An Exciting Christmas Adventure

I know, I know I'm late, but even though it's winter break, it's been anything but a break.  I feel like I've been going and going without too much of a break.  Better late than never though, I can finally talk about our wonderful Christmas together.

In my family, Christmas starts on Christmas Eve.  According to Byzantine Catholic customs, we don't eat meat or dairy on Christmas Eve, which pretty much means I starve.  Growing up, we all piled into my grandparents' house where we ate fish, tater tots, pirogis, and steamed vegetables.  Since I don't like fish or pirogis, I usually ate tater tots.  Afterwards, we'd all part ways and go to our respective churches for liturgy, after all getting changed at my grandparents' house, which was always chaos.  For the past ten or so years, my grandparents have been too old to cook dinner for 14 people, so my aunt took over for them, and we all went to her house instead.  Around that time, we also decided we should also go to church together at St. Rose of Lima, the local Roman Catholic Church about five minutes from my house.

While Bryan joined us for dinner since our first Christmas together, last year and this year, he also joined us at St. Rose for Mass.  This had me absolutely over the moon, as he's part of the family and should be with us.  Unfortunately, the new medication my dad is on had him not feeling too well, so my mom took him home after dinner so he could rest, and she stayed with him.  They were greatly missed, although it was wonderful to have most of the family together.  I even got a picture of Bryan and I to prove he dressed up.

Typically, Bryan and I spend Christmas dinner with my family before heading over to his oldest brother's house for dessert and presents.  This time, however, we flip flopped the plans and went to his oldest brother's first for brunch, presents and dinner.  Brunch was a delicious affair with Bryan's entire family there.  His five year old niece, of course, was beside herself and absolutely couldn't wait to open presents.  Usually by the time we get there, most of the presents are open, and she only has our presents to open.  This time, however, we got to watch her open all her presents.  His one year old nephew was getting more into Christmas also.  Last year he was only a month old, so he mostly slept through Christmas.  This year, he was able to open his presents and play with his toys.  After his niece opened what she thought were all her presents, Bryan surprised her with another one: a five foot tall teddy bear.  There's a bit of a story behind this.  For a few years after she was born, Bryan would get her a teddy bear, each one progressively bigger than the last.  Eventually, however, his sister-in-law said no more teddy bears until they got a bigger house.  Well, they got a bigger house this past summer, so we were able to get her a giant teddy bear.  This is the last one we're getting her, as it's absolutely huge.  Right now, it's in her bedroom with the rest of the giant teddy bears Bryan got her, although I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually moved to the basement.

After a delicious dinner with Bryan's family and his sister-in-law's family, we headed over to my house for dessert with my family.  Bryan's parents joined us too.  While they've met my parents before, this was the first time they'd met my extended family.  Everyone got along great, not that I was worried.  Typically after dinner, my brother, cousins and I settle down for a random movie.  I have no idea how this weird tradition started, but we've been doing it for quite some time now.  There's no rhyme or reason to the movie we pick, and the parents usually filter in at random moments to add their own commentary.  This year, however, we broke tradition and instead decided to play a board game.  They'd already played "Super Fight" before I got there, and we decided to play "Pandemic" when Bryan and I got there.

Unlike most board games, "Pandemic" is a cooperative game, meaning everyone works together and either you all win together or all lose together.  The premise is fairly straightforward: four different diseases are spreading all over the world, and you are part of a team determined to find the cure and stop the spread of the diseases.  While there are many ways to lose, there's only one way to win: discover the cure for all four diseases.  You do this by collecting cards of different colors and get to a research station to create the cure.  While you do this, the diseases spread at an increasingly rapid pace.  If there are too many outbreaks, you run out of cards or run out of the little cubes that represent how much of the disease is in a particular city, then you all lose the game.  Like I said, there are many ways to lose but only one way to win.  It's a great game to play; it seems overly complicated but really isn't.  Plus, you can explain as you play since you're all working together.  We ended up winning, although we were cutting it pretty close.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the game; even one of my aunts played while the other watched.  Hopefully this is the start of a new tradition after dinner on Christmas.

Even before my Pop-Pop passed away two and a half years ago, we started taking family pictures after dinner and dessert on Christmas.  This was pretty much the only holiday the entire family was together, so it was the perfect opportunity for all sorts of pictures.  Since Bryan's parents were there, we were even able to get a picture of the entire family.  Well, almost everyone.  Once again, Dad wasn't feeling well, so he rested upstairs.  Mom's talking about having another family gathering soon so we can do pictures all over again.  After family pictures were done, I dragged Bryan into the living room to get a nice picture of the two of us in front of the tree.  You can't really see the tree, but that's okay, I still think it's a wonderful picture.

