Visitors!

Recently, Kiki and Maria came to stay with us for a week in Des Moines. It was so much fun to have them! We did a lot of fun things, including trips to the Des Moines Botanical Center and Science Museum. Here are some pictures from their trip:

Peter's Birthday

We were recently in MN to celebrate Peter's 3rd birthday. Considering that Peter wasn't expected to live, his 3rd birthday is quite a milestone. Peter means so much to our family. He inspires us everyday with his strength and courage, and he has changed our lives in so many wonderful ways. It was a great party, and we are so glad that we were able to celebrate with him! Happy Birthday, Petey!

The Iowa Experience

Yes, we went to the caucuses a while back. We couldn't participate because we're still PA residents, but we went as observers. It was very interesting.

After doing some research, we decided to observe the Democratic side because they have a much more involved process. Here's a summary of that process, taken from this article from answers.com:

"Participants indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing in a designated area of the caucus site (forming a "preference group"). An area may also be designated for undecided participants. Then, for roughly 30 minutes, participants try to convince their neighbors to support their candidates. Each preference group might informally deputize a few members to recruit supporters from the other groups and, in particular, from among those undecided. Undecided participants might visit each preference group to ask its members about their candidate.

After 30 minutes, the electioneering is temporarily halted and the supporters for each candidate are counted. At this point, the caucus officials determine which candidates are "viable". Depending on the number of county delegates to be elected, the "viability threshold" can be anywhere from 15% to 25% of attendees. For a candidate to receive any delegates from a particular precinct, he or she must have the support of at least that many caucus participants in that precinct. Once viability is determined, participants have roughly another 30 minutes to "realign": the supporters of inviable candidates may find a viable candidate to support, join together with supporters of another inviable candidate to secure a delegate for one of the two, or choose to abstain. This "realignment" is a crucial distinction of caucuses in that (unlike a primary) being a voter's "second candidate of choice" can help you.

When the voting is closed, a final head count is conducted, and each precinct apportions delegates to the county convention. These numbers are reported to the state party, which counts the total number of delegates for each candidate and reports the results to the media."

To an outsider, it all seemed kind of crazy and old fashioned. We had never seen anything like it. People literally took paper tickets and placed them in a container for the first count for viability. The count for delegates was done by a head count! Though I'm sure the people conducting the counts were careful, there have to be some errors.

The best part was when people try to convince other people to come over to their "side." There were just under 800 people at our precinct, so the "debate" that takes place was pretty much reduced to people shouting at each other or chanting their candidate's name. Then, whenever some one joined a new group to support a new candidate, everyone went crazy. It was wild.

Oh, and Madeleine Albright was there--at our precinct. She was also an observer, so she stood right by us, and, like a bunch of stalkers, we took some pictures of her:



Overall, we're glad we went. It was quite a strange, but interesting, experience.

Christmas Photos

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! It was so good to be in MN and to spend time with family and friends again. Here are some pictures from our trip.

We decorated cookies with Michael, Joey, and Maria:

Snuggling with Peter (while Maria eats her tenth cookie):

Jenny, Eric, and little Phil:

Opening gifts on Christmas Eve:

Mom working on the Christmas puzzle:

With Maria and Gianna:

Annie and the adorable Lorenzo:

Ryan, Brandon (Teresa's husband), and Steve (Ann's husband):