Celebrate Good Times...Come On!

Well, another holiday has come and gone. It's the waning hours of St. Patrick's Day...a day which always totally amuses me.

Seriously...
Can we find any reason to celebrate, or what?

Now, granted, I have lots of Scotch-Irish blood in my past and America has a very strong line of Irish blood in our history. I'm all for celebrating our heritage and the goodness of our country's melting-potness (hey, I sorta like that word!), but I do sorta still kinda chuckle that we are a people who loves any reason to celebrate.

Just in the last month or so, we've had...
Ice Cream Month, and
Valentine's Day, and
National Pi Day (which I actually missed last week and am still a little sad about it...I seriously wanted to use the day as an excuse to make a yummy peanut butter pie, while also lamenting my lack of any redeemable math skills), and
Mardi Gras, and
President's Day, and
Oscar Night, and
Craft Month, and
Chocolate Week (actually, I just discovered that this is next week...which means I am absolutely finding some ways to celebrate that!), and
Texas Independence Day, and...

Okay, okay. Who am I kidding?

I totally DID celebrate Texas Independence Day here in my house, complete with burritos and margaritas and a friendly little recitation to my family about what makes Texas oh-so-great.

And today we enthusiastically celebrated St. Patrick's Day, complete with the wearing-of-the-green (Sydney woke us all up with very exuberant pronouncements of "Happy St. Patrick's Day!" and the demand that we all wear green "or else you'll be pinched and maybe even hit"), talking in sentences that randomly included the word "blarney," and the enjoyment of handmade sugar cookies topped with green frosting and an overabundance of green sprinkles.

I love any reason (and, in fact, often look for any reason) to celebrate! In fact, I think you've seen evidence of that here on my blog.

You've seen me make a table full of football-themed-goodies for an Alabama football game. And you've seen me make a cake to celebrate the season-ending episode of "Lost." And you've seen me celebrate the Obvious Celebrations....birthdays and anniversaries and new babies.

And, now that Spring is here, I've only really just begun.

McKenna has prom coming up and she and her friends are gathering here for an After Prom Celebration, and (yay!) we just discovered our theme. We're doing a Monte Carlo party (think poker, and games, and all that jazz!).

Then, McKenna and Sydney celebrate birthdays just a day apart at the end of the month, and we are already envisioning a Beach Luau to commemorate their big days!

(And, who knows? There may be some basketball-themed cupcakes appearing within days...since the kickoff of my favorite two weeks in sports is mere hours away!)

Yep, I'm just gonna keep on celebrating.

The Big Days and the Little Ones.

The Official Days and the "Cheryl Thinks They Should Be Official" Ones.

And, you know what? I am so totally cool with that, because life is meant to be celebrated.

I'm not ignorant to the seriousness of the world we live in. Believe you me, I know all about paying bills and struggling to make it through; and I know that there is sadness and sickness and plain ole "it's not fair"ness; and I know that some days make you wanna just pull the covers back over your head and declare, "I'm not even trying."

But I also know something else.

Life needs to be enjoyed, and savored, and laughed about, and celebrated.

And the world needs more people who are willing to wear silly hats, dance because they feel like it, sing songs to the people they love, give gifts for no apparent good reason, make and eat frosting-covered cupcakes, party just because we say it's a day that deserves it, and pinch someone if they're not wearing green.

You and I are worth that much.

Life is worth that much.

So...
get your party hats on, lick that frosting off your fingers, and do a little jig in honor of...

Anything your heart desires.