Counting Our Christmas Blessings

It's always so easy for me to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas. I love to shop and decorate and fuss over Christmas details like the perfect stockings and nice wrapping jobs... so I thought I would take a minute to count my true Christmas blessings this year.

1. I am so excited to be carrying my first child, and so far, everything is going very smoothly.

2. C and I have good jobs, and live within our means.

3. Our parents live less than 15 minutes away from us.

4. My brother made it home for Christmas from Seattle, which is no small feat considering the crazy weather Seattle has been experiencing this week.

5. My family is healthy.

6. My stepchildren love and respect me, and the feeling is mutual.

7. I have a wonderful, loving husband to spend another Christmas with. We became engaged at Christmas 3 years ago - he's been the best Christmas present ever.



Merry Christmas!

- The Good Stepwitch

Christmas 2008 Portrait

Spent a good part of the day at my parents today for a wonderful brunch, games and some early gift giving. My brother arrived this morning from Seattle (made it out before the airport shut down - they are having crazy weather out there) and it was so good to see him. Got a great family picture. Can't believe Christmas is only a few days away!




-The Good Stepwitch

The sound of silence...

Hear that? That wonderful stillness?? I can't believe it, but I am actually in my house all by myself for the whole night tonight! It has been quite a while since that happened, and I intend on enjoying it! C and P and H are out for the evening at a basketball game with my mother-in-law, and A is babysitting tonight for a neighbor (her first REAL babysitting job, which means the first time she is babysitting someone other than family members - she was SOOOO excited!), so that just leaves me and the cats here at the house. I plan on putting on Xmas music and doing some gift wrapping, some cleaning, making myself a nice salad for dinner, and of course, blogging! Ahhhhh...

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree. We got a much smaller tree than last year, because last year I learned an important tree lesson. Last year I was all about getting a HUGE tree. We have high ceilings, and I have always loved big trees. So my husband indulged me and we cut ourselves one heck of a huge tree last December. Than we tried to put that sucker up.

It's true we have high ceilings, but I seriously over-estimated how much tree WIDTH we could handle. The tree was MUCH too big for our space. It dominated our living room. Not only was it monstrous, it didn't fit in our tree stand. So we had to shave the trunk down. And we had to tie the tree to the wall with rope to keep it from toppling over in the stand. I learned my lesson. No more big trees.

So, we got a lovely, slender 6ft tree this year, and I couldn't be happier with it!

It was COLD the day we picked out our tree, but we were armed with hot cocoa!


HAP riding home with our tree.


Charlotte says hi to the tree.


C and A putting on the lights.


Cooper supervises H's decorating.


C and P add their ornaments.


Our lovely tree! A perfect fit! HAP did such a great job decorating!


Our Christmas kitty, Charlotte. She was SO pleased to be wearing this bow, can't you tell?



-The Good Stepwitch

The Hanging of the Greens

Last night we went to The Hanging of the Greens at our church. It's a yearly get-together to decorate the church for the holidays, and always a fun evening filled with food, crafts and music. HAP was excited for the food most of all - pizza (H's favorite meal in the whole world), hoagies, chips, and then just about every kind of baked good imaginable. Everyone ate their fill (I OVERATE my fill - I felt like a stuffed turkey) and then got to work with the decorating. There are about 8 large wreaths that have to be made from all kinds of fresh greens and berries and hung around the building. Last year the girls and I didn't get to make a wreath, but this year we claimed a wreath station early and got to make one. C helped us too. We didn't really have a clue as to what we were doing, but I think our wreath turned out great and it was a fun project to do all together. HAP worked on making Xmas ornaments and Cards for a while while C and I sat with coffee (and more cookies). One of the older members in the church went from room to room reading The NIght Before Christmas aloud, which was cute. All in all it was a fun night and a nice start to another Xmasy weekend. Later today we will go get our tree and decorate it - always an adventure with two curious cats in the house...

–The Good Stepwitch

New Look

Thanks to "Cutest Blogs on the Block" I gave my blog a facelift. Thoughts?

– The Good Stepwitch

A great surprise!

Last night my mother-in-law surprised me with a beautiful basket packed full of wonderful gender-neutral baby goodies!! I was so thrilled!! She entered a raffle where you buy tickets for a chance to win one of many pre-made prize baskets. She saw this basket and put all of her tickets in for a chance to win it, and she did!!! I think she was as excited as I was to receive it!!

