Blogmas Day 19: School and Winter

Since this was my last ever year spending the Winter term in education, I've been doing a lot of reminiscing. I've come to realise there were a few Winter traditions my school, and other schools I'm sure, followed and here are my favourites:

1. Christmas Movies- I think every student knows the excitement that comes when you go to your last few lessons of the year and see DVDs stacked up on the teacher's desk. I remember everyone complaining a few years ago because they actually watched Elf "too many times" in all their lessons (as if you can watch that film too many times). I didn't think I'd have this tradition this year because pretty much since I started GCSE's my classes had been too busy to stop working. But I think this year my teachers took pity on us because it's our last year, and we even watched a few youtube videos on the last day. 

Remember the excitement when you saw this bad boy in the classroom?

2. Making Festive Decorations- Most teachers on my last few days of term would basically turn their lessons into "how can I relate this to Christmas" lessons because lets face it, even they want a rest for the holidays. Over my years in education I've made countless numbers of cards, snowflakes and other decorations. 

These are always in every classroom in my school in December

3. Christmas Assemblies/ Nativity Plays- As far as I know, most schools finish the year with some sort of performance. In my younger years at school we always used to do nativity plays, most of the time I would be a star! Then in secondary school, we would have Christmas assemblies where students and teachers would perform any talents they had. Needless to say I never performed...

4. Snow Days- The best feeling ever was when you were sitting in a boring class and someone would shout out "IT'S SNOWING!" It was even better when you wake up to find that over night it had been chucking it down with snow and that you didn't have to go in. That meant you could spend the whole day playing out in the snow with friends.

5. Christmas Parties- At the end of most school years I had some sort of Christmas party. We usually did something like Secret Santa as a class and blasted out the Christmas tunes. One year, we were taking a class photo and everyone was stood on a big table in our class room. Then, because everyone was excited and jumping about, the table snapped when we were all on it. It was seriously so hilarious. 

Mmmmm look at all this Christmas party food!

So here are my favourite school memories during the Christmas time. The song of the day is Happy Christmas (War Is Over). What are some of your favourite school memories from this time of year?

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 18: Starting The Holidays

Aaaaaaannd it's official, I'm officially broken up for the holidays and I couldn't be happier. Well technically I broke up yesterday but today was my first full day at home. 

I've literally been counting down the days weeks until these holidays rolled around. I can't begin to describe how much I physically need a rest now. Like my body cant survive on the 4-6 hours of interrupted sleep I've been having. There's no better feeling to me than knowing that I don't have to set an alarm for tomorrow and I can just get up whenever I feel like it! 

Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot to get done this holiday including revising for exams, catching up on homework, working on my channel and improving my blog, but I'm hoping to get a bit of rest. 

There are a lot of nice things I'm gonna be doing this holiday including hanging out with friends. I'm being really sociable (well for me at least) and I'm going out 3 times in the next 4 days. Crazy times I know! 

Yesterday was lovely because me and Georgie went round to my friend Emma's house and watched films whilst having a movie marathon. The first film we watched was the Inbetweeners Movie 2 which was HILARIOUS may I add. I swear Neil is too funny for words. Then we watched the classic sleepover film which is Mean Girls and continued to crack up. Next up we watched a film I've never watched before called Love Actually. And I have to say I'm in love with the film actually. I thought it would be over ratted but it's not at all. Then as we were going to sleep we popped on Robin Hood which was one of my favourite films as a child. 

The thought of having the next 2 weeks off 6th form makes me so happy you wouldn't believe it. I'm absolutely buzzing for these holidays so I thought I would share my thoughts in this little life-update style blogmas post. 

The song of the day is Jump by Girls Aloud because it features in one of my new favourite Christmas films, Love Actually. Have you started your holidays yet, and what are you planning on getting up to in them? 

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 17: A Typical British Christmas

As many of you probably know, I live in England meaning I celebrate British Christmas traditions. Quite a few of my readers live abroad, so I thought it would be fun to do a little post about the way we celebrate Christmas. We can compare the similarities and differences between countries, but here are some typical ways us Brits celebrate the holidays:

1. Christmas Crackers- I'm not sure if this is a "thing" everywhere, but I couldn't imagine Christmas without them. Essentially, they are little decorated cardboard tubes, with a tiny explosive (but not a dangerous one) that makes a bang when you pull them apart. They contain a little gift inside, and two people pull the cracker apart and whoever is left with the biggest end of the cracker keeps the gift. 

