Thanksgiving weekend

We had such a nice Thanksgiving weekend! Our wonderful families reminded us that we have a whole lot to be thankful for.

On Thursday, we took the el a few stops north to Evanston, then walked the rest of the way to Susan and Steve's where their family was gathering. I had to ask Eric to remind me again how we are related to everyone... Susan is Eric's mom's cousin's daughter, so that would make her my...well, I'm still not really sure. Anyway, Susan's parents, sisters (and their kids), and some other related folks were there and we had a fabulous time--there were about 20 of us in all! I had met many of them for the first time at our wedding and this was the first time we had seen them since then, so it was really nice to catch up! And of course, the food was amazing. We will certainly have to get together more often with the ones that are in the area!

The weather was so incredible all weekend here! Goose thought it was a perfect day to bust out the Norwegian sweater. Those of you who know our neighborhood will understand when we say that we stuck out on our way to the train--not a lot of guys walking around in Norwegian sweaters and carrying pecan pies.

Steve is really excited to get the pie in his mouth :)

Saturday was the family Thanksgiving gathering in Holland. Rose, Robert, and Justin came from Lansing, and as a preemptive calorie burn (and of course, for fun!) we headed to the playground next door before the big meal! Justin absolutely loved this swing:

But he was not the only one to enjoy the equipment:

I had never seen anything like this spinny pod. It was like a one-person merry-go-round.

It was very fun--for about 10 seconds:

This thing may have been made for someone a bit smaller...

Justin tried out everything at the park.

And dinner was wonderful! We thought about getting the tri-pod and getting us all in one picture, but we were way too hungry!


It was so great to see everyone during this perfect fall weekend!

It's not a skirt, it's an apron

Goose looked so cute leaving for work this morning!

Election Day

Mira here. It was a huge honor and a powerful experience to be one of over 1,500 hundred Election Day volunteers getting out the immigrant vote as part of the New Americans Initiative (a project of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights). My small group was assigned to a couple of precincts in La Villita (Little Village), the largest Mexican-American community in the midwest, where we knocked on the doors of registered voters to encourage them to get out and vote if they had not already.

Here are some of the folks with whom I walked the neighborhood: Jim, Maria, Susie, Candice and Rogelio:

After a long day, we gathered from all over the city at this ginormous Mexican restaurant called Mi Tierra, and it was only then that I realized just how expansive this collaboration had been. The NAI volunteers knocked on more than 51,000 doors and hung 72,000 door hangers, as well as serving as poll watchers and judges and making phone calls! And many of the predominantly immigrant precincts we targeted had enormous increases in voter turnout. If you'd like, you can read the ICIRR press release.

Although a few people on my route were rude or uninterested, most folks enthusiastically told us that they had already voted or they planned to do so soon. We had some really neat conversations and it was so cool to see new citizens so excited about having voted for the first time. A few people even proudly produced their voting receipts!

Here we are at the "after-party" (I think the sweater/t-shirt combo is classy, don't you?):

Eric's parents came out with us on their final night in Chicago:


Quite an event!


It was an exhausting, but very fulfilling day! It was so life-giving to realize that I was a small part of something really big!

Quick trip

We had such a nice day in Rockford (MI) yesterday. Justin and Andria, two Garrett friends, are getting married next month, so we joined them for some pre-wedding merriment. Well, the official festivities were for the guys, so while they played poker, video games, and Star Wars Monopoly, the women enjoyed a nice afternoon and evening of shopping and dinner. Not very stereotypical, I know.

Justin and Joe. Heh heh heh...

Goose prentended to take the game seriously:


Andria, Erin, Jessica and I had such a nice meal at this fancy place by the Rogue River. The food was amazing and the french press pumpkin spice coffee even better!

Make-a-Wish

Mira here. Many of you know that my nephew, Justin, has epilepsy and some developmental disabilities. Well, Justin was accepted as a recipient of a "wish" by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and he, my sister, Rose, and her husband, Robert leave for their adventure tomorrow! A Limo will pick them up at home and drive them to the airport, where they will catch a plane to California. Because Justin loves water in every form, their trip will revolve around water! They will stay on the beach in San Diego for the week and will visit the Zoo, SeaWorld and the Aquarium, and even have a special "lunch date" with Shamu. There may be some plastic water to experience at Legoland, and of course, they will do lots of playing on the beach and in the hotel pool. I am so excited for them and wanted to share a bit about this blessing! And how neat that they are able to have this family vacation without any cost because Make-a-Wish has so many generous donors!

Here's a picture of Justin playing in the sink this summer:

Sunshine and Citizenship

Our friend Joseph's church in Evanston has a gathering called Sunshine Group every other Friday evening. For about 20 years now, people of all abilities have been gathering for a meal and a time of faith sharing. A month or so ago, Joseph, who goes regularly, invited us to participate and we found it to be such a neat time of authentic connection. Though I could not attend Sunshine Group yesterday with Eric and Joseph because I normally work until 8pm Fridays (I know, you wish you could work Friday nights, too), I met them, along with Chuck and John, on the EL. Chuck and John are two participants who live down closer to downtown than we do, and we had the joy of accompanying them home on the train. When we arrived at the new assisted-living apartment complex where they have lived for one month, they invited us in for a tour. Here are Chuck and John and the guys in the new place.


Today my office put on a "mega-workshop" at West Side Technical Institute (a city college where Instituto del Progreso Latino has some of its offices). Between 9 and 3, about 300 permanent residents, with the assistance of volunteers, filled out their application for naturalization, went through a legal screening process, had their required photos taken, and received information about citizenship classes that we offer. All the folks on the bleachers in the background are waiting for their number to be called.

The workshops make for exhausting and chaotic, but very fulfilling, days. The 10-page applications are tedious and require us to record things like exact dates for trips out of the country during the entire time the applicant has been a US resident (for those who have 25-30 years of residency, this is a pain in the butt), and personal information for the person's spouse's ex-spouse. We also have to ask questions like "have you ever been a habitual drunkard?" "do you hold any titles of nobility in any other country?" "have you ever advocated to violently overthrow any goverment?" and "do you belong to any terrorist organizations?" Surprisingly, no one that I've worked with has ever responded affirmatively to any of these questions.

Anyway, it's an interesting process and the time goes by very quickly. And it's really neat to be able to be a caring and patient person who assists in making one step of a really long, confusing, and often frustrating process a bit easier.

Now it's off to class for many of them, where they will prepare for the citizenship interview/exam by studying information that is "essential" to being an active, responsible citizen. Things like, "who said 'Give me liberty or give me death'?," "name the 13 original colonies," and "what is the name of the ship that brough the Pilgrims to America?" Plus they have to practice writing sentences like "America is the land of the free," which is not only propaganda, but also perpetuates using the name "America" for the United States.

Ok, I obviously have some issues with the process, but thankfully, the vision of our classes is a bit broader. We hope to give students/applicants a broad understanding of the context of the history and civics questions and teach skills that will help them be more active in their communities, like writing letters to their representatives and participating in community decision-making.

Unfortunately, the citizenship application process is just going to get more difficult. Check out this Washington Post article, Citizenship Changes Draw Objections, if you're interested in some of the details.

Ok, Eric's been cleaning the apartment for a while now and I keep saying that I will join him soon!