It was all wrapped up and looked much nicer before I went through everything, but here is the basket:



It had all these cute yellow sleepers, and hats and socks:



A bottle, bibs and a teether:



All this bath stuff and two cute little washcloths:



And last but not least, this cute little guy! He is so soft and he rattles!



It was such a wonderful surprise, thank you soooo much Anne!!!!!
xxoo

-The Good Stepwitch

Cat Bed!

See! I said I would blog more and here is another post in the SAME DAY! Crazy!

As I have mentioned before, we have 2 cats. Cooper is our big, old, fat orange tabby who had been with me almost 10 years. He's been through so many changes in the last few years and still is my lover boy. He likes C, he tolerates HAP, but he loves me. (and my monther-in-law, actually)

Charlotte is our little brown and white tabby. She is a spaz, but very cute and always makes me laugh. She is my shadow in the mornings. Wherever I go, I turn around and promptly trip over her because she is right there by my feet.

Anyway, BOTH cats sleep with me at night. They do not sleep with C. Nevermind that C and I sleep in the same bed, the cats sleep with me. Or rather ON me. Cooper sleeps curled up at my feet. Charlotte sleeps on top of me, either on my hip, or lap, or chest, or head. And now that it is getting cold, it's getting annoying. Something happens to Charlotte in the middle of the night. I swear she gains 10 lbs while she sleeps. Just to roll over is like trying to move underneath a pile of bricks. I shove her off the bed she comes right back. I close the bedroom door, she howls and cries and scratches at the door. I needed to take action.

So, I bought a cat bed.

Charlotte LOVES boxes. She loves to play in them, sleep in them, wash in them, anything. And look what kind of cat bed I found!!!



It's a BOX!

And she LOVES it!!! I couldn't be happier! Since we got the cat bed 4 days ago, she has not slept with me once. We put her bed next to my dresser, and she is happy as a clam in there. Cooper still sleeps down by my feet, but he knows his place and doesn't push it. So I am soooo much happier when it's time for sleep!

Look how cute she is...





-The Good Stepwitch

Back on the Blog

OK, so I have not been the best blogger for the past month or so. I am going to try and be better about that, though this month, of course, will be CRAZY with getting ready for Xmas and everything. So we'll see how it goes! ;-)

One reason I have been bad at blogging lately is that I have been pre-occupied with a small bit of news. Namely this:




In September I found out that I am pregnant!! I think the ultrasound technician was as excited as me - see the exclamation marks after the word BABY in the picture?? So yes, I will no longer be solely a stepwitch, but a bio-mom as well. My husband and HAP are all excited, H really wants a little sister, though A wants a baby brother. P is pretty reserved about the whole thing, but then again he has had to go through 4 younger siblings's births already, so I can't say I blame him. I am due in June.

SO I really do have an exciting reason to be blogging more. Keep us in your thoughts, and I'll write again soon!

-The Good Stepwitch

First Snow!

November 21, the first snow fall of the winter of 2008-2009! This morning the snow took me completely by surprise - I haven't been watching the news the last few days and didn't realize were going to get anything! But it was a lovely first snow, just enough to coat all the trees and make everything white and still, but not enough to make the roads bad. Perfect!

I wanted so badly to take a picture of it this morning, and of A all bundled up and excited for her walk to the bustop, but when I got out our camera I was so disappointed to find that I think it is broken!! I put new batteries in, but it still won't turn on. Bummer.

So I grabbed this picture from our news station's website. This is pretty much what it looked like outside our windows this morning:



So nice. And I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that our house wasn't even that cold this morning, even though it was VERY cold outside. Our old house has never been very heating-efficient, but every year we try to make some small improvements in weatherproofing our home, and it's nice to feel like they might actually be paying off!


-The Good Stepwitch

Tagged

OK, so thanks to my bloggin' friend Amy (you can read her blog here - it's great) I have been "tagged"

Rules:
1. People who are tagged need to post these rules, and 8 random habits/facts/quirks about themselves.
2. At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

Here's my list:

1. I don't cook. So much so, that when I lived on my own, I would heat up a can of peas for dinner sometimes.

2. At night when I am driving, I like that I can see how people decorate their homes if their lights are on. (this does not make me a stalker)

3. I am slightly OCD-ish about really weird things, like sheets being centered on the bed, and the radio volume being set on a even number.