After our first Christmas together, Bryan and I started opening our presents together just the two of us.  It's much more relaxed and peaceful.  We usually open a bottle of wine and take turns opening presents and simply enjoying each other's company.  It's the perfect way to end one of my favorite holidays.  We were able to spend time with both our families, plus plenty of time together too.  I couldn't have asked for more.

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A Very Pentatonix Christmas

The past few years for Christmas, I've gotten Nicholas something small and then gotten him tickets to some sort of performance or show.  We go together to see the show, and it's a great chance for the two of us to spend time together, especially given the fact that we keep completely different schedules now and barely see each other.  So far, we've seen Impractical Jokers twice and Jeff Dunham once.  This year, however, I mixed things up a little bit and see Pentatonix at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax.  We're both huge fans of the group, and I especially love their Christmas music.  For this reason, I spent a little more than I probably should have on the tickets, but I really wanted good seats.  Our seats definitely were amazing.  Unfortunately, that was just about the only good thing about the disappointing performance.

A photo of the stage from our seats.

Nicholas and I arrived at the arena super early because we weren't sure how traffic was going to be.  That was fine, we grabbed something to eat at the arena and headed towards our seat.  A little after 7 (when the show was supposed to start), the opening act, a local madrigal choir, went up on stage to perform.  Around 7:20, they finished performing, and I figured the concert would start shortly.  It started ta 7:40.  That's right, the show started forty minutes late.  Now, I've been to several concerts over the years, and I performed all through high school, so I know not to expect a concert to start exactly on time, but never in my life have I experienced a concert start forty minutes late.  It seemed incredibly unprofessional, especially given the fact that no sort of apology or explanation was given for the extreme delay.  It's important to note that there were many children in the audience who had school the next day, but that didn't seem to matter.

After thirty five minutes of performing, act one ended.  That's right, act one was shorter than the time the group made us wait for them to start.  At that point, I was furious, especially given the fact that act two of a performance is always short.  If that was going to be the case, this was going to be an incredibly short concert prolonged only by the extreme and unprofessional delay levied upon concert goers.  I sat in my chair, which I paid a ridiculous amount of money to occupy, fuming; hoping and praying that act two would break the mold and be longer than act one.

Act two started, and the group as a whole seemed to be a little bit more in their stride.  They were a little more relaxed and interacted with the audience a little more, which brings me to another point: the group didn't seem very friendly, both with the audience and with each other.  Like I said before, I've seen my fair share of concerts.  When you go to a concert, you're not just going to hear the music, you're going to hear stories and anecdotes from the performers.  It isn't just one song after another, they take breaks to share stories about the songs: what they mean to them, the thought process behind them, maybe little funny quirks about them you wouldn't get from just listening to the song.  It's also an opportunity for the performers to share stories from their personal lives and really connect with their fans.  I can't even begin to tell you all the information I learned about Hugh Jackman during his concert in July.  i left that performance loving that man even more than I already did (if that was even possible).  I left the Pentatonix concert, however, feeling very conflicted about my feelings towards the group.  I still loved their music, but I struggled with reconciling that with their actions during the show.  The biggest thing I noticed was the lack of interaction with the audience.  Often, they would go from one song to the other with either no introduction or something like, "This is one of our favorite Christmas songs to perform, we hope you like it too.  If you know the words, sing along.  This is (insert name of song here)."  That's it, nothing else.  At one point during the concert, Mitch did go out into the audience briefly to ask audience members their favorite Christmas movie, but it was minimal, and he was back on stage within a minute.  At another point, the new bass singer, Matt, went out into the audience as well, but it was also minimal.  Each time, they only spoke to one audience member only a few rows back, and then they returned to the stage.  It's not as if the group members were interacting much on stage either.  As a whole, they seemed fairly stiff around each other and really didn't talk to each other.  The only two I really saw talking were Matt and Kevin (the beatboxer).  Everyone else kept to themselves and barely acknowledged each other during the concert.  It was all very strange.

On our way home, Nicholas and I talked about the concert.  We decided not to go to the stage door because we got the feeling that the band wouldn't be that friendly to meet (not to mention we had no idea where it was).  We also discussed the strange dynamic we saw up on stage.  We both concluded that we got the feeling the band members didn't entirely get along.  Very early on in the concert (the second or third song), I also had this gut feeling that the band wouldn't be together for that much longer.  It's unfortunate to think about that, and I feel that the audience should never get that vibe from a group performing.  Not only are we paying good money to hear the group perform, but we are also expecting an upbeat performance where the group looks like they get along.  They at least have to pretend to do so while on stage.  All of this has shed new light onto why Avi, the original bass singer, might have left two and a half years ago.

