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