4. I worked at a vet in high school and got to assist in heart surgery on a black lab.

5. I do community theater.

6. I've camped across the country and in Canada with my family.

7. I sing in the car really loud.

8. My favorite place to be is Maine.


That's it! And since I do not have 8 blogging friends, I am going to BREAK the tagging chain and not tag anyone else. Hopefully I will not have 7 years bad luck now...


-The Good Stepwitch

The Election of our Lives

That's what my co-worker called it this morning, and I have to admit - it DOES feel like one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" moments today. I have never been so excited to cast my vote for president. I thought I was excited four years ago - when I ended up waiting in line over 4 hours to vote. But today is a whole new level of excited! I am so full of hope and optimism for our country. Things need to get better, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like they can. And I am excited to think that I helped play a part, no matter how small.




- The Good Stepwitch

Comfort Foods...Ahhhhh

So it's a perfectly terrible weather day today. Cold, rainy and windy, (though at least it's not snowing as it was this morning about an hour north of here!) and my office mate and I got talking about comfort foods. Ahhhh comfort foods, I love you so. My personal favorite comfort food is Shepherd's Pie, though my husband's ham and potato soup has become a close second. Cabbage rolls, chili, meatloaf and tuna casserole also rated high on both of our lists. So what are YOUR favorite comfort foods? Do they have to be hot meals? Here is my favorite, though since I am really not a cook, I use instant mashed potatoes, rather than real. Please don't judge me.




Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
* 1 onion chopped
* 1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
* 1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
* 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
* 1/2 cup beef broth
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice


1. Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2. While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3. Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

4. Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

5. Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

6. Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.

7. Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Serves four.

-The Good Stepwitch

Leaves and Pumpkins

Sunday was beautiful here, warm and sunny the perfect day for fall activities. Activities like raking leaves! Thank goodness we have a small yard, so at least it goes pretty quickly. Our big tree still has plenty of leaves on it though, so we definitely still have some raking ahead of us. I was so impressed with the girls! I went out and raked piles (which was actually SO nice, I don't mind raking our yard at all when it is so nice outside...) But I HATE filling bags with leaves, so that's where the kids come in. I made 4 large piles, called the girls outside and told them to pick a pile and start bagging. I thought they would each do a pile, and then C and P would do their piles later. But after they each did their one pile, they just grabbed another bag and each did another pile! So nice!

Afterwards we had hot cocoa and the girls started working on our jack-o'-lantern. They love scooping out the "guts" of the pumpkin (another thing I'm not big on) so they had a great time doing that and "slimeing" each other in the process. They each made sketches for what kind of face they wanted for the pumpkin and made presentations to C and I to see which design would win. Of course, we combined the ideas, and C went to work carving. We were all very pleased with the results:










-The Good Stepwitch

Congrats Phillies - National League Champs!

.


WHOO-HOO! The Phillies won the National League last night and are heading to the WORLD SERIES! I can't believe it! The last time the Phils were in the world series I was a senior in high school, and I remember watching the final game with with a bunch of friends in Liz's basement and feeling HEARTBROKEN when they lost. This time will be different!!

I love baseball. Love it, love it, love it no matter how much people tell me it's boring and not as athletic as football or basketball. It's AMERICA'S game! Right Amy???? I know you loved last night's game - anyone else SUPER excited for the Fightin' Phils?? Let's hear you, phans!!!


-The Good Stepwitch

H turns 9!

On Sunday night we finally celebrated H's 9th birthday. The kids fall schedule gets so crazy that we had to push back our birthday dinner a week - she actually turned 9 on October 5th. But I think it's kind of nice to stretch out the birthday celebration.

As is tradition in our house, the birthday kid picks what they want for dinner and H shocked us all by asking for shrimp! This from the kid used to eat NOTHING except bread and kraft mac n' cheese and yogurt. We were very impressed. So we had a great dinner of shrimp and spaghetti and veggies, followed up by a wonderful cake that C's mom made. It was a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake with mint chocolate sauce and M&Ms. Wow, it was good.

H got a few small gifts from us, 2 books, a cool art program for the computer, and some magnetic earrings since she had to let her pierced earring holes grow closed. (they were starting to tear through her ear lobes - bummer) But the magnetic ones looked great, so we'll see how long they last!



9 candles on the cake!



Grandma knows how to make one heck of a birthday cake!