Okay, now that I've gotten all of that out of my system, I can finally talk about the music.  When it came to just the singing, Pentatonix did a great job, not that I would expect anything less.  They really are a wonderful group with a lot of talent.  The overwhelming majority of their concert was Christmas music, with a random other song thrown in here or there, but those songs all had some sort of Christmas connection.  I took a lot of videos, way more than I probably should have.  I'll include a few of them, but you can find all of them on my YouTube channel (there isn't much on there, I'm not going to lie).

The first song I want to talk about is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".  I'm not a big fan of this song.  In fact, this is the only version of this song that I like in any capacity.  I enjoy the upbeat nature of it, how it seems to jump up and down (if that makes any sense).  What I love the most, however, is the end.  The song builds up to an exciting crescendo where Pentatonix then speeds up the song faster and faster with a strong beat underneath.  It's fun, exciting and unlike any other version of this song you'll ever hear.

On their latest Christmas album, Pentatonix takes on "Making Christmas" from my favorite Christmas movie: Nightmare Before Christmas.  It's a fun song, and that's definitely reflected in the performance.  If you pay attention to the image projected on the screen in the background, you'll notice it's a traditional Christmas scene with a twist: it's covered with spider webs and other spooky decorations.  It was a lot of fun to see it performed live, and it's a fun, unconventional Christmas song to listen to as well.

"Mary, Did You Know?" is Nicholas' favorite Christmas song by Pentatonix, and it's easy to see why. With its beautiful and simple scenery and the absolutely haunting harmonies, their YouTube video of this song blew up all over the internet.  I feel like this is such an underrated song.  Those who know it, love the message asking Mary if she knew the little baby Jesus would have such a huge impact on the world as she cared for him and loved him just as a human, nothing more, nothing less.  It is sobering to think about and often reminds us of Christ's humanity, not the fact that he is seen by many as the Savior (I'm trying my hardest to remain as politically neutral as possible here).  If you've never heard the song, you definitely need to check it out.  I feel like it's gained more of a following in recent years, but the song itself is 35 years old.  This means it's still a fairly newer Christmas song in the grand scheme of things, and there are plenty of people who aren't familiar with it.  I do believe it is going to become a classic, just like "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" in the coming years.

This song was one of the few times where Pentatonix really talked to the audience and a little about themselves as a band.  Scott explained that when they first started their group, they had no idea where to find a beatboxer, so they did what most people do today: they turned to the internet.  They typed "beatboxing" into the internet, and the first video that popped up was Kevin beatboxing while playing the cello; both of which are incredibly challenging tasks to do individually, let alone together!  They sent Kevin a message on YouTube, and he got back to them explaining that he was a little busy at the moment with finals: he was in his senior year of pre-med at Yale.  They let it go, but Kevin got back to them two weeks later saying he had a little bit of free time, so he flew out to Los Angeles, and the rest is history.  Kevin demonstrated his "celloboxing" as he calls it, and it did not disappoint!  He also does it in Pentatonix's cover of "Radioactive" with Lindsey Stirling, which is just as amazing.  What I would love is to see him do something with Piano Guys.  I feel like they could make something really fun and magical happen there.  Hopefully, we'll see that happen in the future.

Before you watch the next video, you should know that it is not the best quality (not that any of my videos are top notch quality).  It was the second song in the encore, and Scott and Matt were near us dancing in the aisles with members of the audience.  I kept pushing Nicholas to get closer since the people who sat between us and the aisle already left, so you're going to hear him complain too.  I wanted to get closer because it looked like fun, and Scott's my favorite member of the band.  So, I apologize ahead of time for that.

The song I really wanted to hear Pentatonix perform was "O Come All Ye Faithful".  It was my Pop-Pop's favorite Christmas song, and while I've always enjoyed it, I've come to love it even more ever since he passed away.  This version, however, I don't think he would have liked at all.  It's fun, upbeat and exciting.  A wonderful twist on a classic song.  I knew, however, that it would be difficult for Pentatonix to perform this song, because it ends with an entire choir singing along, not just the five of them.  I remained optimistic though.  Unfortunately, they didn't perform it.  I wasn't too bummed out, as they had a wonderful collection of songs that they performed.  I have embedded the music video below, and you should definitely check it out.

