I have returned to my cold compact home unit after five days spent at my in-laws where the climate indoors is warm and dry enough to make you have Hard Booger Nose. The last five days were much like a religious retreat, the kind where you're forced to go without television and internet and where you spend a lot of time talking about epiphanies and reading and sitting around on couches in a circle and laughing and being reminded that family and laughter and navel oranges are really the essentials in this life. Of course, the retreat was held in honor of Baby Girl, in celebration of her first birthday, which is on the horizon but which we observed with my entire immediate blended crazy fabulous family all around, too. I am glad to be back in my own home where my nose runs naturally and where I eat sparingly the soy and kimchi and rice-based foods that are the cuisine of my in-laws but which make me start tweaking for some greasy cheese pizza after a few days. But as I sit here on my commodious couch with freshly-folded laundry and half-read books and write this account for all of you dearhearts while Lovey Loverpants watches Jack Bauer say serious things to threatening villans, my heart feels very filled and I am still on my retreat high. An excellent spirit to carry into this new era of hope and change and Together We Can....

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Auntie Shannon

Harmonee

Nana Red

Auntie TP

Pennie the Weiner Dog Roasting by the Open Fire

...and a preview of her Korean Princess photo-shoot: