Christmas Day - 6 Days Till Christmas

We are now half way through our countdown to Christmas and I cannot believe how quick Christmas day is coming around. I still haven't finished all my present buying or wrapping! Everything is starting to get stressful which I feel is the usual and I always enjoy the week running up to the special day!

In todays blog post I thought I would tell you all about how I spend Christmas day, many of you know that I have divorced parents so it can get VERY difficult when you are trying to keep everyone happy and enjoy the day myself. For me, Christmas runs on a cycle, one year I have Christmas Dinner with my mum, and then the following year I have it with my dad and step-mum.

Which is fair don't you think.

But every year it seems to cause problems with my mum and nan when I have Christmas Dinner with my dad because he has 'her' (what they call my step-mum). But I am constantly spending time trying to keep everyone happy. So when people day it must be good having divorced parents because you get two Christmas's they are completely wrong.

But this year I am having Christmas Dinner with my Dad and Step-Family, which is a yearly tradition and I love being a part of it. So I wake up Christmas morning and open presents with my mum and sister and we have breakfast. The around 11am my dad comes to pick us up and we go to his flat for present opening there.

Once that is finished around mid-day we go to my step-mum's sisters house with the whole family (about 20 of them) and do even more present giving, and we spend an hour or two laughing, celebrating and chatting! Once that is over we then all travel over the other sisters house where she cooks a huge Christmas Dinner for us all to tuck into and help ourselves with.

We then spend a few ours playing with the younger kids toys which means we get to build things, shoot nerf guns, and play with anything else they get. Which is great because I get to release my inner child and break out of the 18 year old me shell.

Around 7pm-8pm I go back home to my mum and my nan is usually there who stays the  night and we watch all the Christmas specials on TV and have a drink and eat a lot more food! This year me, my mum and sister are having another Christmas dinner on Boxing day and having a chill!

No year is ever the same with me but that is this years plan, sorry this blog post was kind of short but this was a last minute post that I am writing in work!

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Top 5 Cimorelli Christmas Covers - 7 Days Till Christmas

So seeing as it is Christmas time, I thought I would go back and see what Christmas Covers we could pull up from the past! I went through and with both my own preference and with the help of the CimFam on Twitter I decided to list the top 5 Cimorelli Christmas Covers of all time! This does not include any that has been uploaded in 2015 as I am writing this before they are uploaded! So I decided to choose from covers uploaded to YouTube and from their Christmas Magic EP that Cimorelli released last year!

5. Jingle Bell Rock
Cimorellis cover of Jingle Bell Rock was uploaded 5 years ago and was one of the first Christmas Covers that was uploaded onto their YouTube Channel. As this video was so young there was no music video to go along with is as we see in the Christmas Covers that Cimorelli upload now. Although the song was pre recorded with some back in music and harmonies sung by all the sisters in the background!

I feel like this is a great song to get you excited for Christmas and it was sung incredibly well by the young Cimorelli. Watch Cimorelli's Cover of Jingle Bell Rock here:

 

4. Joy To The World

The next cover on the top five Christmas Covers is one of Cimorelli newer covers, Joy To The World. This cover was uploaded onto their Vevo channel exactly a year yesterday for when you are reading this! This came with a music video which I feel was very sweet and festive, in the video Cimorelli are in a Christmas Tree farm spending time as a family in their winter clothes.

The song was originally released on their Christmas Magic EP which is available on iTunes for you to buy and listen too. You can watch Cimorelli's cover of Joy To The World here:

3. Santa Clause Is Coming To Town

Now, Santa Clause Is Coming To Town is one of my favourite Christmas songs anyway so of course you can imagine I absolutely love Cimorellis cover of it! Although this cover was only two years ago I feel like a lot has changed in the girls for the better, not that they are worse back then! This cover is one that you can really dance around to and it will most definitely get you in the Christmas Spirit!

To watch Cimorelli's cover of Santa Clause Is Coming To Town then click the video below:

2. All I Want For Christmas

In second place is the girls cover of All I Want For Christmas which is my absolute favourite Christmas cover that has ever been posted! This was again another older one and was uploaded the same year as Jingle Bell Rock, so no fancy video, just plain simple singing! Which I think is great because you get to focus more on their voices than what they are doing in the video!

I could listen to his cover, over and over again! Watch Cimorelli's cover of All I Want For Christmas below:

1. Mistletoe

Finally, number one and I had to guess this was coming, Cimorellis cover of Mistletoe by Justin Bieber just hits the spot for every. I don't know if this is because everyone is in love with the song itself, or the incredible way that Cimorelli sing it! Uploaded four years ago, this cover is so far back you can class it as an old cover but it is just so amazing it could be seen as a recent one (if Dani wasn't so small).