         

Overall, the actual music was fantastic.  When talking to my co-worker this morning, however, she had an excellent point: you can listen to the music whenever you want, when you go to a concert, you're going for the experience.  This experience was extremely lackluster.  I hope that Pentatonix was just having an off day of sorts, and their concerts usually aren't like this, because I would definitely like to see them again.  It will probably be a while, though, because I spent a lot of money no this concert only to have a series of disappointments.

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A Weekend of Festivities

Holiday weekends are always full of excitement, time with family and generally a lot to do.  This past Thanksgiving weekend, however, things were especially busy for Bryan and I.  Not only did we have the expected Thanksgiving dinner, but we also had my 10 year high school reunion and a gathering at his parents' house to assemble the Lego Christmas village as a family.  We were going all weekend with barely a break.  Instead of breaking it into three separate blog posts, I decided to clump it all together, mostly for my sanity.

For Thanksgiving, Bryan and I join his family at his sister-in-law's parents' house (it's a bit confusing to explain to people for some reason) where we gathered with his parents, his oldest brother's family, and his sister-in-law's sisters (along with the husband of one of said sisters).  In all, it was about sixteen people.  Joy's mom, Kathy, always puts on a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with more food than imaginable.  In addition to the turkey, there are about six different sides, including three types of cranberry sauce and fresh rolls.  Kathy makes absolutely everything from scratch, from the rolls to the pies for dessert.  As always, the food was beyond amazing, and I always eat way more than I should.

This year, we didn't just celebrate Thanksgiving, however.  The day before, Bryan's nephew turned one.  Instead of the entire family getting together two days in a row, his parents decided to celebrate his birthday on Thanksgiving.  It wasn't anything fancy, we sang "Happy Birthday", and then he ate an entire cupcake in three bites.  I've seriously never seen a child eat so much before, he's like a bottomless pit!  Of course, some of the icing ended up in his nose, so he spent the rest of the evening trying to blow it out, without much success.  Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend the holiday, surrounded by family and celebrating a birthday in addition to Thanksgiving.

I didn't go out shopping on Black Friday.  The overwhelming majority of my shopping was on the computer, so I wanted to wait until Cyber Monday.  Besides, the crowds were apparently ridiculous at some places, and it simply wasn't worth it.  Instead, I stayed home and relaxed while Bryan went to his friends' for the day.  That evening, we did our usual Friday routine: pizza, a bottle of wine and streaming something on TV (lately it's been Disney+, but more about that in a much later post).

Saturday night was my 10 year high school reunion.  I'm not so much struggling with the fact that I graduated high school ten years ago as much as I'm struggling with the fact that I've been friends with some of my closest friends from college for an entire decade.  It seems like just yesterday we all started hanging out together!  The reunion was at Pinstripes in Bethesda, which was nice because it was about five minutes from Bryan's house, so we didn't have to drive very far.  We'd never been to Pinstripes before, and we usually don't go to Pike and Rose because it's a bit expensive.  I was intrigued, though, and couldn't wait to see what it was like.  Let me start out by saying that Pinstripes wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I expected more like an upscale Bowl America with fancy tables and lots of bowling alleys.  Instead, it's a legitimate restaurant on the first floor with a handful of bowling alleys upstairs, along with several ballrooms that can be rented out for private events.  I also want to say that Pinstripes is the perfect location for a reunion.  Not only is the food delicious, and there's plenty of space for people to mingle in the ballroom we rented, but it was nice to have bowling available as an option also.  We had eight lanes reserved just for us, so people weren't obligated to just stand around and talk, there were activities to do as well.  Bryan and I didn't bowl, not bowling is kind of an inside joke between us.  We've tried to go bowling a few times in the past, but it's never quite worked out, so it's become a thing between us now.  Maybe we'll get there one day, one can only dream.

Photo of Bryan and I with some old friends from high school.

I have to say, getting ready to head out to the reunion, I had no idea why I was even going in the first place.  I don't really talk to anyone from high school anymore, and, to be honest, I didn't feel the need to reconnect.  That sounds cold, like I don't care about the friends I made in high school, which definitely isn't the case, I simply didn't feel this overwhelming desire to see a lot of people.  At the same time, I was curious.  With the help of Facebook and Instagram, I could see what people I graduated with were doing, and it would be interesting to see them in the real world, not just through a screen.  All of this made me weirdly anxious going into the reunion, but only a little thankfully.  I knew I was going to have a good time, and if I didn't, we could just leave.  I did feel bad for Bryan, however, since he knew absolutely no one other than me, so he would probably be pretty bored.  Even so, he was a great sport and didn't complain at all.

