The Night Before Christmas

Tonight was the Christmas Eve candle light service at my church. 

Then we drove around to see Christmas lights.

Finally, we got home and opened a few presents early.

We've had this Christmas Eve tradition for as long as I can remember, and I love it. 

For to us a child is born,    to us a son is given,    and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

<3, Brooke

Candy Cane Nails

 Step 1 - Paint your nails with a base coat of clear

Step 2 - Paint a coat of red

Step 3 - Use a fine tipped nail brush. I used the 'Brash White Fine Art Nail Polish' from Payless. It has a very thin tip making it easy to paint. Start from the corner of your nails, and slowly paint 2 white stripes. leave a small gap, and paint two more stripes in the upper corner.

Step 4 - Paint over a top coat of clear

I know it's only 2 days till Christmas so you probably won't get to try this, but I thought I'd post it anyway :)

Merry Christmas Eve, Eve everybody!

<3, Brooke

Christmas Caroling

We went Christmas caroling, and it was SO fun. It was freezing outside, my friends and I shared lots of laughs, and singing at every door was awesome!

My friends Hannah and Allie bundled up in the cold weather

 Before we left to carol. We always gather in our driveway and have a creative opening. This year it was a countdown to caroling, which is why there's a screen in the background :)

 My friends Breanna and Andrea, and I in the middle. We enjoyed caroling!

After done caroling we got home and had a party with hot chocolate, cookies, and other good food. Breanna and her family stayed till 2am, which gave up plenty of time to take photos (which we took A TON) and laugh! So in other words, I had a fantastic time.

*Brooke*

December Update

Is it just me, or does that cupcake look amazing? ;)

So I've decided once every month I'm going to give you an update. 

First off, I've had a wonderful December. The house is really festive, we've been doing a lot of activities, and I've continued to play basketball :) Tomorrow's our last game for the year (which I will unfortunately miss), but games will start up again in early January for me.

Tonight we're going Christmas caroling, which I will post pictures of tomorrow. Every year for the last 12 years, my older brother has organized a caroling event. He builds a 'float' with a traveling Christmas tree for people to see as we carol, he play music as we walk through the streets, and we stop at houses to sing and give them invitations to our church. this year I think we're going caroling with 45 people. That is a LOT of people to go caroling with, but also very fun!!!

So a random thing I'm excited about; TobyMac is going to be performing in the Disney Christmas Day Parade! He has the best Christmas music, and he's one of my favorite artists, so I'm really happy about that!

You may have noticed that I recently updated my header. I'm planning on adding pages to, but those are still in the works. I can't get past my 'About Me' page. I feel like I'm writing a book, not a paragraph, so I need to condense it soon. Also coming soon are a 'Dreaming' page (sort of like a bucket list) and a 'Color' page (which is also in the works).

Question about my header to other bloggers: Is there a way to extend my header across the whole top of the page, without it widening the blog posts under it? I hope that makes sense!

Have a wonderful first day of winter everyone!
*Brooke*

The Christmas Song

In this post I made a list of some of my favorite Christmas music. I decided one list is not enough, as there are so many more songs I've started listening to since that post. So, with that said, here are my other favorite Christmas songs =)

Last Christmas - Britt Nicole

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Francesca Battistelli

Christmas This Year - Toby Mac

Winter Snow - Audrey Assad

The Night Before Christmas - Brandon Heath

12 Days of Christmas - Relient K

Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree/Jingle Bell Rock - Jump 5

Go Tell It On The Mountain - Big Daddy Weave

<3, Brooke

Candy Cane Lane

Pinterest is the most amazing collection of everything wonderful. I can spend forever looking at everything- today it was Christmas cookies.

via Cynthia Otts

via Chung-Ah Rhee

via Mary Harmon Swenson

via Liz Berg

via Karla Marie

via Jennifer Billingslea

via Deborah Fair

via Laura Moyer

Don't they all look so pretty!? My cookies are always flat. I'm planning on posting any Christmas cookies I may make this year. Let's hope they look this good ;)

***Brooke***

Oh, Christmas Tree

<3, Brooke

Jingle Bells

21 Days Till Christmas!

So as you all know, I am totally into music. Here's what's been on my Christmas playlist:

