Music is My Medicine

College is rough. And there are times where you are just at the lowest of lows, but no matter what, music can pull me out of whatever slump I am at the time and just raise my spirits. It must be the dancer in me, but music just moves my soul. It means soo much to me. When I am having a bad day, I put in my ear phones, crank up the music so I can not hear anything in the world, and dance around my house. Wow, how much that helps. Music can carry me away into a whole other world of pure....bliss? I would say bliss, but it can help address any emotion I am feeling. But by the end of my music listening, I feel so much happier. Music was put on this earth for a reason. I miss dance though. I miss dancing everyday. I miss my dance company sisters. I miss learning and coming up with choreography. Mmmm...I just miss it all. Anyway, the point was to dedicate this entire post to my favorite band, but as you can see, I got a little carried away.

So now, without further ado.

The band whose music touches my soul the most is.....Coldplay. Man, I am so in love with their music. New and old. It just amazes me how I love every one of their songs and how they are so so grand. Their music just lifts me up. Vanessa was a doll and gave me the new Coldplay CD for Christmas and I have adored it!! On New Years Eve, my mother was watching TV, flipping through the channels and behold, she found that Coldplay was doing this New Years concert where they were playing some old and some new songs. It was like a legit live concert that someone was also recording and putting on TV. My mom, knowing my complete adoration for this band, went to record it on our lovely DVR. Thank you mom, thank you mom. The next day, I was in the living room talking to my mom and she mentions that she recorded a surprise for me. I was not expecting anything big, probably just a special episode of Say Yes to the Dress (which I love), but lo and behold, she shows me this Coldplay concert. OH. EM. GEE. wow...I was SOOOO excited. She wasn't able to record the whole thing, because she missed the beginning, but still.... a whole hour and nine minutes of pure, pure ecstasy. We started watching it, and man, I was loving it so much, I was getting EMOTIONAL. I had tears! Crazy, right? But really, it was THAT amazing! I have refused to delete it. It will stay on my DVR until I am forced to delete it. I have decided to create a bucket list and the first thing on that list is to go to a Coldplay concert, preferably many. They are just so into their music and so fun to watch. That would sure be an experience that I could NEVER forget. Hmmm....Well, I just thought I would share my absolute love for Coldplay and their music. I know they always a few really popular songs that get played on the radio, but their other ones are amazing and I challenge everyone to try them out! I just feel like everyone is missing out! If you need any recommendations, hit me up! I'll try to not just suggest every song ;)

Christmas Vacation

I know it is so hard for you all to keep up with how fast I update my blog ;) My bad....I will work on updating it more often! So, to catch up from the last post, I did get all the pictures back, but I'm not going to post them. They are on Facebook which is good enough. ANYWAY, this Christmas vaca has been pretty great. I spent so much time with my family and I loved it! Alright, let's discuss the major holidays and highlights of the break.

First off....Christmas Eve.

Every Christmas Eve, we have a party at my sister's house in Saratoga. It includes all my siblings (well those who are able to make it) and their children of course. We have all kinds of homemade soup (homemade chicken noodle being my favorite) and many wonderful deserts. We used to have a huge Christmas party with all the cousins and grandparents where we would read the story of the nativity from the scriptures and the grandchildren would do a play to go along with the story. This traditional party has sadly come to an end, so my mom read the story of the nativity to the kids during our Christmas Eve party. After the story, who should come to visit but SANTA!! Wooo...sadly some of the children have the frights for Santa, but they were swayed to go see Santa because he had candy for them. We played games and had tons of laughs, as always! There is never a family gathering without the majority of it being accompanied with laughter. Finally, we opened Pajamas and were able to get ready for the night! On our way home, my dad, mom, and I went to look at Christmas lights (you know the famous houses that are amazing every year!) I got to end the night watching Christmas movies with my mom, which was very fun!

Christmas

This was the first Christmas where it was just me. It was a little sad. Either my other siblings and their families couldn't make it, or they have reached the point where they do Christmas morning on their own and their own house. Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we went to church. It was actually really good. We had wonderful musical numbers and "remarks." Even though my siblings had Christmas on their own, they all came over (Except for Emily who spent Christmas with her in-laws) for Christmas dinner. We got "Just Dance" for the Wii and we all had a ball playing it! Even my brother was pro and the kids we best of all. There was no age limit! Whoever wanted to dance, did! It was great having all of them over. I really love getting together with my family. It's the BEST thing about the holidays. Even though Emily wasn't able to be here for Christmas, she came later in the week. It was great, because it brought the family together AGAIN!

New Years

I haven't really done anything fun for New Years before. Growing up at my house, it usually consisted of watching the ball drop and going outside to beat pots and pans and giving my mom a kiss, and then it was bed time. yup. Pretty exciting, I know. This year was a BLAST. The Provo mall was throwing this countdown party shindig. It was pretty cool. The problem was that the lines to do all the fun things were super long so we ended up just walking around looking at all the fun things. At one point the line for rock climbing was pretty short and Kyle suggested we do that. Now, for some odd reason, I turned him down. I was worried that I couldn't do it and I didn't want to embarrass myself. Looking back, I totally should have just gone for it. Who cares if I make a fool out myself. I do that everyday! Anyway, we were able to watch some comedy sports, which was pretty funny, and watch some dancing and singing. Anyway, the best part was that at midnight, they were going to lower a ball and have fireworks. Well, I LOVE fireworks. They just amaze me! So, we met up with Vanessa, Sylvia and Daniel and went out to the parking lot. They had music blasting, so naturally we had a dance party. So fun. Nothing I love more than dancing. They were giving out free little blower thing. It was crazy. There were so many people, all blowing their horns. Music was blasting. Suspended by a firetruck was a wonderfully lit ball that was going to be dropped when we did the countdown. Then it was time. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Wooo.. and then FIREWORKS. Amazing fireworks! And they were RIGHT above us! They were sooo cool. Man, it just made it amazing. It was almost, dare I say, magical! To top it off, Vanessa, Sylvia and I went to a beautiful look out point and drank a bottle of Martinelli while toasting to a wonderful new year to come.

Kickoff to Back to School

Okay, so I realize this isn't a Holiday, but hey, close enough. So, to celebrate the last day before the start of Winter semester, Vanessa and I did some fun stuff. We started out celebration by going out to dinner to Noodles & Company. YUM! It was so good, and for some reason, it's just extra fun to go out to eat, right? Bonus: I got left overs, which I have already begun to enjoy :) Anyway, after our lovely dinner, we went to my house to give me a purple hair streak. We have tried this before, but it didn't work very well last time. Vanessa washed it out too soon so it lasted like a couple washes and was very very dim. This time, she only rinsed it and it looks great, but we will see how many washes it last. Cross your fingers because I love it. After dying part of my hair, we put on temporary tattoos. We just think we are "bad a" with our colored hair and temp. tats. ;) During all of our fun, we watched the original Footloose, because Vanessa had never seen it! CRAZY! It is just soo good. and well, ladies and gents, she LOVED it. Success. Just like that old saying goes, "If it aint broke, don't fix it." Yes, and that is why I refuse to see the new Footloose. Maybe I will cave someday, but it just won't compare.

My purple streak

Well, I think that was a great amount to write about. I will try to be better about updating in the future and then they won't be so long. Until then, much love.

Christine Rachelle Brothers