The night before Christmas me and my little brother are allowed to open one present before we go to sleep, sometimes we open these very late into the night and it can be any present of our choice. I usually go for one of the smaller presents. We will usually have a movie on in the background and it will most likely be Polar Express and we normally have chocolate out that we can snack on. It's a really lovely time to be able to gather around the Christmas treeand spend time with my family. It's imperative to cherish these moments in life and be able to spread love and blessings to your family and friends.
On Christmas morning me and my brother wake up relatively early, it has decreased over the years because we love our sleep but we wake up, look into our stockings and go downstairs to have breakfast and watch tv. Before we eat we're allowed to open one more present and usually we will be told which one to open because it's normally either something that we can wear for the day like a piece of clothing, jewellery or a tie.
Christmas afternoon/evening after we have eaten our Christmas dinner, collapsed on the sofa in a food coma and stretched out our limbs it is then that we will open the rest of our presents. We always take it in turns and I must say, one of my favourite parts is rummaging around for them. After we open the presents we all sit surrounded by wrapping paper in front of the tv and we just love to relax and spend time with eachother.
When do you guys open your presents?
Thankyou for checking out this post :)
God bless,
All my love,
Welcome to Day 2 of BLOGMAS, today I wanted to share a wonderful and talented Christmas album that I have been listening to non-stop since mid November and it's by a few masters in acapella music-making called Pentatonix. They have been around for quite a while and their youtube has gained quite a following since they have formed and I believe they were on an acapella tv show once. Anyway, they have come out with what I believe is their second Christmas album called That's Christmas to Me and it features an array of beloved Christmas carols and songs that we have all grown up with over the years featuring nothing but their beautiful voices.
If you didn't already know, Pentatonix is made up of 5 people Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirsten Maldonado, Kevin Olusola and Avi Kaplan. At first Scott, Mitch and Kirsten began a trio at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas. They entered a competition that a local radio station was holding and performed "Telephone" on it. Despite not winning the competition their performance was able to receive recognition from their peers and from then on they decided to start arranging songs. Fast forward to the competition Sing Off which is where they recruited Kevin and Avi to the group and thus the wickedly talented group Pentatonix was born!
You can purchase the album for just £4.99 on iTunes or 0.99p if you want to buy your favourites but in all seriousness every single song on this album has so much craft and work put into it. £4.99 is definitely not enough.
1. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
This traditional Christmas Carol remake stays true to the classic, it simply features their voices singing in harmony with one another in a very mellow, legato pace. The thickness of the song is made by the layers of their voices on top of eachother and without any beat boxing involved it captures the simplicity of just singing, and singing fantasticly may I add.
2. White Winter Hymnal
I must look up the lyrics to this song as I have a feeling that they are way more melancholy then it lets on. This song features a lot of tapping, clapping and snapping of different parts of the body, all of them with their hands. Their voices again, layer onto one another to create a beautiful crescendo of voices. The tapping, clappinng and snapping make this song a possible descendant of the Cup Song. Check out the Youtube video below to see how it's done:
3. Sleigh Ride (one of my favourites)
This song is one of my favourites of all time everything about it just screams Christmas, bells are being rung and everything about this song just oozes happiness and candy canes. Kristie takes the lead in this song and executes it beautifully.
4. Winter Wonderland / Don't Worry Be Happy (another one of my favourites)
This song is another one of my favourites simply because Pentatonix did what they do so wonderfully, a mash-up. Who knew Winter Wonderland and Bob Marley's Don't Worry Be Happy would ever go together? Well this is what they gave birth to and that song baby is a wonderfully array of reggae beats and beautiful tones. Tori Kelly kills it in this song, I love the thickness and purity that her voice holds!
Check out their video here featuring Tori Kelly:
5. That's Christmas To Me
This song again portrays the simplicity of a song using the power of their voices, with this they are able to convey an emotion that doesn't come about by just shout-singing, the beauty is measured in the softness and calmness of the song which creates such a relaxing atmosphere.
