Family Near and Far

We were just in Connecticut this past weekend celebrating a cousin's Bat Mitzvah and saw J's extended family.  And some of you know there has been a lot going on in my family, with my parents moving to Arizona and my sister H living in LA.  I'm feeling reflective about the role of family and friends in our life, especially since once we return back to Canada, as lovely as it is, we don't really have many.   We're making some, slowly, but our social life is much slower up here.  Which is both good and bad.  There is only so much you can talk about with a 5 year old and a 2 year old ("I'm 2 and a half!").

I recently put up this photo wall in my kitchen eating area:

I used these clear photo clips from photojojo, so it is like a big mat hanging from some nails at the top. And conceivably, it should be easy to change and add pictures.  Reflecting on these pictures, and the ones I just hung today from our wedding (yes, it has only been 5 months since we've moved in), I was so contented and happy to see so many of the same faces.

We are lucky in our family to have a warm, welcoming family, on both sides.  There is a picture of my Aunt Craze, and boy, she has earned her name.  And there is a picture of J wearing a blue velvet suit, and other male members of his family admiring that suit, because, of course, every member of J's family should really consider owning one (it was his Dad's).  We laugh a lot at family gatherings, and sometimes people throw up purple ice cream.  

Our extended family is just as fun. Auntie M and Auntie J will soon welcome someone new, we hope, and we'll get to add a new picture, FINALLY!  Uncle B's other profession, when he is not being important and checking his blackberry, is being a baby whisperer.  Uncle E has already been up to Toronto and gave J a great hangover.  There are pictures of them with Auntie Haha when she was still in elementary school.  They are coming up for Canada Day and will pretend to be patriotic Canadians. 

Soon we will go visit Auntie Haha and some of my high school friends in California.  We have other Aunties, Uncles, friends, and loved ones, too many to mention by name here. But doesn't that make us so very fortunate? To have an extended family, around the world - in California, DC, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, Afghanistan and another one may be there soon, South Carolina, Germany, Nevada, Canada now and soon to be Arizona.  Wherever we are, we are still connected by email, airplanes, phone, skype, facetime, package, mail, photo, letter, postcard, and most importantly, love.  

The Election

Wow.

If you thought U.S. elections were crazy, then you've not seen a Canadian election. I think Canadians lie to pollsters for fun to make election night more exciting.

As you may have read (or not, because there was some other big news on Tuesday morning*), Stephen Harper won re-election as Prime Minister and his Conservative party won a majority government. This means they elected enough Members of Parliament (MPs) to vote through any of their legislation.  Previously, they had formed a minority government.  This was a big win for the Conservatives and came mainly from vote splitting on the left between the liberals and the NDPs.

The NDPs had a huge night, winning over 100 seats and becoming the official opposition party to the Conservatives.  This is a first for them and they are trying to prove they are up to the task.  They have a very diverse group of MPs, which include a 19 year old college student and a cocktail waitress who went to Vegas during the campaign, doesn't live in her district and doesn't speak French (and who is from Quebec).  Aw,  your elected officials.

Liberals had a terrible night, only winning 30-some seats.  Our MP, Borys W. lost by only 26 votes, proof that every vote counts.  There was one Green party win, and the separatist Quebec Bloc party lost in record numbers, which is causing commentators to predict that Quebec is ready to rejoin the country again.  It may be too soon to tell.

Prime Minister Harper has already gone to the Governor General to ask for the new government to be formed, because remember, he has to ask the Queen as a Commonwealth country.

And everyone liked Kate's dress?  Some of my neighbors were up at 3 a.m.! People at J's work wore big hats, and traffic was very light into Toronto on Friday morning.  E liked seeing a real princess on T.V.



*The cheering? I was not into it.  We watched Obama's speech on Monday, because we were up watching election coverage, and J and I disagreed about the cheering GW students outside the White House.  I thought it was so sad. The assassination operation was a necessary evil.  Given some different clothes and some guns, those students would be a crowd that would be burning American flags in another country.  You cheer when war is over, because killing is over, because people are safe again.  You don't cheer when you drop a bomb on someone, or when you kill someone.  That is succumbing to the basest of human instincts, the darkest and most evil part of our hearts, and not where I want our society to be. It was difficult to watch.