Happy Birthday H!


-The Good Stepwitch

We don't mess around...

That's right, none of this "shopping around" for minivans. We can't be bothered with going to MULTIPLE dealerships looking for a good price. This is how we roll: we say we are going to start looking for minivans, and BAM! less than a week later we buy a minivan! Mission accomplished!!!

Seriously, this was not the plan. We were in no rush. We were going to look at several brands of minivans and look at used lots as well as new. But, I have a friend at work who's husband works at a Honda dealership in town. So last night, C and I went to see him to test drive a Honda Odessey and look around. And we came home with a minivan.

He gave us an AMAZING deal. C is over the moon because he REALLY wanted an Odessey (best minivan ever in his opinion) but neither of us thought we'd be able to swing buying a new one. But we are actually going to be paying less for the Odessey per month than we were paying for C's Accord which we traded in. CRAZY!

So C is one happy camper. He also said maybe this summer we will look at having a DVD player installed for the kids, which they will love. It doesn't have a moonroof, which is a shame, but getting such a great deal makes up for that. Here is the factory picture of what we brought home last night. It's a light bronze sort of color...the picture is a little dark.




-The Good Stepwitch

Fighting For Frank

Today was the Multiple Myloma – Walk for the Cure 5K in Philadelphia. Our family got a team together to walk and help raise money for research to find a cure for this terrible cancer. It's been almost exactly 4 months since we lost C's father to Multiple Myloma. It was a great day to get together and walk not only in support of a cure, but also in remembrance of Frank. 

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and crisp. The walk took place in Fairmont Park, so there was nice scenery and plenty of activities going on to watch as we walked. There were tons of people walking today. Even though we did not have HAP at our house this weekend, P really wanted to walk with us so he came along, and I know C was really happy to have him there on our team. Our team, "Fighting for Frank" had 19 people on it. About 7 of us ran the 5K and the rest of us walked. We were all proud of C's cousin who placed 19th in running race! He finished in about 22 minutes. C and I finished in 58 minutes - got in just under the hour mark! 

It was a great morning and something I can see becoming a tradition for us. Family members were all ready talking about how next year, we'll be shooting for the top fundraising team spot! We love and miss you, Frank, and we'll keep on fighting.

–The Good Stepwitch

Paris Trip

OK, I have been very lazy about posting about our trip to Paris. We got back Sept. 20 and here it is October 2 and still nothing posted...I am nothing if not a procrastinator. But today is shaping up to be a slower day at work, something I haven't had in a while, so I finally have some time to collect my thoughts and get some words down.

My good friend from college, Aimee, has always been my travel buddy. We have gone to England, Italy and Maine together and always have a blast. But since we each got married, we hadn't done any traveling together. Several months ago she and her husband, Tom, invited C and I to go Paris with them for a week. Tom's parents have an apartment in Paris (wow) and so we could stay there for free! Did we want to go? Ummmmm, YES!

As many of you know, I am not the world's best flyer. But if you are going to go to Paris you gotta just grit your teeth and do it. And drink a lot before boarding the plane - very important! I made it through the 7 hour flight OK, (I don't think I bugged C too much...) and we landed in Paris and began our adventure!

Tom's parents' apartment was lovely and very close to the Effiel Tower. We went food shopping the first day at a huge open market a few blocks from the apartment and ended up making a lot of our dinners in the apartment. Which was good because eating out in Paris is trés expensive! However, wine is cheap (at the least the wine we bought...) and still very good. Each night we had at least 2 bottles over a long dinner. If I drank wine like that at home, I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning, but I found out there are no hangovers in Paris - isn't that amazing? Who knew?

We did a lot of walking every day. We lucked out big time on the weather. Except for our first day there, it was sunny and about 65-68 degrees every day. Perfect for walking. We ended up going some places as a foursome, but we also split up a lot of the time and did things on our own. C and I went to Montmartre together (a hilly, northern section of the city where the famous Moulin Rouge is) for a walking tour we found in a book. It was strange, there are lots of peep shows and sex shops around the Moulin Rouge area - but it's still so PRETTY! The streets were clean, there were flower boxes and beautiful buildings...C pointed out that when you get into the sex shop areas of US cities, it has a totally different feel. Thanks for pointing that out honey... ;-)







Montmartre was awesome, we saw Sacre Coeur, a huge white cathedral over-looking the whole city of Paris. We popped in a few galleries, walked through a artist's square with lots of paintings for sale, ate a great quick lunch at a bakery, and just enjoyed exploring a totally beautiful area at a relaxed pace.

