I admit it … I decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving!

To say that I truly love Christmas would still not be enough to really express how much I love this holiday. Growing up I have fond memories of my Mom transforming our home to one that you would find in the Pottery Barn Holiday Catalog, while my Dad cranked up his favorite holiday music. From the pillows on the sofa to the hand towels in the bathrooms … there was no room left untouched. Everything was “Christmased!” As much as they loved the holiday they never once put decorations up before Thanksgiving, so why do I break the tradition?

Over the years I’ve realized that it’s not the decorations, or the presents, or the Cranberry Bliss Bars Starbucks releases that make this year so special to me. It is the romantic-fairytale like state that seems to encompass the whole world that make me truly love this time of year.

How my parents freely danced in the living room to Jingle Bell Rock while hanging wreaths and ribbons on the wall. How more people suddenly get the urge to pay for the order of the person behind them at the Starbucks drive-thru. How I can barely keep it together when I know I have found the perfect present for my husband.

Christmas is when the whole world becomes a little more idealistic, dreams a little bit bigger and basks in the fairy tale wonderland that surrounds them. … so can you blame me if I want to start the season earlier each year?

Our society constantly reminds us that we need to have thicker skin. That being emotional is equal to being a mess. That we must always have our poker face on. I want you to know that those who tell you this, don’t understand that vulnerability is power. Being vulnerable shows strength and courage.

I believe it is more convenient to build imaginary walls to surround ourselves and our weaknesses in, then it is to have no walls. Standing with no walls is more courageous. Leaving ourselves open allows others the chance to truly love us. To love us without any walls, without any boundaries.

When we accept our own vulnerabilities and celebrate them it is easer to accept others and their vulnerabilities, this is unconditional love. This is the love we all want. We want to be loved for all that we are, for our strengths and for our weaknesses.

Isn’t unconditional love what we want in our relationships? Especially when its a relationship we vow to keep til “death do us part”?

I challenge you to open yourself,

to find the courage to stand alone,

to let others see your vulnerability and

to allow others to love you unconditionally.

Everyone knows that feeling of writers block. The awful moment when you sit down on your computer ready to type something out and you realize that all the ideas swirling out of your head just won’t come out. You’re not quite sure which way you want to take your story, what type of characteristics you want you main characters to embody. You sit there and stare at the computer with a half written sentence not sure what to do next. This is how I was feeling about my photography business.

I started full of hope and possibilities ready to take on the world. And somewhere along the way I got writers block. All these visions and dreams in my head but not sure how to execute any of them.

Then through an awesome photographer Jennifer Chaney I was introduced to a wonderful world of Specialism and Jeff Jochum. Jeff, along with my fellow Team X-ers, have helped me to realize that my business needs to be an extension of me. My business is my dreams, my hopes, my fairy-tales manifested into real life possibilities.

So you wonder what’s happened to my writers block? What happens next on this fairy tale of mine? I want to experience real life fairy tales.

They happen every day when the bride and groom say “I do” during the most romantic day of their lives … their wedding day.