To listen to Cimorellis Cover of Mistletoe then watch the video below:

 

 

Did your favourite Cimorelli Christmas cover appear in the top 5? If so what number did it come and if not, what number do you think it should have been? Let me know on Twitter! I hope you have your holiday playlists all set now and you are prepared for Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Being Gratful - 8 Days Till Christmas

Everyone sees the holidays as a time of gift giving and spreading Christmas cheer, recently in the UK the gifts that are expected at Christmas are getting bigger and bigger and the amount of unappreciative children that complain that they have not received what they wanted it becoming ridiculous! Being 18, I don’t expect large amount from my family, and honestly I don’t think I ever have. Of course every child knows that Christmas means presents, which means toys, which means stuff to play with. But even from a young age I always use to appreciate the smaller more thought out items more than the larger gifts because I knew the thought had gone into it.

Now, I volunteer at a local brownie group and we meet every week. I have been doing this for two years and have got to know the girls very well and have a strong bond with each and every one of them. The age of these girls ranges from 7 to 11 before they go off to guides, so they are still young enough to be playing with Barbie Dolls and completing puzzles (which is what I did at their age). But last week I was talking to some of the girls and we were discussing what they had asked their parents for this Christmas. Some of the responses shocked me.

One girl said they had asked for an iPhone 6, ARE YOU SERIOUS, I am 18, pay my own phone bill, and not even I have a phone of that price! Another said they asked for a Microsoft Tablet, THIS IS RIDICULOUS, I saved up with a part time job at the age of 16 and 17 to buy my own tablet and it took me over a year! Children expect way to much during the holidays and I feel there needs to be a certain point were a present becomes too much!

I don’t know this is happening all around the world but it is definitely happening all over the UK, what happened to the years when you would wake up at 6am on Christmas Morning, run downstairs to see if Santa Clause has been and get excited when you unwrap some sort of ‘Create Your Own’ kit or a new action figure (because I loved Dr Who).

Parents don’t have the joy of sitting around for 12 hours playing with their children’s toys with them because their child received a piece of technology that is more advanced than what they have. The only reason I got annoyed at my parents on Christmas Day was because they did not have the correct size battery for my light saber (yes I also liked starwars), not because I got the iPhone 6 in black and not white.

During the Christmas holidays be appreciative of everything you receive, because you don’t know how much time and effort goes into a gift and it can really hurt someone’s feelings if you do not like it. Even if it isn’t something you asked for, at least your parents went out of their way to buy you a gift.

One final point I want to make is, if you are in high school and you go back after the Christmas Break and someone in your class got a lot of gifts, that where of high quality, but you didn’t get as much as them and it was not as good. Stop and think for a minute, yes maybe their parents spent £500 on them, but they earn a lot of money, £500 isn’t much. Your parents could have only spent £50 but that was the only £50 they had and they chose to spend it on you rather than themselves because they didn’t want to see you suffer!

Hopefully this blog post has made you think, and although Christmas is seen as a time for giving, think about what you are receiving. This shouldn’t just apply during the holidays, everyone should be grateful about receiving gifts all year round!  

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Cimorelli - Firework (Katy Perry Cover) 9 Days Till Chritmas

We are finally in single figures on the Cim's Countdown to Chritmas and Christmas day is just over a week away! How exciting! To mix things up a bit I have decided to choose older covers from Cimorelli to review as I did not run my blog when these where uploaded.

The first old cover that I decided to review was a choice between 'Firework' and 'Teenage Dream' both by Katy Perry. To choose between the two I put up a poll on Twitter (finally these things are coming in handy) so the CimFam got the option to choose between the both, and you all spoke.

So today I will be writing about Cimorellis cover of Firework, which is one of my all time favourite covers (so we can see where this blog post is going). This cover was posted on the 24th November 2010, which makes it just over 5 years old! It has reached a total of 8,266,623 to the date.

Cimorelli's cover of Firework was one of the most unique covers ever uploaded onto their YouTube account, this was because the audio was recorded the same time as the video, technically making it an acoustic cover, but when you listen to the video it sounds like is has been professionally recorded. That is because Cimorelli sung into one microphone as a band and the audio was then taken and placed on top of the video recorded.

This has never been done since, so to me this cover has gone down in history and I think that is one of the reasons that is stood out to me the most and made it one of my favourite covers. It shows that they they do not auto tune their songs ( as they get accused of doing). The songs that they record are their own voices and nothing else.