The next day the four of us left Paris via train and headed to the Loire Valley. We rented a car and set out to explore Chateaus and wineries for 2 days. C and Tom were the designated drivers, Aimee and I got to relax (and occasionally nap) in the back seat. C loved driving around the countryside, and he and Tom did a great job of navigating. Aimee and I got a kick out watching them consult the maps together and decide on which routes to take. Tom even had his trusty compass with him, just in case we got lost!







We visited 4 Chateaus - two each day. Chambord Chateau was first, a huge imposing castle with a massive staircase in the center of it and a crazy roof with all kinds of spires and embellishments. Next we went to Cheverny Chateau, a chateau that is actually still a residence, so it had a totally differnt feel. (Sidenote - on the drive from Chambord to Cheveney Aimee and I saw a family of about 6 wild boars grazing in the forest by the side of the road! Little baby wild boars! But Tom and C remain skeptical...) Hunting is a big part of life at Cheveney, and the chateau has a kennel on the grounds with 80 hunting hounds. There was a beautiful garden to walk through as well. We did our first wine tasting here - an awesome set up where you were given a glass and allowed to select 7 wines to taste from these large wooden coloumns set up with little spouts sticking out of them. Select a spout, put your glass under it, and like magic a measured amount of wine poured into the glass! So cool!









We stayed overnight in a little town called Amboise, which was very cute and so nice to walk around in the evening. We had our one dinner out as a foursome in a small friendly restaurant. The waiter spoke very good English. Chris took advantage of the situation to ask if there was anywhere he could watch Monday night football in town. The waiter looked at him like he was crazy. Silly Amercian...this is Europe we don't do the NFL here...

We visited 2 more chateaus the next day: Chateau d'Amboise and Chenonceau Chateau. They were my favorite chateaus, Chenonceau especially. Walking up the the long drive that was covered by a canopy of beautiful trees to this amazing chateau was like walking onto a movie set. The gardens were perfect in every way. It was just so lovely, it was hard to imagine that people actaully lived there once. It seemed like something out of a fairy tale.









We headed back to Paris and started focusing on visiting museums - cause there a few big ones, you know? We went to the Rodin Museum, the l'Orangerie Museum, the Orsay Museum, the Louvre, the Victor Hugo Museum and the Pompido Modern Art Museum. We didn't get to go to the Picasso museum because it was closed for renovations, bummer. My favorite museum was the Rodin - so peaceful and so many amazing works in a really beautiful building with a lovely garden surrounding it. Chris was super excited to see Monet's waterlilies at the l'Orangerie. We walked soooooo much! My feet were shot by the end of each day, but it was a good thing we did so much walking because it allowed me to eat pastries each morning for breakfast without feeling guilty.









We did have one mishap in the apartment. I am happy to say that C is responsible for saving the lives of countless Parisians as well as Aimee, Tom and I. While making dinner one night in the apartment, we had set out a plate of hors d'evours to munch on while dinner cooked. (wine, cheese, olives, bread and sausage - so good!) Dinner was almost done cooking, so Tom went into take stuff out of the oven and let it cool a bit. He joined us back in the dining room and we all continued snacking. We had finished our first bottle of wine. C asked if he should open another bottle. We all said we could wait a little while. C said: "I'm going to open another bottle," and went into the kitchen to get one. We then heard him call from the kitchen in a surprisingly calm voice: "Guys there's something on fire in here, can someone come help me?" We all dash into the kitchen to find a pile of dish towels on fire!! Like a serious pile of flames!! The boys start beating down the flames and eventually dump the smoldering pile in to the sink - disaster averted! C said afterwards: "See, it's ALWAYS a good idea to have more wine..." Can't argue with that!





So thank you sooooo much Aimee and Tom for inviting us to Paris, we had such a great time with you both! When do we start planning our next adventure???





-The Good Stepwitch

Resigned to the minivan search

Well, C and I have decided to begin car searching. Scratch that...we have decided to begin MINIVAN searching. That's right, the time has come for me to fully embrace my stepmom status and own a "family vehicle". Sigh.

