Dancing

Yesterday I started singing a song and I just had to share it with you all today!

It's so true! I could have danced all night!!!!!! I love this song so much!!!!!

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I really enjoyed mine!!!! Today I'm going to share with you one of the most heartbreaking songs ever. This song is Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis By Vaughan Williams. My brother got to play this in Cambridge when he went to England!!!! Isn't that so cool??? He is so fortunate. I would love to play this piece, once I had some friends over (you know who you are) and we were going to sightread this, but we started with Mendelssohn Octet and spent the whole time on that. :) It was still fun, but we now need to have them over again so that we can play this!!!!  Anyway, the music is just wonderful, I love it so much! 

Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving!!! I hope everyone has an amazing day!!!! I know mine is going to be very peaceful and wonderful whilst I spend time with my family!!! Here is my favorite 'Thanksgiving' song ever! :) 

A thought provoking comic

I've been thinking about gossip lately, and I found this comic that made me think. Sometimes gossip isn't started by other people, it's started by you, and they tell someone else and eventually everyone knows. I also read this article that made me realize how dangerous gossip is, since once it's out there, you can't take it back. Words are powerful and once you've said them, they're said, and you can't change that. 

Anyway, today is a great day! My best friend's birthday is today and she is coming over to my house for the weekend!!! I'm so excited!!!! :) Have a great weekend!!!!

Christmas

It's November now, so I think I can officially start listening to Christmas music without all my friends getting mad at me!!! :)  Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I love snow and the happiness that gets on people's faces!!! Remembering God's great gift of love toward us also makes me smile. I love decorating my house with beautiful decorations. We have great memories of setting up the Christmas tree. There is this one CD that we always think of when we set it up, because my mom would always play it while we decorate!!

This year I'm going to hang paper snowflakes from my ceiling! I'm going to have my brother help me and I hope that within the next few weeks my room will become a wonderful winter wonderland!!! :)

Anyway, here'e one of the "most wonderful" Christmas songs ever!!! ;)

Sibelius Symphony 2, 4th movement

One of my favorite symphonies ever is Sibelius's Symphony #2!!! When my siblings and I played Finlandia with our orchestra, the assisting conductor brought in a CD that he'd made for the orchestra to listen to. It had a few movements from various works by Sibelius on it, and after rehearsal he gave it to Michael! It was pretty awesome! Needless to say, we've listened to that CD a lot!! Sibelius is such a good composer, his music can be hauntingly beautiful or triumphantly passionate. I love the fourth movement to the second symphony because it's so passionate and epic! If I ever get to play it I will probably dance around!!!!! I love it so much!!!  

Pumpkin Rolls

Our church had a potluck on Sunday and I decided to try a new recipe!! I was a little hesitant at first because I really don't like it when I try something new and it doesn't work out the way I wanted it to. That was not the case with these however! They turned out wonderfully and everyone loved them!!!! They were all gone, so when we got home and I wanted a snack, I had to find something else to eat!!! (Poor me, I know!) I first had pumpkin rolls when Melissa and I were doing a show and the lady at the table across from us was selling them and she let me have a ton of free samples!!! They were so good! So I decided to make my own, and this is what I came up with!!!                                                    

Pumpkin Rolls

Ingredients

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F°. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
In a large bowl, mix together four, sugar, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir in pupmkin puree, eggs, and lemon juice. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Spread mixture evenly.
Bake at 375 F° for 15 minutes.
Lay a damp linen towel on the counter, sprinkle it with confectioners' sugar, and turn the cake onto the towel. Carefully roll the towel up (lengthwise) with the cake in it. Place the cake-in-towel on a cooling rack and let it cool for 20 minutes.
Make the icing: In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar with a wooden spoon or electric mixer.
When the cake has cooled 20 minutes, unroll it and spread icing onto it. Immediately re-roll (not in the towel this time), and wrap it with plastic wrap. Keep the cake refrigerated or freeze it for up to 2 weeks in aluminum foil. Cut the cake in slices just before serving! Enjoy!!!

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto In C minor

This past week, while talking with my awesome brother we started talking about Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 and after talking about it, of course we went and go my CD and started listening to it. I have been listening to it pretty much all the time since!!! It's so good!!! We actually downloaded the music from IMSLP (The best website known to man!) and started learning it. (He was learning the solo part and I learned the accompaniment part, which was awesome because the first 10 measures are rest for me!! :)) We didn't sound very good at all but we had a ton of fun!! Today we're just going to talk about the first movement, but you should listen to the other movements!! (The second movement is amazingly beautiful, it's almost better than Beethoven's fifth piano concerto's second movement!)  That all being said, the first movement is just, wow. It is so passionate and epic. I just love this concerto!!!! I hope you like it too!!!!

I actually listen to a recording of Ashkenazy playing it, and I like it waaaay better, but I couldn't find a good one on YouTube!!! Oh well!!