America Has Decided

The votes are in and the numbers speak for themselves...Americans have elected Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States of America! It truly was a great day to know that we will work together on a better future and unite the country instead of further dividing it. As Biden said in his acceptance speech last night "this is the time to heal". Not just from the past but also from this pandemic.

While Trump has not congratulated his opponent yet but rather threatened to fight with more lawsuits the election results, most of the country was celebrating. Not only show these results that every vote, every race, every human counts but also that we are ready for change and for the economic and social turmoil from these past 4 years to end. Joe is ready to bring people together and be the president that works for every American and not just some and be a role model for our future generations. 

“I sought this office to restore the soul of America, and to make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home,” Biden said. “It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again, to make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy.”

It is expected that there will be more uproar from the losing party until the inauguration on January 20th, but Joe Biden promised us last night in his victory speech that he is ready to begin his work, hard work, right away, and as Mr. Obama said, "he'll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming president ever has - has a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril". 

Next to Biden stands Kamal Harris, the first female vice president and the first woman of color as vice president. I was proud to tell my daughter yesterday that this shows us that she can do anything she aspires to as Mrs. Harris is leading the way for all of us women. And as Kamala said last night: "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities, and to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before. But know that we will applaud you every step of the way." 

I also noticed that it makes a whole lot of a difference when a president gives a coherent and eloquent speech, something we did not experience over these past 4 years. Both speeches weren't long but they still entailed powerful messages and were very well presented. 

It is a great moment to be an American and to have elected a president and vice president who care about all the people and who will work hard to bring this country back together, who denounce racism and to fight this pandemic with the support of doctors and science and to bring us truth. 

A Country in Waiting

On Tuesday, it was Election Day and most of us had high hopes to receive an answer by Wednesday or Thursday of who will lead our country for the next 4 years. But the presidential race appeared to have slowed to a crawl. We are still counting votes and waiting...This year's voting has been drastically impacting by the Coronavirus pandemic and led to a tremendous amount of early voting participants as well as more than anticipated mail-in votes. 

The waiting part is not the problem as it was anticipated but the proclaiming of having won the election on the first night, even though it was not at all decided yet and bad mouthing the opponent and the States of how they count their mail-in ballots and thereby causing friction and possible riots, is neither acceptable nor understandable. And while the country waits for ballot tallies in a handful of crucial battleground States, the Trump campaign has pursued lawsuits in MI and PA and a recount has began in GA. Even before Election Day, Trump has pushed allegations of voter fraud without any tangible evidence and raised questions about the validity of the mail-in voting process. The issue with that is consistency and that people may loose their trust in our governmental system. As soon as Trump leads in one State, supposedly no fraud occurred but when he is losing then the vote counting is being considered fraudulent. Because of the lawsuits and recounting, this election could drag on for weeks until a clear winner is named. As Edward B. Foley, an Ohio State University law professor said: " This election won't be resolved until a losing candidate concedes defeat and congratulates his opponent. And if the candidates don't give us finality that way, then the legal process has to give it to us." And Trump has already stated prior to Election Day that he is not conceding defeat easily and will fight all the way. A truly sad outlook for our democracy.  

Despite a year in chaos and no discernable leadership during a worldwide pandemic, the constant lying, the ignoring of facts (i.e: climate change) and most of all, the creation of hate and unrest among Americans by supporting Antifa groups and radicals, I'm disheartened and saddened to see that the presidential race is that close and that still so many people voted for Trump. Have we not learned anything in the past 4 years??? What are we teaching our future generations if we let an egomaniac and narcissistic person run our country? What happened to the duty of a president to support and protect all Americans and not just the ones who voted for him? 

Joe Biden gave a brief speech on Tuesday on if he wins, he will not be a democratic president but a president for all Americans. This is exactly what we need to hear and what our country needs.  

Unfortunately, the way this voting system is set up here in the US, it does not reflect all the popular votes but depends on certain States and their electoral votes. In my opinion, it is a very outdated system and should be changed so that literally every vote counts (peaceful dancing protests and marches across the country are rallying for "Every Vote Counts"). The demographics of our country are changing and with that the party alignments are shifting and the voting system should reflect this change. If every vote would count, we would have had elected Gore in 2000, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

The race is close but I think hope and humanity is prevailing and Biden will be declared as winner soon.  At this point, the entire world is on pins and needles and awaiting the outcome. My hope is that after the election, the country will calm down and we all can live peacefully among each other, despite who we voted for. What America needs right now is unity, love  and respect for each other and a clear path of how we can bring this country back out of this pandemic and make it better than it was. 