I am not a fan of minivans. I agree that they are practical for families. And Lord knows we can't keep driving two cars everywhere whenever one of the kids has a friend over - that's not very fuel efficient. And yes, it will be so nice to take a car trip without hearing HAP in the back seat complain about how someone is crossing over into their personal space...but still there is a part of me that cringes a little bit at joining the ranks of those full fledged soccer-mom kid chauffeurs in their minivans. Part of me is still clinging to my two-door Mazda coupe days, when it didn't matter that my back seat was frigging impossible to get into.

We are going to start looking with the hope of buying before the end of winter. I have made one humble request of C in our search. I would like our minivan to have a moonroof. I have never had a car with a sunroof or a moonroof, and I think on some level, it would make me feel slightly more cool driving around in a minivan with a moonroof. Right?

Or I could take Peyton Manning's advice and paint some flames on that baby!
view his commercial here


-The Good Stepwitch

Coincidences

Funny story today...

Sunday night when HAP was at our place, H came up to me at bedtime with the book Animalia, a big alphabet book with great animal illustrations. She's had it at our house since we moved in, I don't know when she got it.

She asks me: "Why did someone write in my book?"

Me, confused: "What do you mean someone wrote in your book?"

And she shows me that on the inside cover of her book there is an inscription.

So I explain that a child owned this book before she got it, and the person who bought the book for that child wrote them a special message in the book.

"Let's see what they wrote to the child!" I said.

The inscription went something like this:

Dear Max,
I think you will grow to appreciate this book more and more as you get older. And someday I hope Wynne will enjoy it too.
Love, Uncle Bob and Janet

And I think:
Max and Wynne...the woman I share an office with has 2 kids named Max and Wynne...and those aren't the most common names!

So I check with my office mate and YES! Her kids have an Uncle Bob and she remembered them getting Animalia from him - over 17 years ago!! She had no idea when or where she donated the book, but it was a long time ago (her kids are in college now) and it found its way onto my stepdaughter's bookshelf! We thought that was pretty funny! Small world!







-The Good Stepwitch

Home again!

Boy, I leave the country for one week, and what happens? The entire banking system collapses! That was quite interesting news to come home to. Also, Texas got slamed by Ike, and there were 2 bomb threats down the street from our studio. Good grief! On the brighter side - my fighting Phillies went on a tear and are in first place right now! Way to go boys!! Knew you could do it!!

C and I got back from Paris on Saturday. What an amazing week. We had such a great time, and I will blog all about it in the next few days, but it just seems too daunting to tackle right now. We spent Sunday lounging around and catching up on sleep. HAP came over for dinner and we ended up having my parents and C's mom over as well for the Eagles game and pizza. It was a very American night - pizza, beer and football - and it was great to see everyone.

Now it's back to the work grind. I am having a tough time getting back into the swing of things (hence the blogging...) but I will buckle down now and get some work done. Here's a picture of C and I in Paris:





–The Good Stepwitch

730 days

Today is C and my second wedding anniversary.
2 years married to a wonderful, loving man who makes me laugh and makes me feel so special.
24 months of being a step-parent to HAP, and growing in patience and love for them.
730 days of ups and downs, but mostly ups, with my wonderful family.
I love you so much C!

xxoo
your wife



-The Good Stepwitch

Mushroom Fest 2008!

It's the beginning of September and that means it's Mushroom Fest Time around here! We live in Kennett Square, the actual mushroom capital of the world, and what better way to celebrate that fact that by having a huge street festival every September? We always look forward to this weekend, and since we live right in town and can walk to all the festivities, it's even better because we don't have to deal with the headache of parking...

This year though, Tropical Storm Hanna cut the festival down to one day. Saturday was a complete washout. But Sunday was so perfect! We only made it to the festival for about an hour and a half, because of soccer games and a longer morning at church, but we got to sample the FOOD which is the most important thing anyway!

Here is the street festival with tons of people and vendors. Sometimes it's almost TOO crowded!! The kids all saw friends from school walking around, and it was neat to see them interact with their buddies.



H and A sampling some festival treats!



HAP with their dessert - Ice Cream from the Woodside Farm Creamery - The BEST in the land... They all got boring flavors like chocolate and peppermint. I celebrated Mushroom Fest correctly by getting Pumpkin Mushroom ice cream, yes it had mushroom slices in it, and it was GOOOOOD!



A nice time at the Festival!




-The Good Stepwitch