I pledge allegiance...

...a banner week this week in the Cabrelli household! Lisa and Mark flew back to USA to attend Lisa's oath ceremony - she is now officially an American citizen! It was a very cool ceremony with a great speaker who talked a lot about the "melting pot" of the US and preserving foreign traditions and cultures as we move in to citizenship in order to further enrich the Nation. It was all very interesting and even cynical Mark was glad that he came. There were 63 people in the morning ceremony and lots of cameras and hand-shaking. Although after living in the States for 25 years the event was more like paperwork for us... Lisa spent the morning pondering what a momentous and life changing occassion the oath ceremony has been for so many people before her. She was quite moved by the whole thing. They gave each of us a little American flag and we watched a video montage of shots of "American Life" set to the "Proud to be an American" song which of course had Lisa and Mark busting out the flag off and on for the rest of the day for impromptu duets of the afformentioned tune. We also got to see Miranda and the boys, always a joy, and have a quick drink with our ex-neighbours at lovely Ann's house.

This morning was a banner day for Emily as she took off for her week long school trip to Abaco (another island of The Bahamas). She was so excited that she didn't sleep last night and was a ball of anxiety about getting to the airport on time this morning. Tricia and I got lost and picked up a friendly Bahamian who jumped in the car and guided us there (he was headed there for work anyway).

Here is Emily and her friends in the line looking all grown up :-(