2. Crowns & Cracker Jokes- This links on to the Christmas cracker because each of them contain a cheesy joke inside. For example: 

"Why Did Santa's helper see the doctor?"
"Because he had low elf esteem"

The jokes are never funny, but that's kinda what adds to their charm. Also inside each cracker is a little paper hat. Usually by the end of the Christmas dinner, everyone has pulled their crackers apart and is sitting there with their paper hats on their heads. 

3. The Queen's Speech- I must confess to something, I've never watched the Queen's speech. But it's still a part of my traditions because I have family members who always love and watch her speech, and I know many people who's Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it. So yeah, sitting down and watching the speech is another "typical British" thing do do on the 25th of December. 

4. The John Lewis Advert- John Lewis is a department store here in the UK, and their Christmas adverts always grip the nation. They are known for having the sweetest, most heartwarming adverts that do make you emotional to watch. You know it's Christmas when their adverts come on TV. 

5. Christmas Dinner Midday- So in the UK it's traditional to have a late-ish lunch for Christmas Dinner as opposed to an evening meal. In my family, we all go round to the host's house at midday, and eat around 1-2pm and stay until the evening. Needless to say, we're all pretty full by the time evening comes!

I've hoped you've liked learning about the things we do here in the UK. The song of the day is Baby Please Come Home by Darlene Love because it's been in my head so much this year. Do you do any of these things too, or do you have any of your own traditions? Let me know in the comments,

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 16: Decorating The Christmas Tree 2015

Me and my family have a little tradition where we dress up to decorate the tree. This year, only me and my mum dressed as Santa, because my dad wasn't here when we decorated it and my sister was "too cool" for it. 

Last year we dressed up as Christmas sumo wrestlers whilst doing it. My family had the sumo wrestler costumes in my house already (can't remember why) so we thought we might as well use them. My family had no idea about my youtube channel at that point, so I'm not joking when I say it was 100% not staged. 

Last year's crazy, crazy video!

This year we put on our Santa costumes and had soooooo much banter filming this. I literally have no idea what my family even is, so I apologize for all the madness you're gonna witness whilst watching!

This is this year's video, enjoy the madness!

I always have fun filming these videos and I hope to make another one next year. The song of the day is Deck The Halls because it features in the video. Do you have any family Christmas traditions, and if so what are they? 

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 15: My Favourite Festive Songs That Aren't Really Christmas Songs

Now I lurrrrvveee music, especially at this time of year because all the best music seems to be around. I think it's stating the obvious that the classic Christmas songs fill the charts in December, however, there are non festive songs that seem to remind me of Christmas whenever I hear them. 

So I don't know if it's just me who has this, but there are certain songs that when I hear them I automatically get flashbacks to dark nights, wearing warm & cosy clothing, lighting scented candles and drinking hot chocolate. Most of these songs are tunes that I've listened to a lot during December, recently or over the last few years, which officially makes them festive songs for me. 

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense at all, but here are my favourite non-festive but festive songs:

1. Love Me Like You by Little Mix- Ever since this song came out, people were saying that it sounded like a Christmas song. I didn't hear it at first but now I can't unhear it! 

2. Night Changes by One Direction- I don't know what it is about this song that reminds me of Christmas, maybe it's the music video or the actual tune itself, I'm not sure. This is also a song that doesn't make me feel happy or sad, it just makes me feel if you know what I mean. I somehow get really nostalgic listening to it, but I enjoy it. 

3. Story Of My Life by One Direction- I think it goes without saying that this song also makes me really nostalgic. Whenever I hear it, I just think about how I used to watch it basically every morning getting ready for school during the Winter and now it just reminds me of Winter. And how cute is the music video?

4. Blank Space by Taylor Swift- Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this song also came out around Winter. Or at least I listened to it a lot then. I just have lot's of memories of me singing (more like screaming) this song in my house in the Christmas holidays. 

Sorry I couldn't link the actual song on my blog because Taylor Swift & copyright...

5. Counting Stars by One Diirrr... no only joking One Republic this time- I've listened to this song sooooooo much and I'm still nowhere near sick of it. I seriously love and cherish every note of this song. I think everyone I know had an obsession with it in the Winter, so I ended up hearing it a lot then. I still listen to it often nowadays and I still remember Christmas 2013 whenever I hear it. 

Also, I just thought I'd mention the fact that I'm preparing a video, just in case I ever reach 1000 subscribers. I know I'm a while off at the moment and I'm very grateful for all the subscribers I have at the moment, but if I ever do reach it I want to be able to make a video straight away so feel free to leave me any questions on the video below: 

I hope you enjoyed my little twist on my favourite festive songs. The song of the day is Night Changes by One Direction, because I'm still not over One Direction's hiatus! Do you think of Christmas whenever you listen to random songs too, and if so which songs? 

