laden with baked goods baked by Alki Elementary parents. We encouraged people to vote, and then as they came back outside from their vote we encouraged them to buy something sweet to support the Alki PTA.

Maybe one day we'll live in a world where wars are funded by bake sales, and schools are fully funded by taxpayer dollars. Until then....I guess I'll bake! (Organic chocolate chip cookies, thankyouverymuch. Tessa helped, and then we printed red, white, and blue labels and Tessa helped me to bag them up in pairs.)

The atmosphere at our table was festive. We saw young and old, and many people who voted absentee ballot but chose to deliver their ballots to the polling station. We live in a very blue area, and people had a lot of Obama buttons, but we weren't conducting any kind of polls. (It was clear that the bake sale parents were Obama supporters, however.)

The children conducted a mock-election at the school, and it was clear that they had heads filled with thoughts of election day, as well. I heard children calling to each other, "Did you vote for McCain or Obama?" on the playground, and it made my heart sing to think of five year olds who feel involved in the political process. Right now, they are mere reflections of their parents' views, but hopefully they will keep their passion for voting for all of their lives, and continue to participate in the democratic process.

And our house? Well, we'll have the TV on, and the internet right in front of it, as we anxiously watch and await final results. We're having a few neighbors over to share this moment, and we're pot-lucking it.

Tessa and I looked up pictures of Obama's family, and Tessa pointed out that his youngest daughter is not that much older than she is. Tessa wants to write to Sasha and Malia to say how happy she is that they get to live in the white house. I hope that we get to write that letter!

Now, back to obsessively checking the web for early results....