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

My Birthday

I had a great birthday. Winning a basketball game, eating cheese cake, and getting my driver's permit!!!

I'm driving!!!!! Watch out world! Seriously though, you may want to consider staying off roads for a while. First time I drove I started doing this odd mix of giggling and then biting my lip every few seconds since I was freaked out. Second time I just giggled. Especially when a car was behind me, and I wasn't sure what to do.

It's going to take a lot to teach me to drive well. Hopefully soon =)

-Brooke

Final 15 Before 15

(Second post today... my goal is to post 3)

Here's the full 15 before 15 list

So I'm going to do this final post a little differently. I'll tell you what I did complete over the last couple of months.

7. I did it... 15 colors on my nails! You can tell I'm obsessed with nail polish right? 

9. Met 15 new people. It helps when 10 of them are on your basketball team ;)

13. Ran 1.5 miles in 15 minutes or less! Can not remember my exact time, wish I did.

14. Somehow I did too much math, so I'm 15 days ahead. No plans to touch that book again until the New Year.

So 4 goals... pretty good? Maybe? Okay, so I could of completed more. So now here are your reasons I didn't complete the other goals:

1. Score 15 baskets in my basketball games - First of all, I've only had two games. I didn't even get to play in the 2nd game because it was so close. I am played the least of any of the players since I have no experience. My coach does not want me to shoot in most situations. That makes since why I've scored 0 baskets, right? I hope :)

2. Have a 15th Birthday party - Possibilities I will have one a little late... like maybe a month late............

3. Write 15 letters to my pen pals - Got to 6, not quite 15... kind of forgot to write.

4. Learn 15 new songs on piano and guitar - I have not played much piano or guitar lately because I need new guitar strings, and our piano is out of tune. 

5. Write 15 short stories/poems - I got lazy.
6. Make 15 different desserts - I was going to bake a ton around Thanksgiving and these last few weeks, but since I got sick, and then got sick again, it didn't quite work out.
8. Read 15 books - I honestly love to read. Why I didn't read any books these last few months? I got part way though quite a lot of non-fiction books. In the way of fiction, I couldn't find any good books to read. Suggestions?
10. Read 15 books of the Bible - I really should have read 15, but I kind of found myself skipping around a lot instead of reading a full chapter. I read lots of half chapters.
11. Draw 15 real people - Let's just say I've not been very artistic today. Or yesterday. Or this week. Or this month.
12. Make 15 bracelets - There's not much point to that goal, but I didn't reach it. I usually end up breaking them before I finish making them, so it didn't quite get there.
15. Try 15 new foods - 15 new foods is a lot.

Wow, that was like a speech. Can you tell I'm kind of hyper today? ;)

Well, maybe next year I'll finish more goals! At least I got 4 :)

-Brooke