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 14: My Favourite Christmas Songs

I think I'm stating the obvious here, but I absolutely love music. And I also love Christmas too. So naturally, I absolutely love Christmas music!

I basically love every single Christmas song in existence, but for today's post I decided to make life difficult for myself and narrow it down to just 5. Here we go: 

1. My number one favourite Christmas song is Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl. I love how shockingly bad the intro to this song is, and then how jolly the chorus is. If you don't scream out the chorus to this song every time you hear it you're doing Christmas wrong. 

2. Next up has got to be a guilty pleasure of mine, All I want For Christmas Is You, by Mariah Carey. Can we all just collectively agree that this is everyone's jam at Christmas. I have a huge smile on my face whenever I just hear the first note to the song. 

3. My third favourite Christmas song would have to be Shake Up Christmas by Train. In my opinion this is such an underrated song because not many people have heard it but it's sooooooo catchy. I literally play this all year round #noregrets

4. My 4th festive fave would have to be a song I grew up listening to, Last Christmas by Wham! This is another song you cant resist but to belt out. I don't think I've been to a single festive party or event where this song hasn't played because it's literally just a classic.

5. The final song I have to share would simply have to be Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. I love EVERY version of this song, since they all hold a special meaning to me. I love the first few versions because they're what I grew up listening to at Christmas. However, I also like the most recent one because it's got all my favourite celebrities in it. 

So there you are, these are the songs I love to blast out at this time of year. The song of the day would have to be Shake Up Christmas by Train because I still feel like it's underrated. Do you like any of these songs yourself, or do you have different festive faves? Let me know in the comments.

Izzy K xxx

Blogmas Day 13: All The Emotions

I wasn't planning on doing this post today, but upon reflection I've realised I've actually been feeling all the feels today. So instead of doing a planned post, I decided to share with you a spontaneous general little life update. 

The first thing I wanted to share on this post is the fact that I went to see the Nutcracker ballet yesterday. It was for my mum's Christmas present and she's been wanting to go and see the ballet for years and years, so this year my dad finally brought the tickets and surprised her. She had no idea that we were going out at all until yesterday morning, and didn't know where we were going until a few hours before leaving. 

I should probably mention that these photos are not my own 

but they're too beautiful not to share

The performance itself was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. Each part was done to perfection, and all the dancers moved with such grace and were completely and utterly in sync with each other. As someone who has done ballet since they were 3 (although not to a good standard) and pointe for a couple of years, I appreciate the talent and strength it takes to dance like that. Every time they did something really impressive and difficult looking (which was every other second) I gasped with astonishment, but my thoughts really went out to those dancer's poor feet. 

The ballet was so entertaining, even more than I expected it to be and I already had high hopes for it to start with. I truly think my mum enjoyed her little treat and I don't think she could quite get over the fact we actually went to see it. So I'm still feeling a little emotional from the beautiful ballet I saw yesterday. 

And the second reason I'm really emotional is because it was One Direction's last performance before their hiatus today. And OMG I COULD NOT HANDLE THEIR PERFORMANCE ON THE X FACTOR! 

Excuse me while I cry!

The songs they sang on the x factor final were Infinity and History, so basically they wanted me to cry my eyes out apparently. They had tears in their eyes whilst performing and I couldn't deal with that long hug at the end. 

LOOK HOW FAR THEY'VE COME!

Sorry if you're bored of me releasing my inner fangirl but I just couldn't help thinking back to their days on the x factor and how far they've come. THEY FINISHED WHERE THEY STARTED! And don't get me started on everyone's speeches. Ok here I go talking about the speech... I couldn't deal with it yet again. They had celebrities wishing them luck on their break and thanking them for what they've done. And David Beckham gave them a message which increased my fangirl levels by 100%. AND THEN SIMON GAVE THEM A THANK YOU SPEECH AND THEY WERE LISTENING TO HIM AND LOOKED SO EMOTIONAL HOW ARE MY FEELINGS SUPPOSED TO HANDLE THIS?

Okkaaaaaaayyy, so before I literally flood my room with tears I better wrap this post up. The song of the day is History buy One Di-freaking-rection because it's the song for their fans. December seems to be a wonderful time of year so what has made you feel all the feels this month? Let me know in the comments :)

Izzy K xxx