It was wonderful seeing people and catching up.  Like I said, it's one thing to see what people are doing through social media, it's another thing to talk to them.  There were also people who didn't really go on social media, so it was wonderful catching up with them face to face.  It's great to hear what people are doing and about everything going on in their lives.  It was also wonderful to talk about our high school days: people who weren't there, old adventures, inside jokes and drama at school (such as the huge fight our freshman year that resulted in over twenty police cars showing up at our school).  There was lots of laughing, reminiscing and eating delicious food.  The woman who put the entire reunion together, Amanda, did a fantastic job.  It also made sense to do it Thanksgiving weekend (I know at least two other high schools had their reunions that weekend as well), because a lot of people were already in the area for the holiday, so it saved them a second trip.  In all her planning, however, Amanda forgot name tags for people, but that actually made the reunion a little better.  There were a few times where I wasn't entirely sure who a person was, but everyone was pretty cool about that.  At one point as we were leaving, someone announced, "Christina Sesok!" really loud and gave me a giant hug.  I must have had a completely lost expression on my face, because he immediately introduced himself, and I felt so embarrassed for not recognizing him.  We were in the honors program together all through high school and even sat next to each other a few times through the years.  It was great to see him and everyone else.

As if all of this weren't exciting enough, the next day Bryan and I headed over to his parents' for his family's Christmas tradition.  Bryan and his brothers grew up loving Legos, so every year his family gets together and spends the afternoon building a Lego Christmas village.  It's a huge undertaking and is pretty much all hands on deck.  We arrived around 1ish, and I left around 5:30, but most people were still there.  Each year, Bryan's oldest brother, Adam, buys the newest Lego set, so the village grows each year.  We outsourced a little bit this year, and Bryan's parents invited a little boy and his mom and sister from church to help as well.  Surprisingly, we got most of the sets built this year in one afternoon, which hasn't happened in a while.  Apparently last year Bryan's dad, Tom, had to keep building on his own for several evenings afterwards.  The past two years, I've always gone for smaller sets, something easier with a few smaller buildings instead of one larger building.  This year, however, I felt comfortable enough to do something a bit more complicated, so I went with last year's set: a fire station.  I also knew that the likelihood of having missing pieces after just one year was minimal, and since Adam always builds the newest set, I could blame him for any missing pieces.

The front of the fire station I built.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how my fire station came out.  It was definitely the most challenging Lego set I've built yet, and there were a few times where Bryan had to help me out, but it was only two or three times total.  What I like about the newer sets is they outline the pieces that are added onto the build in green, so you can see exactly where you have to put the pieces.  The one challenge I do have with the Lego sets is the depth.  Sometimes it's hard to see if the pieces are supposed to be flush or if one piece is supposed to be a little higher than another.  If you follow the directions exactly, it shouldn't be a problem because everything works out in the end.  In the end, it all worked out, and the one piece I thought I was missing showed up.  At that point, however, I couldn't access the empty spot, and you can't even tell there's supposed to be a piece there, so it really doesn't matter.

It's not just building Legos when we go to Tom and Joann's, it's also a chance for all of us to get together as a family.  There's tons of food and lots of hanging out.  Bryan, though, isn't the most social during this.  He gets in the zone and focuses entirely on whatever he's building.  It's actually really funny.  Thankfully, he's willing to help if I need any.

The back/inside of the fire station I built.

Overall, it was an incredibly busy weekend for the two of us.  We spent a lot of time with family and some time catching up with friends I haven't seen in over a decade.  While it was a blast, I'm also looking forward to this coming weekend, it's the only weekend between now and New Year's when we don't have anything planned.  Bring on the relaxation!

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Wine and Christmas: These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

In case you haven't figured it out by now, two of my favorite things are Christmas and wine.  So when there's an opportunity to combine both of those together, it's nearly impossible for me to pass up on such an offer.  This weekend, Bryan and I got to do just that.

Wine Under the Lights was something we first discovered two years ago.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go last year (blame Bryan's appendix on that one), so we were excited to be able to go back this year.  Hosted at Seneca Creek State Park, Wine Under the Lights features four wineries, live music, firepits, a food truck and a trolley ride through the winter lights, all housed in a large tent decorated for Christmas.

