Corner View~The December Holidays

Christmas is a lot of people's favorite time of year. When I was younger, I remember as soon as I opened my eyes I would get out of bed, wake up my older sister, Skylar, (we used to share a room), and then go upstairs to my dad. My brother, the youngest, would usually wake up first or at the same time. My sister, my brother, my dad, and me (we still do this) would wait for my mom to get up. Unlike a lot of kids who just jump out of bed, and grab the loot, we wait for everyone to get up, and then we take turns, opening one present at time. when someone's about to open your present, you get just as exited as when you're about to open one. You see the look on their face..... I love making people underestimate what I'm going to give them. (For example: I've been saying to my brother, I'll probably give you a rare Pokemon card for Christmas. And if you're really good, and cooperate with mom, I'll maybe give you a legendary card. But in truth, I'm going to give him a card even better!)
That tradition hasn't really changed, except that I don't wake up Sky (she'd kill me!) :)
We spend the whole morning playing with our new toys. And no, me, a 12-year-old does not play with train sets and dolls. First of all, it's modern toys (remote control cars, trading cards) and second--oh never mind. I guess I do "play." Lets face it :) We have lunch. We're not one of those families who eats Christmas dinner at 3:00. We "play" some more. Maybe have a little family time.
Then we bake and cook (unless we're going to a friends house for dinner, which we sometimes do. We spend the rest of the winter holidays wishing we could have Christmas all over again, but at the same time, feeling satisfied.

Corner View~Traditions

Since I was 6 1/2, Skylar and I have sang and played guitar at an ashram in front of a pretty big crowd every summer. We also liked to play for relatives and friends. Skylar stills plays the guitar, but I usually just sing. I sing for friends and relatives all the time whenever they come over. I love singing.  It gives me such a happy feeling that I never want to stop. It's the same feeling that I get right before I open my presents on my birthday.

Corner View~Improvising

Recently my dad has taught me to improvise with the scales on piano. It's basically like doing harmonies on the piano (for those of you folks who don't know what the heck I am talking about). For a while, okay maybe like 5 years, I was kind of out of my piano phase. But this harmonic scale has really gotten me back into it. It's beautiful. It's like an orchestra you can control with just a light touch of your finger.

Since I am an actress and a musician I'd like to also talk about another kind of improvisation. In acting improvisation is very important. If you mess up in front of a live audience you have to ad lib, which means to improvise. When you make a speech you should never memorize it, you should just memorize ideas.  You do this because if you memorize the speech and you forget it, it will be a disaster. If you just memorize ideas it will be like a conversation with the audience. I learned this today in home school.

Later, my peeps!