It’s a quiet Wednesday night here in my little house!  All day today I’ve been thinking about how I wanted to come home tonight, turn on the Christmas tree lights, snuggle up on the couch and say a little hello to you.  And here I am, doing exactly that, with a lot of random thoughts bound to come your way tonight.

I wish you could see my living room right now.  My darling tree is lit up in the corner with most of its ornaments hung near the lower half of the tree, mainly because that’s as far as Avi could reach when she was helping me.  I’ll take pictures of it and show you sometime soon, promise.  This will not surprise you: I have cupcake ornaments (and they are absolutely adorable, but of course!).  I think you’ll smile when you see my tree.

Something else that will make you smile: Cuddles is currently asleep in the windowsill right beside me with his brother Snuggles all stretched out on the floor beside me.  They’re a wee bit overdue for a haircut and, as one of my college girls told me earlier today, they currently look like miniature sheep.

Itty bitty wee little sheep.  It’s cute.

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Do you know that, last December, I walked into my living room one evening after a long night at the Starlite office only to realize that I had not sat down on my couch — like, literally had not sat my body on my couch — for over two months straight?  I vividly remember standing in my living room, my purse over my shoulder as I stared at my couch.  I kept standing there, staring at it thinking “I wonder what it would be like to sit on my couch and write?”

Well, Amy Beth of a year ago, let me just answer your question for you: it feels lovely.

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When I was out of town last weekend with Avi, I happened to find a pair of pants and shirt on sale that I fell in love with.  It’s rare for me to find clothes that I really like, so I decided to get them knowing that they’d be perfect for work.  I had a big day at work today, so I decided to wear the outfit and, let me just tell you — it did not disappoint!  It’s officially my new favorite outfit and, therefore, I decided I must show it to you.

Unfortunately, I had already taken it off when I decided that it was blog worthy so the best I can give you is a picture of it on top of my dresser, where it was ever so gently tossed earlier this evening:

Now that I’m really looking at this picture, I’m realizing that you really can’t tell how darling it is by just seeing it laying there.  But just try to imagine the darlingness of it, won’t you?

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I use the word “darling” too much.  But I can’t help it.  It’s my favorite word.

I’d like you to know though — and this is really important to me, so listen up! — that I do not pronounce it as “darlin’.”  I feel like you might think I do since, well, I have a wee bit of a southern accent that tends to leave the “-ing” off certain words.  I want to assure you that I most certainly do not leave it off that word.

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It’s been awhile since I turned off comments on my posts and I’m going to tell you the truth — as much as I miss them (and I do miss them), I think not having them makes me write more freely.  I like to imagine that there’s only one person out there reading this and, this way, I can imagine it all I want!

But, in light of learning today that I’m going to get to have not only Avi but also MacKenzie with me for an extended amount of time before Christmas, I’m going to ask you sometime next week to tell me all your secrets when it comes to making Christmas memories with your little girls.  Be thinking of all your cookie-decorating, doll-playing secrets in the meantime because I’m going to be needing a guest pass into the elusive “mommy club” and I’m hoping you’ll give it to me in the comments one day next week.

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One of my college girls texted me last night about something she’s going through (which is, of course, due to a boy’s silly actions) and, in the text, asked me why it was hurting so badly.  She called me “mom” in the text and it made my heart just break right open as I remembered what it felt like to be in college, sitting on that dorm room bed learning that boys can hurt your heart before you ever even realized they had access to it.

When my college girls call me “mom,” I sometimes feel like my heart is so full I can’t even stand it.

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I know it’s a little biased to say this when I’m still in my twenties, but there’s a part of me that really thinks that this decade is one of the most important times of a girl’s life.  It seems to be the decade of decisions: college, dating, marriage, babies, career, etc.  Lately I’ve been thinking that the best thing I can do is to just make the next right decision and then, after that, to make the next right decision again.

And, seeing as I have to be at work early tomorrow morning, I think that the current moment’s next right decision would be to take myself — and those two little sheep — off to bed.

Sleep tight, cupcakes.