Bryan and I amongst the Christmas decorations at Wine Under the Lights

This year, however, it was just two wineries, a cidery and a meadery, so they switched things up a little bit.  In all honesty, the winery choices weren't top notch this year.  I like Janemark wine a lot, and we've been to Orchid Cellars in the past (it sells mead and wine/mead hybrids), but the other two were mediocre.  The hot cider sold was delicious, although I suspect part of the appeal was the fact that it was a bit chilly outside.  Unlike other wine festivals, you only get a limited number of samples a Wine Under the Lights, eight per person.  What Bryan and I did was make sure we both got different samples so we could try more wine (although with significantly smaller tastings).  Even so, we weren't overly impressed with any of the wine.  In fact, we didn't buy a single bottle to bring home, which is definitely a first for us.  We almost never leave a winery or a wine festival without at least one bottle.

Bryan and I with our light up wine glasses.

One of the highlights for me was the adorable light up wine glasses.  They had a series of different colored lights in the base, and you could press a button on the bottom to get the stem to change colors.  It was definitely something novel I'd never seen before.  When we went two years ago, we got plastic stemless glasses with the city of Gaithersburg logo printed on it.  I don't even think the glasses said Wine Under the Lights!  These plastic wine glasses were blank, but Bryan gave me his, and said I could decorate both of them with vinyl, courtesy of my Cricut.  I have a few ideas as to what to put on them, but I'm keeping those close to the vest until I make a final decision.

The ride through the winter lights was a blast, albeit a very cold blast (no pun intended).  We rode on a little trolley through the lights, but Bryan and I were, unfortunately, seated backwards, so it was hard to see.  The people sitting behind us played Christmas music on their phone, which definitely added to the festive atmosphere.  It's always fun to see the winter lights, it reminds me of my childhood, we used to go see them sometimes when I was a little girl.

Overall, Wine Under the Lights was a fun way for Bryan and I to kick off the holiday season.  We had fun splitting a bottle of wine there and listening to live music while watching the drunk people dance (seriously, why were they getting so drunk?  They had work the next day).  It was also a lot of fun cuddling on the trolley and going through the winter lights together.  Our one complaint is the wineries, they weren't our favorites.  Since only four wineries are there each year, it is harder to get all ones you like, as the selection is more limited.  If you're looking for something fun to do with some adults to get into the holiday spirit, however, I would recommend it if you've never done it before.

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Is It Too Early For Some Deborah Muller Christmas Coloring?

The answer is no, no it is not.  Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  First, a little bit about Deborah Muller.  Like Hannah Lynn, Deborah Muller is an artist I stumbled upon on Amazon when I first started my coloring book obsession about two years ago.  Right now, I have about four main companies/artists I buy my books from: Jade Summer, Coloring Book Cafe, Hannah Lynn and Deborah Muller.  Jade Summer and Coloring Book Cafe are companies; they employ multiple artists who do the artwork for them.  Hannah Lynn and Deborah Muller, on the other hand, are individual artists.  While Jade Summer will always have a special place in my heart (they were the first adult coloring books I started actively buying on a regular basis), I tend to prefer the individual artists just a little bit more.  I find they're more personable on social media, they interact with you more, encourage your art more and tend to be a little friendlier.  That's not to say they aren't friendly on Jade Summer and Coloring Book Cafe's social media, but they're a company, they lack a certain personalization.  You become invested in what the individual artists share about their personal lives, you see them on Facebook all the time looking at the artwork, and you feel a real connection to them.  For that reason, I prefer those Facebook groups and social media just a little bit more.

I started by Deborah Muller Christmas coloring extravaganza with this little cutie from one of her new holiday books: Gnome for the Holidays.  At first, I wasn't entirely sure if I would like this book, but the flip through online convinced me enough to check it out.  It's so adorable, I know I made the right decision.  One thing I enjoy about Deborah's books is the little designs all over the place.  Instead of adding regular details n the mountains, she adds circles, little lines, etc.  At first, it was a little intimidating for me, because I didn't know how to color them, but I just went with the flow.  I knew I wanted cool, arctic colors to go with the picture, so I went along with that to make the mountains pop a little bit in the background.  The color I used for the background (Outerspace) is one of my favorites to use for night skies because it's a SUPER dark blue that looks almost black, but isn't.  The problem is that streaks show in the coloring very easily.  The good new is that also blends really easily, so I'm able to fix that problem.

My blending technique is really simple.  Sometimes I use a white colored pencil, but that's extremely rare.  Most of the time, I take little scraps of toilet paper and rub it across the colors I want blended.  It makes such a huge difference.  As I've worked with Crayola colored pencils over the yeas, I've found that the blues blend the best, while the browns blend the worst.  I have no idea why, but it's always extremely difficult for me to blend brown colors (especially when I layer colors, which I haven't been doing a lot of lately).

When I finished this picture, I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it.  I had already flipped through the book and picked a second picture to color for the day.