The video was filmed in front of the famous white wall which is not as big as I am guessing many of us thought it would be! When we see videos that where recorded in front of the white wall it looks a heck of a lot bigger, but obviously we where fooled.

Overall I feel that the cover has a very positive feel to it and is something that I could listen to constantly, to watch Cimorellis cover of Firework, then click the link below:

For today's Cim's Christmas Countdown Giveaway, I am giving away a £10 Amazon voucher! Although the voucher is in British pounds it can be used worldwide, so this is a worldwide giveaway! To enter to win this Amazon voucher, be sure to check this 'TWEET'! 

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Cimorelli - Little Drummer Boy (Justin Bieber Cover) 10 Days Till Christmas

Well, I think that this blog now officially holds the record for the longest title on my blog! What a mouthful! So today's blog post in the Cim's Christmas Countdown is yet another cover reviews from the one and only Justin Bieber. Now me being the anti-social being that I am, I don't keep up on music that is in the charts so like usual I have not heard this song before,

Of course I have heard Little Drummer Boy, and heard of Justin Bieber but I never knew that he created his own version of the song.

Okay, first my truthful opinion. I did not really like the song and felt that it was not suited to the band. It I was not a truthful bloger / reviewer then what would be the point of this blog! Cimorelli have that voice that suites traditional carols, and I got very excited when the cover started because the original style really suited to the band and their angelic voices.


Now, since watching the cover for a second, and a third time it has grown on me a little bit. But not enough for me to listen to the cover all day every day. I enjoy the cover up until about half way through, and the rapping starts.

When Cimorelli cover a song that has a small amount of rapping towards the end of the video then that is okay and it adds something a little bit different that often challenges the band. But this cover was at least 60-70% rapping which is just not suited to the band at all.

The upbeat cover is something different and I can imagine enjoyable for Cimorelli to cover, but the cover just doesn't appeal to me after Dani starts rapping. Before you all jump in to chew my head off, Dani's rapping did not put me off at all, the beat and the way the song is I just did not find enjoyable to listen to at all!

I understand that Cimorelli are being different and covering stuff that they enjoy listening to and singing themselves but when it comes to Christmas, they have such beautiful and choir like voices they suite the original versions of Christmas songs.

On the other hand though I found that the music video was very enjoyable and festive, You could definitely see that the girls where having a lot of fun when recording. To watch Cimorelli's cover of Little Drummer Boy by Justin Bieber then click the link below!

Over all I enjoyed the cover and I am sure I will listen to it during the many Christmas' to come. I love how in the video we get a small glimpse into the girls new house!

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Doing More This Christmas - 11 Days Till Christmas

Happy Monday to Cimfam! On the countdown to Christmas, there is the huge rush to get everything finalised, presents finished. But do you ever stop to thin about those less fortunate who maybe don't have family to go to on Christmas, or don't even have a house. A lot of people live on the streets all year round and just because it'd Christmas does not mean that their family will open their doors to them.

At Christmas it's only you that can make a difference to other who are not as lucky as some of us. I am going to list 5 different ways to help those who are less fortunate this Christmas.

1. Donating to a Food Bank

Just because there are homeless shelters open on Christmas Day does not mean that they buy all the food themselves, they rely on the public and their donations to feed hundreds of homeless over the holidays. When donating to a food bank you don't have to go out and buy tons of food. Go through your cuboards and see what you have (tins, non-perishables, snacks) that you know won't be eaten. Gather a pile and take it to your local food bank.

You will be shocked as to how much you can gather, especially in large families. If you do not have anything in you already own that you can donate, then take a trip to your local supermarket. There is no need to spend a lot, you will be shocked how much you can buy with a small amount of money. You can get tins of beans for 20-30 pence each, a packet of biscuits for 30-50 pence each. You don't needs to spend much to donate a lot.

When donating to a food bank, ensure that it has a long lasting use by date and that it will not go off within a few days, but food banks like to keep what they don't use over the holiday's they keep to use in the future.

2. Donate Unused Toys.

You will be shocked as to how many children wake up on Chrismtas morning with no presents to open because their parents cannot afford any, or that they live in a home and there are too many children to buy for. Similar to a Food Bank you can donate unsused / unopened toys to companies that will give them to less fortunate children.

If you have any toys that your little brothers and sisters haven't used or opened, then you can donate them if they are in good condition. Or if you don't even going to a cheap toy store in your area, you can pick up a few things for only a few pounds. It doesn't matter what you buy, a lot of children will be happy receiving anything over Christmas.

