I thrive in Christmas time

Christmas.  It is marvelous.  Christmas means increase in the warm fuzzies, the family love, and the homemade food.  Christmas means Christmas music.  Christmas means enjoying old woman activities such as: knitting, baking, cross-stitching, painting, cooking, and caroling.  Christmas means cold weather and bundling up.  Christmas means mistletoe and New Years and tons of possibilities for moments to arise.

CHRISTMAS MEANS DECORATING.

I mean tacky, extreme, overly cheery decorating.  At the Bailey household, we do it big.  
Goals for decor:
  put up ASAP (the day after Thanksgiving) to ensure maximum neighborhood triumph
  lots of snowmen and snow globes
  the more lights the better
  use of at least four extension cords
  make small children yell at the parents to slow down and look at our house
  beat the crazy people down the street with the man who drives the UPS truck
  the tackier the better
  something must inflate
  something must flash
  similar to this:

These things are done year after year in the Bailey household.  I thrive in the ridiculousness of such ridiculous ornamentation.  It is absolutely absurd how crazy we are about it all.  I love to joke about how completely whack and over-the-top all of our decorations are.....but that is what makes them ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.  I thrive in the tackiness.  For all other seasons of the year, I enjoy classy, simple things, but I excel in the unnecessary holiday hoorahs.  Playing the borderline crazy, nearly annoying, psycho Christmas lady is one of my all time favorite things to do.  Taking it all just past that level of normalcy to leave the neighbors in awe, is something I plot in my mind year round.   Yes-crazy.  Absolutely crazy.  Hokie even.  And I love it!

Life is much better spent, having something to be excited about.  So, I say, make everything exciting!  Hooray to the fantastic Christmas season and reveling in absurd holiday jolliness. Ho! Ho! Ho! and Merry Christmas!

Beauty is an Option

Beauty.  Not material, fake tan, bleached teeth, highlighted hair, "beauty",  but real, natural, imperfect beauty.  
Beauty is defined as "a quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind".  Nowhere in that definition is the word "appearance".  
So why does being beautiful have a connection to whether or not someone dresses up nice?  I don't know how the word got to that point, but I choose to reverse history's damage and see beauty as something else.
It is a quality.  A quality of what?  Of ANYTHING.  Any laugh, any passion, any smile, any horizon.  Anything has beauty potential.  Anything that is nurtured and grown and loved will shine with beauty.  Anything that is given antiquate attention and love will find beauty unknown.  
Think about it.  Pregnant women are beautiful because they are nurtured, they have a purpose, they are confident.  Mountains and oceans are beautiful because they were perfectly blue-printed and laid out by our Creator with a purpose of giving us "I love you" presents when we just look outside.  
A flower that is neglected and unfed will become shriveled and ugly.  A flower that is watered and given sun will bloom in beauty.
With all things there is the ugly possibility.  Any situation can go bad.  Any natural park can be destroyed.  
With all things there is the beauty possibility.  Any situation can go well.  Any natural park can be pruned into endless beauty.
The beauty option is a choice.  It is a choice to live in confidence.  A choice to open yourself and shine in your vulnerability and honesty.  A choice to be who you will be before taking into consideration the opinions of others.  
With real beauty there is not pressure to be perfect.  There is not pressure to be the best or to shine the brightest.
There is simply yourself.  Others opinions, looks, actions DO NOT MATTER.  
True beauty does not strive to be more than lives in confident contempt.  
It is raw.  It is real.  It is imperfect.  It is who you are without any forewarnings or barriers.  It is you.

The beauty option is a choice.  It is a choice of confidence and individuality. I choose the beauty option.

High Heels

I am discovering my love of heels.  I never really wore them in high school and definitely not before that in my extreme athletic days.  Until about two weeks ago, I only had 2 or 3 pairs actually....but now.  Something has come over me.  I see a cute pair of shoes (or any pair of heels for that matter) and I want to buy them.  Just like that.
I, quite the sale shopper, bought a pair of full-price Vera Wang heels, just because they would be "perfect with this one top".
I mean, I knew I was getting more girly over the past few years.  I'm definately in to fashion and like to look nice.  But now heels as well?  This is very girly girl for me and I do not know why I haven't seen this beauty in shoes before. 
Just look at those shoes? All the sudden, I picture myself in a pretty little number strutting the streets of downtown in those shoes.  My look complete with those shoes.  I feel as though I've been missing out on the wonders of how much fun a great pair of heels can be until just recently.  My heel count is rising along with my feminine tendencies....and that is ok....I guess.