Check out their music video for this song here, it features an array of home videos from their childhood that are so cute:
6. Mary, Did you Know?
This song is so powerful, God is so present within this song that reveals the true meaning of Christmas which I think is such a beautiful message to convey amidst their huge fan base. Their voices are used in such a magnificent soulful and meaningful way and the words ring so true. I encourage you to look up the lyrics and really meditate on those words that are being sung. Thank the Lord that the King came so humbly down to earth to save us all.
7. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (one more of my favourites)
A marvellously arranged piece of acapella beauty this piece is, remaking Tchaikovsky's wonderful piece they incorporated beat boxing into classical music and used their incredible range to portray each musical instrument used in an orchestra. When the beat drops you'll have your mouth left open thinking how the heck do you even acheive this using no electronic beats?
8. It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Avi takes this song on the Christmas album and does an incredible job, I still can't get over how deep his voice can go, it's a voice well worth listening too.
9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (my final favourite)
This is another favourite song of mine on the album, they used Kevin's awesome beat boxing skills as what I believe to be the focal point of the song. As always their harmonies are en pointe but Kevin and Avi are the stars here using their thick and deep tone and range as the main building block on which this song is built on.
10. Silent Night
This song is strong and reliant mostly on the harmonies of each voice, it is a slow and true representation of the Christmas carol in terms of pace where their strong use of vibrato creates that of a professionally trained choir. Every part is thought of carefully and you can tell because every harmony is different and successfully weaves in and around each other and their connection to eachother I feel, is heard in this piece.
11. Let It Go
Although I am one of Frozen's biggest fans, this is actually the least song I have listened to on this album, it may just be the fact that my ears are tired of hearing this song but other than that from the very few times I've listened to it I can safely confirm that Pentatonix are genuine musical geniuses.
I hope you enjoyed this post guy, stay up to date with each Blogmas post if you want more, comment down below if you enjoyed this post or if you have any suggestions of other albums I should comment on!
I don't know if Blogmas is becoming a thing this year, or if it is a thing already (it probably is) or if anyone's jumping on board but I figured it's a cool alternative to Vlogmas seeing as I don't have a Youtube channel that I regularly upload on.
Join in with me! I don't necessarily think there's any rules to Blogmas so anything Christmas related will do fine :)
I thought I would kick off blogging every day up until Christmas with a post about Christmas Jumpers, I'm personally not in possession of a Christmas jumper so I figured that I would use this opportunity to search out inspiration for jumpers to wear this year.
I don't know if this is just me but I can't justify spending over £20 for a Christmas Jumper that I would most likely wear at most, twice. I just can't. Even. So here are jumpers for her and for him that are exactly that.
Show me your Christmas Jumpers I would love to see them, whether your grandmother knitted it or your mother got it from Tescos 5 years ago. I appreciate every ounce of inspiration :)
Hey loves, I have decided to do the Christmas Tag for today's blog post because I haven't yet done it and Christmas is fast approaching!
So I hope you enjoy this tag :D
1. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY FILM?
I've just recently posted a list of my favourite Christmas films but if I had to choose just one I would probably have to choose The Polar Express!
2. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS COLOUR?
My favourite Christmas colour has to be Red! It's my go-to lipstick and outfit choice for this season and I love having Red nails :)
3. DO YOU OPEN YOUR PRESENTS CHRISTMAS EVE OR MORNING?
We usually unwrap one present in the morning before Christmas Lunch and then after we've finished lunch we open the presents!
4. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WINTER FRAGRANCE?
My favourite winter fragrance is Miss Dior Cherie's perfume, it's a very sweet fragrance that I have been searching ages for a dupe of :)
5. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SMELL?
If we're talking Candle Scents I've been loving this Pumpkin Pie scent and anything spicy or cinnamon-related :)
6. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY DRINK?
My favourite holiday drink is from Costa and it's a Gingerbread Cream Latte!
7. CANDY CANE OR GINGERBREAD MEN?
Gingerbread Men all the way, they are my favourite type of biscuit. I made some the other day and I came to the conclusion that I should just left it to the baker's.
8. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONG?
My favourite Christmas song is Joy to the World. That'll always guarantee me clapping along to it plus it really celebrates Jesus' birth - the reason for the season♥
9. HAVE YOU EVER MADE A SNOWMAN?
I have made many snowmen, I love it, especially decorating it.
10. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS?
The most important thing about the holidays is being thankful to God that He gave us everything that surrounds us, He's saved us from so much it's unreal. Also family is important, for some family's it's the only time they get together so spend as much time with your family as you can :)
Forgive me for not posting in a week, some stuff has happened at home and for a while I wasn't able to get to my computer but I decided seeing as it's exactly ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS! WHAAAAAT That's insane where did this year go? Anyway I decided to keep in with the theme of Christmas posts in December and I decided as you can probably guess by the title to write about my favourite Christmas movies!
Enjoy :)
1. The Holiday
I've written about this movie in a previous blog post - My Sweater Weather Tag but it's basically about these two lovely ladies (Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) who are having guy troubles one lives in America, the other in a serously cute town in England and they swap houses for a while and while each of them have swapped houses they begin to fall in love with Jack Black and Jude Law. CUTEST.MOVIE.EVER. Please watch it guys!
2. 12 Dates of Christmas
This is about a young girl who attempts to win her ex-boyfriend back, she is also set up on a blind date in which she is totally rude too, it's Christmas Eve and because of a twist of fate she has to relive Christmas Eve 12 times! You know that because its an ABC Family movie that it'll work out right! Haha...
3. Disney's - A Christmas Carol
Guys, this film is so visually stunning - it's incredible! I love Jim Carrey and what an awesome job this film has pulled off! It's about the traditional story about Scrooge an old man that hates Christmas and well, people and life in general really Christmas Eve he is visited by three ghosts, four if you count Jacob Marley in which he visits his past, present and future!
4. The Polar Express
This is also an incredible visually stunning film and is one of those films that really warm you inside, it's perfect!
Basically the lowdown is that on Christmas Eve, a doubting boy boards a magical train that's headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus' home.
Definitely one for Christmas Eve you guys :)
5. Home Alone
If you guys haven't seen this one have you been living under a hole for the past twenty years? This is a childhood favourite of mine I look so forward to watching it with the family every year it's about a boy who gets left home at Christmas by his family, I know. How bad would you feel if you left one of your children at home on their own! That would suck big time. Anyway he is home alone and has to not only fend for himself but keep two robbers away from stealing his family's belongings!
6. Christmas Cupid
I am mostly very proud about the cast choice ( Chad Michael Murray) If you want another cheesy romance movie about Christmas (and him) then watch this movie! It has the similar storyline to that of Scrooge's A Christmas Carol however Sloane, a publicist is visited by three boyfriends! Ashley Benson plays her mentor pretty much and although she is the dead client of Sloane she is still a helping hand!
7. Holiday in Handcuffs
Yes, that is the beautifulness of Mario Lopez that you see so all the more reason to watch right? If this happened in real life which it most likely wouldn't that is very unethical haha. A struggling artist working as a waitress kidnaps one of her customers to bring home and meet her parents at Christmas. It's awesome and I think I watch it again for the fifth time this month :)
8. How The Grinch Stole Christmas
This movie is about a creature called the Grinch that tries to take the Christmas out of Hooville, pretty good villain but by the help of a younger more fresh faced Taylor Momsen who save the Grinch and Christmas all is made well in Hooville.
9. Elf
A man raised in the elf community with Santa in the North Pole goes to live with his real dad in the city but because of his elf-ways he is hilariously out of place, this is a wonderful wonderful movie with an awesome message!
10. The Santa Claus Movies
These glorious films surround a man that becomes Santa and deals with all things Santa related, I personally think Tim Allen is hilarious as well but these films are perfect for a family christmas gathering around the television.
Hope you enjoyed this post! I understand there are many more I could choose from, if you have any amazing ones that I have missed or haven't seen please comment down below so that I can check them out :)
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