When I saw this picture, I immediately thought of Santa Clause (even though it's a goat in the background, not a reindeer).  After relying so much on blues and coloring such a dark picture, I knew I wanted something lighter.  I'll be honest, I'm not entirely thrilled with how his outfit turned out, but I struggled a little with how to color it.  I didn't want all red, which is why I added the random light green stripes to break things up a little bit.  Despite that, I really do love this picture.  First of all, I love how bright it is, it's such a huge difference from the first picture I created.  I also like how the face came out on the gnome, I finally got the skin tones down to something that looks good.  Finally, the trees are so adorable.  I wasn't sure how the red circles would look, along with all the different shades of green in the trees.  I've noticed that while I'm coloring, sometimes I think what I'm doing looks terrible.  I just power through it though, as I trust my instincts.  The overwhelming majority of the time, once the picture is done, I'm so thrilled with the outcome because I went with my instincts and trusted my gut.  That's the case with this picture.  Is it perfect?  No.  But I'm pleased with how it came out, and I just think it's adorable.

This picture is from the other Deborah Muller holiday release (she has a third one planned, but it hasn't been released yet), called A Merry Mermaid Christmas.  As the title implies, it's all mermaids celebrating the holidays.  Mermaids are Deborah's specialty, she even calls her company "Chubby Mermaid Art".  Just like the gnome book, I wasn't entirely sure how I'd feel about it when I heard it was being released, but once I saw the flip through, I thought it was adorable.  Most artists show mermaids in warm, tropical environments, but that isn't the case here.  Deborah's are hanging out with polar bears and penguins, bundled up in gorgeous winter outfits and with Christmas trees.  It's definitely a fun take on traditional mermaids.

This wasn't the first picture I picked to do from this book, but it's the one I ultimately decided to color, and the other one would have to wait for another time.  It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but I really messed up the hair.  I attempted to layer some light blue over some timberwolf grey.  I should have known better, I've attempted to do this color layering combination before, and it didn't end well that time either.  To make matters worse, I completely forgot that there's this stunning grey/light blue color already in the Crayola 100 pack called wild blue yonder, and I use it when I want a sky color that's not as bright as sky blue.  I feel so foolish that I forgot about that color, especially because it's one of my go-to colors.

Despite that little setback, I'm pretty pleased with how this picture turned out.  I think it's adorable, and I love the little penguin and seal.  I feel like the splash of color with the starfish and circles in the top left corner is a little bright, but I didn't want it to blend in too much with the rest of the background.

I have two more Deborah Muller Christmas pictures I want to color from her books from last year, but that will have to wait for another post.  In the mean time, her new books are adorable, whimsical and definitely worth adding to your coloring book collection.

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My Love For Christmas Music

I seriously love Christmas music; I could listen to it all year round if I could.  It's for this reason my mom created a rule a while back: you can only listen to Christmas music between November 1st and January 6th (Orthodox Christmas).  That's nine weeks of Christmas music, which is a lot to some people, but not to me.  My mom can't take all the credit for this rule, a family friend imposed the same rule on her husband first; it was the only way to stop him from listening to Christmas music non-stop all year round.  After hearing about this rule, my mom decided it was perfect for our family too.  Of course, there's no punishment for breaking said rule, but it's still a rule.  The past week and a half has been especially difficult and challenging for me not to give in, I think because I knew Christmas music was coming, and I just wanted to listen to it as soon as possible.  Now that it's November 1st, however, I can listen to all the Christmas music I want...until January 6th that is.

Every year for the past eight or nine years (at least, possibly longer), I've always started my Christmas music season with the same exact song: "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  It's seriously one of my favorite Christmas songs ever, and the only way to listen to it is as loud as humanly possible, otherwise you can't fully appreciate the rock aspects incorporated into the classic Christmas carol.  The way TSO blends together these techniques while also merging several Christmas songs together to create something entirely new and different.  I had the opportunity to see them perform in high school, and it was an amazing performance with powerful special effects.  When you see them live, the music wraps around you and fills you to your core in a way not possible when you listen to them on your own.  My one tip though: bring sunglasses to wear during the performance.  This might sound strange, but the sheer amount of laser and strobe lights makes it difficult to see.  We saw someone else doing this at the concert and realized that it was a great idea.