No Christmas (Without You) - Group 1 Crew

Marshmallow World - Francesca Battistelli

The First Noel - Toby Mac (feat. Owl City)

Because It's Christmas - Sidewalk Prophets

Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Barlow Girl

Winter Wonderland - Avalon

Christmas Is - Francesca Battistelli

He Has Come For Us (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) - Meredith Andrews

Silent Night (Emanuel) - Matt Maher

Let It Snow - Jeremy Camp

If you only have time to listen to 3 songs, make it the first 3 on my list :-) 

I listen to a wide variety of music, but the first 3 are probably my tops. 

Group 1 Crew's 'No Christmas (Without You)' has a great beat and catchy lyrics.

 'Marshmallow World' by Francesca Battistelli feels really Christmasy and is lots fun.

'The First Noel' sung by Toby Mac and Owl City gets a makeover to an up-beat hip-hop style song.

 If you've got spare time though, listen to all the music on this list. Christmas music is the best ;-)

*Brooke*

Because It's Christmas

22 Days till Christmas everyone!

To celebrate this season, I'm starting a new series with daily posts. 'Blogging Through Christmas' will be about all the wonderful things that happen between now, and December 25! I'm really excited about this series, and I hope your excited about this season! 

Merry Christmas everyone!

*Brooke*

P.s. I'm naming all my posts after songs :-)

30 Days Till Christmas

It's nearly December, and only 30 days till Christmas. 

I'm really excited about the Christmas season coming up. What could be better? Christmas trees, music, decorations, apple cider, movies, food, time with family, friends, parties, candy canes, and of course; dresses. Hope you're looking forward to the holiday season as much as I am!

;), Brooke

Dear October...

Dear October,
     I'm glad you're finally here. It's hard to believe we're already in the 10th month of this busy year, but yes... you have arrived.
     Coming alongside your month is lots of fun and lots of fall:
This month I start basketball. Still 2 weeks away, but quickly approaching. I've been practicing quite a lot, and am really excited about it since I've never played on any sports team before.
     Also in your month I get to go to my first concert since I was 7! I'm really looking forward to that as well... I've been counting down the days!
     What else is coming this season? Christmas albums. All of the ones I've been looking at are released within the next few weeks, and while I have no plans to listen to them this early, it's still nice to know that it's almost that time of year.
     While most October's are supposed to bring cold weather, you have still be giving us plenty of warm weather. Proof? We went swimming today... everyone in my family except me, that is, since I don't think it's right to be swimming in October! Let's hope it gets just a little colder soon maybe? Please?!
     Our house has been looking (and smelling) very wonderful lately. With an apple pie scented candle and lots of leaves for decorations, our house is fit for your season.
     Every October my family goes to a pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and then to carve it... well, sort of. We're supposed to carve it, but it usually ends up rotting out before we can remember, so I've decided that letting pumpkins rot is our new tradition ;) We always do it every year along with many other seasonal traditions... like coloring Easter eggs on the Saturday before Easter, listening to Christmas music on the drive home from Thanksgiving dinner, and caroling the week before Christmas. Maybe this year we'll actually carve our pumpkin...
    In your month, I'm hoping to dig into reading. Once the several books I have reserved at the library arrive, I'm ready to fill my mind with lots of books. That seems like the right thing to do in October ;)
    Well, I think that's what my month looks like. So just some final notes to you, October. Please send cold weather, and please remind us to carve our pumpkin. Have a fantastic month!
          Yours Truly,
          Brooke

   

Already Into Christmas

I REALLY shouldn't be doing this already, but I have started listening to Christmas music. I think I'm over excited about it even though it's still months away. So, what I'm trying to do now is listen to all the samples for Christmas CDs I don't own, and decided which one I want to buy in December. I've decided to start a tradition for myself, and buy a new Christmas album every year. So, I've narrowed down to a few albums, but I think the one I'm going to buy is Francesca Battistelli 'Christmas'. She used to be my absolute favorite singer, and while I haven't heard the samples yet, I'm sure it's good :)

I love Christmas music. 

Ok, now this was kind of a random post. Oh well ;) 

Have a great night everyone!

-Brooke