Oh The Sweet Things Kids Will Say

So, as most of you may or may not know, in the last month the Vatican has been "abuzz" with the announcement of Pope Benedict stepping down from his papalcy.  We have been trying to educate Samantha and Sarah on this whole papal enclave and what it exactly means.  Samantha has been intrigued with the whole process.   We've explained to her that finding a new pope is a long and tedious process and a decision that can't be made overnight.  The cardinals attend Mass in the morning like we do on Sundays, and then they go into a special room so they can discuss on who the next Pope should be.  Then they use ballots to vote on the Pope, and of course the black and white smoke.

The smoke, in particular has had Samantha both nervous and excited.  Yesterday, we discussed at dinner that there would likely be black smoke for a few days.  Samantha immediately looked out the window and started looking for this black smoke, and was worried she couldn't see enough to get to school.  

This afternoon, we found out that white smoke was shown from the Sistine Chapel, and a new Pope has been elected.  So Samantha looked out the window again to mention that the white smoke was in the sky, only to realize that those were only clouds.  Then she also realized that we were a long way from Rome and the smoke would never reach here.