My other favorite Christmas song is as different from Christmas Eve/Sarajevo as you can possibly get.  First, a little disclaimer: I've been told by people that I have an old soul.  I'm not entirely sure if I agree with them, but that's what people think.  I was also raised to listen to music such as Neil Diamond, Elton John, Billy Joel, etc.  With that being said, I absolutely LOVE Neil Diamond's version of "Silent Night".  Now, "Silent Night" isn't one of my favorite Christmas songs, not by a long shot.  While I find it beautiful, and the lyrics are gorgeous, it's just not my cup of tea.  When it comes to Neil Diamond's version, however, I can't get enough of it.  The powerful chorus at the end elevates the song to a whole new level, bringing it past the typical somber, lulling version people are used to to something else entirely that causes them to sit up and listen.  Even if you aren't a fan of the song, it's definitely something worth listening to.





For those who know me, all of this must be very contradictory to what you thought you knew, especially if you knew me as a child.  Growing up, my favorite Christmas song was "Little Drummer Boy".  I seriously couldn't get enough of it.  Thankfully, I grew up in a time before parents had the ability to record every little thing their children do, because I used to sit in the back of the car singing along, pretending to play a drum.  It's apparently one of my mom's favorite memories of me as a child.  To me, however, it's absolutely mortifying.  I think this weird obsession with an obviously wonderful song comes from the fact that I used to watch the movie all the time.  That's right, there's a Little Drummer Boy movie.  It's made in the same style as Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (that super automated stop motion).  I don't know why, but I absolutely loved that movie as a child.  You can even find the entire thing on YouTube (added bonus!).




I have so many more Christmas songs I want to talk about and share, but I don't want to turn today's post into a playlist of YouTube videos with some dialogue scattered between the videos.  So, I'm going to hold off.  I will definitely be back to talk about more Christmas songs, especially given the fact that I bought two new Christmas albums this year and want to let you know what I think of them.  So, be prepared for more Christmas music in the coming weeks, because I seriously can't get enough of it.

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It's WIP Wednesday!

Let's start with the basics: what in the world is WIP Wednesday?  The short answer is it stands for "Work In Progress Wednesday".  The longer answer is, as always, a bit more complicated than that.  I love to do a variety of different crafts and activities (I focus on scrapbooking, coloring, knitting and cross stitching, along with covering everything I own in vinyl thanks to my Cricut).  I know, it's a lot.  In the past I've gone through phases where I become completely obsessed with one of my hobbies and burn through it really quick in a few weeks before moving on to the next one and starting the whole process all over again.  Lately, though, I've been finding more of a balance.  While most of my energy has been focused on cross stitching, I've also been reading a lot more and have a knitting project going.  I honestly haven't scrapbooked in a while, but I do color every once in a while when I find the time.

Today, I just wanted to give a brief update on my projects.  I can't go into too much detail about them, as two of them are Christmas presents for other people, but I figured it would be safe to speak in generic terms.

Ever since I started cross stitching and knitting again (I've known how to knit since high school and taught myself to cross stitch with the help of YouTube over the summer), I've tried to keep only one cross stitch and one knitting project going at a time.  For a while, this worked out great for me, until I went to my boyfriend's took out my cross stitch project and realized I didn't have my needles with me!  To make matters worse, I left my project at his house and couldn't get it back for a few days.  Since I had a lot to get done, I didn't want to waste time, so I started a second project.  I'm about halfway done with the second project and about three quarters of the way done with the first project I started.  The first project has more smaller figures to cross stitch, so it's easier to feel like I'm making progress since I can finish one or two figures in an evening (depending on how many colors are involved and how complicated it is).  As for the second project I started has much bigger shapes.  Unfortunately, it has been exceedingly difficult because most of it was one color, and it was hard to keep track of what line I was on and where I was in the project.  Thankfully, the hard part is over.  My goal is to be done with both of these projects before Thanksgiving, but I know I'll get them done long before then (it's important to be realistic though).

As for my knitting project, I'm not in as big of a rush to finish it.  Yes, it would be nice to wear during the winter months, but I also want to keep it nice looking in preparation for next year's county fair (I have a few projects I want to enter already).  I'm making this fairly simple wrap (please note, the pattern is NOT mine, but it's absolutely adorable, so I wanted to share it).  I'm keeping the color the same and everything.  The body is extremely easy to make, but I'm not entirely sure about how to do the hood.  I'm hoping my boyfriend's mom can help me with that one, as she's a wonderful and proficient knitter.  What's nice is the fact that I'm using large needles (size 17), paired with bulky yarn.  This means it will be a much easier project to finish.  I've only done a few inches in the past week or so, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace soon.  Since I don't have to be done anytime soon (unlike my other two projects), this project has been pushed to the back burner a little bit in favor of more pressing projects.  My goal is to have this one done by Christmas, as I have a much larger and more complicated one to do afterwards (another one to enter in the fair hopefully).

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