It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas has always been my favourite holiday since I was a little girl. I loved the idea of receiving gifts from Santa, watching the hustle and bustle of people doing their Christmas shopping. There was always a special feeling in the air at this time of year. So Christmas has always been a magical experience for me.

As I got older I started to understand the true meaning of Christmas, why we actually celebrate it to begin with. When I was able to completely understand this, Christmas became all that more important to me. Although everyone has their own believes and some don’t believe in or celebrate Christmas. Being brought up in a Christian family Christmas has become more of time about thinking the lessons of the bible and giving thanks to God. Instead of thinking more about Santa and the gifts, although there still is all the traditional activities I enjoy related top Christmas time.

There are many different family activities I enjoy at this time of the year. Each different one has its own special meaning for me related to Christmas. So I thought it would be a nice idea to share some of them with you.

1.       My first favourite activity to do is sit on the sofa and watch all different films. This film may not be very Christmassy; it is always on television this time of year. So my favourite film to watch since I was little is The Secret Garden. If you haven’t seen it already, I definitely suggest you rent it out to watch.

2.       Christmas isn’t Christmas if you don’t decorate your house and put up the Christmas tree. Ever since I was little we had the tradition of always putting up the tree on the second Saturday in December. This is always an eventful experience, as I years doesn’t go by that we argue about how the lights or meant to go or if there be a star or an angel on the top of the Christmas. Once everything is said and done, it does give the house a Christmassy feel to it.

3.       At Christmas there is always great music played with wonderful songs showing the true meaning of Christmas. Recently I have been really into playing the Everly Fireside Christmas album, so if you haven’t got it already it is a must order. Mostly I love going to my local church and going to the Carols by Candle light service.

4.       The most important part for Christmas day for me, is going to Church on Christmas morning. Spending the rest of my day surrounding by family, giving and receiving gifts from one and other. Getting the time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas with the people I love the most in my life.

Those are just a few of the experiences that make Christmas so special for me. If you celebrate it or not I hope its still a special time of year for you to spend with your family, before we are bringing in the next year together. Whatever you are doing this Christmas time, I hope you all have a great Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas

The World is full of magic

Over the past nine years I have grown up watching One Tree Hill, since it started it was always my dream to go to Wilmington and meet the cast. For a lot of them years I felt like this was a totally impossible dream and with all the magic in the world it was never going to happen. So in some ways over the years that dream started to die out. I still watched the show and started to see the cast as my role model.

One of the characters in the show Haley, played by Bethany Joy Galeotti seemed to always stand out for me. As the years went on she very quickly became my role model, it was more than how she played Haley in the show that made me like her as an inspiring role model for myself. I started to take an interest in her and wanted to see what she was like as a person outside of her character. I started to follow her music and follow other projects she was doing outside of one tree hill.

Just from listening to her music and seeing the different projects Joy was involved in, I knew that I had picked a great role model to inspire me. When listening to her music I love how you can feel the message she is trying to put across and making the connecting of helping us all to look at the bigger picture in life. For me I loved that her music was channelling made me think about the deeper message. The music for me was a way to relax and get away from the outside pressure of life and just have some fun.

More recently Joy started up a blog and her own band Everly with one of her great friends Amber Sweeney who is another great role model for people. Together these ladies created great music that I have developed a great connection to and help me at different time in overcoming different experiencing in my life. When it came to Joy’s blog, I loved getting an insight into her world and seeing how she liked to view. For a while I was having a lot of bad experiences with friends and getting the feeling like they never really wanted to accept me as there friend. I knew that joy blog was always something that I could turn to and make me feel better in the darker days.

Last month my world changed and I got the chance to go to Wilmington and meet the cast and crew of one tree hill. It was the best experience of my life. All the people were so kind and welcoming, just for a week I felt like I was part of their big family. Getting the chance to meet my role model Bethany Joy Lenz was an unforgettable experience in itself. Joy is an amazing person. It was a pleasure to meet her and spend time with her on a personal level. She made my trip so special for me, showed me how to feel normal even with my disability.

I feel so honoured to have such an amazing role model, to be inspired and encouraged by every day in life. She is the most down to earth and caring person I have ever. Her attitude and outlook on life our amazing, I have seen first-hand how great a mom and friend she is surrounded by family and friends. I hope she knows just how great of a person she is to inspiring so many young people like me. Through sharing her own life experiences she has definitely changed my life, made me understand with the right attitude and the right amount of faith the world is full of magic.