3. Volunteering at a local Food Bank

You can easily donate food to a local food bank but they are constantly looking for volunteers to give up a couple of hours on Christmas Day to help feed the homeless or those who spend Christmas day alone. Every if you are just washing dishes or handing out Turkey, every little bit makes a difference.

4. Spend time with the Elder

If you have neighbours who you know will be spending their time alone on Christmas Day, why not speak to your family and invite them over for Chrtistmas dinner, or spend a few hours with them on Christmas Ever. Do a few jobs for them like cleaning, tidying etc.

5. Operation Christmas Child

There are many different companies out there who will take a shoe box full of gifts and fly them out to countries that are less fortunate and do not have the luxuries that we have. You can easily fill a show box with toys, toiletries and stationary to children who do not have the every day necessities that we have. One companies that it well known for this is Operation Christmas Child, although this is a little late to donate shoe boxes, there are many companies in various countries that will run later and take boxes until Christmas Eve.

There are many small things you can do during the holidys to give back, if you do any of these things then please tweet me a photo as I would love to see all the CimFam giving back to their local community this Christmas.

In this blog, I am going to be sending 5 CimFam around the world Christmas cards from me! Just go and retweet this 'tweet' on Twitter and the winner will be tweeted / direct messaged before tomorrows blog post is posted!

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Cimorelli - Sorry (Justin Bieber Cover) 12 Days Till Christmas

Happy Sunday CimFam and welcome to the first day of Cim's Christmas Countdown! To kick off the countdown I am starting with reviewing a well overdue cover review. This is Cimorellis cover of Sorry originally sung by Justin Bieber.

Now personally I am not a massive fan of Justin, but if he releases a song that I like then of course I will listen to it, and this is one of those songs! Sorry, has been in my playlist for over two months now and it instantly makes me want to dance whenever I hear it.

We all know that this cover was posted over three weeks ago so I am pretty damn late with this review, but there was no way that I am going to miss this cover because honestly it has been one of my favourites!

This cover was a accoustic cover which most of the CimFam always seem to fall in love with, and personally I did fall in love with it when listening. Although I would have loved to hear this cover pre-recorded and a music video recorded for it. But I think that the piano cover would have been just as good.

Not only this but this cover also saw the return of Lisa beloved Cajon, which made the video just that little bit better as it was not just a normal acoustic cover with guitars. The cajon gave the song that bit of extra spice to make it a little bit different.

I feel that this cover was really suited to the girls as their voices just fit perfectly with the lyrics. One difference that was made in this cover was the lyrics, instead of saying 'missing more than just your body' Cimorelli sung 'missing more than just the memories'. This shows the respect they have for not only themselves but also previous boyfriends / lovers that they have had.

What I thin put the icing on top of the cake for this cover was Dani's low tone voice. With the girls having high voices, Dani's lower voice makes the whole videos just that more unique and really sets them out from other girls group that are out there.

To watch Cimorellis cover of Sorry, originally sung by Justin Bieber then click the link below:

To kick of the Cim's Countdown To Christmas I am giving away a hard copy of the Renegade EP CD. To win this first giveaway, go ad retweet this Tweet on Twitter and ensure that you are following me so I can DM the winner. The winner will be announced and Tweeted / Direct Messaged before tomorrows new blog post will be uploaded!

Merry Christmas!

Stay Strong <3

Cim's Countdown To Christmas

Before I get into this blog post, I feel like I really need to apologise for my lack of posts over the past 4 or 5 weeks. With the run up to Christmas coming I feel that I have been continuously busy, buying Christmas presents for my family, visiting London, putting up all my decorations. It has just been so hectic, and every Sunday I find myself thinking about the fact that I need to write a blog post but the time never seems to be available.

To apologise for this I am going to be posting a blog post every day running up to Christmas Day! This will be called Cim's Countdown To Christmas. I will be posting a blog post every day for the next 12 days, these posts will be both Cimorelli, holiday and personal blog posts. In a handful of these giveaway's I will be giving a handful of different items away. The gifts you can win will range from gift cards, Cimorelli merchandise and Christmas cards from me!

 

I have not planned all the blog posts that I want to post yet during the 12 day countdown to Christmas, so if you have any suggestions or want me to write a review on a specific old over then Tweet me on Twitter with your ideas! I have also posted multiple polls on my Twitter account for you to vote on which covers you would like me to review!

This countdown will start tomorrow (Sunday 13th December) and run with the 12 days up until Friday the 25th December! All blog posts and giveaways will be posted on Twitter so keep your eyes peeled daily! All blog posts will be posted at 7pm (UK Time) each day!

I hope you enjoy the run up to Christmas!

 Stay Strong <3