Spooky Festivities

With only minimal events going on this year, we chose to purchase some early tickets for Boo at the Zoo. We knew that it would be a safe event to participate in but also some much needed fun for the kids. And it did not disappoint. On a Friday evening in the middle of October, we grabbed our costumes, loaded up the car and went to the zoo. The children were so excited to be wearing their costumes: 2 witches and 2 wizards!

The decorations and lights were awesome and throughout the zoo were also candy stations to fill up their buckets. 

For sure it was a fun, although quote chilly, evening:

We carved our pumpkins and this year, the children had to do the dirty work. As you can see, they did not enjoy it that much: 

Even though the children attend virtual school, the 1st graders still had some fun with pumpkins. Elliot had to count pumpkin seeds...his helper was right there by his side:

And a Halloween movie and snacks with his class and sister:

For Halloween, we decided to stay in and have our very own Halloween party. I decorated a bit and the kids and I put on our costumes: 

We put out some scary but delicious foods and watched "Hocus Pocus" for the first time with the kids.

We finished the night off by playing Halloween Bingo and doing Mad Libs. The children proclaimed it was the "Best Halloween Party Ever!" and they want to have one next year too. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Fall Break - Part II

We came home for a couple of nights to repack and get some work done before leaving very early on Wednesday morning to drive to Atlanta. The children and I had an appointment at the German embassy to renew our passports. 

Due to the long drive, we decided to spent a night in Atlanta. Even though our hotel was in downtown, right next to the Olympic Park, it was so empty. Due to lockdown restrictions, the park was closed (fenced in actually), no restaurants or fast food chains were open or only open for limited hours during the day and there were no business people on the streets. It felt eerie. So in the afternoon, after a stop at Ikea, we went to Midtown and found a big open park where we could run around and stretch our legs. 

On the way home, we stopped by one of my favorite German grocery stores (there are none in TN yet) and bought some goodies. I felt like a kid in a candy store. 

The next morning, we had timed tickets for the Georgia Aquarium, which was walking distance from our hotel. Due to the pandemic, the aquarium only operates at about 33% capacity but the first couple of hours we were there, it was only about 15%. For us, it was great as it made social distancing very easy but obviously it is not sustainable long-term for a business. Nonetheless, we truly enjoyed the visit and loved seeing all the ocean animals. 

One of our favorites to watch were the whales. The Beluga Whales look funny but cute with their extra blubber. 

The Aquarium is one of the biggest in the world and it is home to Ocean Voyager, a football size tank that houses 4 whale sharks, manta rays, turtles and other large sharks. It also features an acrylic tunnel for guests to view thousands of marine creatures on all sides. Due to the low crowds, we even had the tunnel for a few minutes to ourselves, which was amazing. We could have stayed there for an hour and just watch those majestic sea creatures float above us. 

Other animals in the aquarium: 

Another highlight was the Dolphin Show. The children were mesmerized by how high the dolphins can jump. 

Just to get an idea of the fascinating world under water, here is a video compilation from our visit: 

We were happy to get out of the house for a couple of days even though many of our other fall activities had to be canceled. This little adventure was for sure a highlight in an otherwise completely "boring" year. 

Fall Break - Part I

This week was officially Fall break after the first 9 weeks of virtual learning are completed. We now have been all home together since 7 months and we needed a break. I need a break...work is overwhelming right now and I feel closed in and needed to get out and away (safely of course). So we decided to book a cabin for 2 nights at Pickwick Landing State Park in South TN (5 miles from the MS border). 

On Saturday, early afternoon, we arrived in Pickwick and stopped by at the local tourist watering hole. Not to mingle or eat but to take in the scenery and to pass the time till we can get in to the cabin: 

Once we settled (aka cleaned and unpacked) in to the cabin and threw a quick dinner in to the crockpot, we went right back out on a leisurely 3 mile afternoon hike. 

Instantly, we felt relaxed being out and about in nature and away from the news, people and hectic of the daily grind. We all slept well that night.

The next morning, I went for a run around the trails while Derrick and the kids tried their hand at fishing. They only caught a little dead fish though. But Daddy taught them how to skip rocks. 

After lunch, we went kayaking. It was an absolutely beautiful Fall day and everyone loved this new family activity. 

A delicious treat from the Shake Shack was well deserved:

On another hike before dinner, we discovered lots of different fauna and creepy crawlers. 

And since we were at the lake, I could not miss out on seeing a sunset. My little girl and I braved the cooler evening to sit at the lake and watch the sky turn from blue to yellow, purple to red. 

The perfect little getaway during a pandemic and just what we all needed.