Christmas time! 🎄

Hello all my beautiful people,
Merry Christmas to all of you out there! I know we are all over Christmas, but my decorations in my house are still up and I still feel Christmassy. So I'm still celebrating! Getting fat, staying up late, watching movies, looking at the Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music.. I mean, I'm in America we gonna be celebrating for the next month (probably not) but the decorations will still be up for another month.. yep that is how we do.

Christmas here is very different from New Zealand. First of all its winter here. Now every person I have talked to is like 'what?! you saying you have Christmas in the summer, now that ain't a real Christmas!' Yes it may not be a real Christmas to you, but who wants to be celebrating the Lords birth when it is cold and it ain't even snowing (what's the point), I personally would rather be at the Beach swimming and getting burnt, now that is a good Christmas.  Any who apart from that it has actually been a great Christmas and yes it does feel more like Christmas when it is freezing and you can wear ugly Christmas sweaters (it is a thing).

 From the start of December you immediately feel like it is Christmas for example Christmas lights and decorations go up in peoples houses and in the city. You have the big lighting of the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller, which everyone watches on TV or you actually go see it light up.

 Then there is the big Macy window display (which is annoying because all the tourists just stand watching it blocking the path), the ice skating rink gets put in at Bryant Park along with the Market. Now most of you won't have a clue what I am talking about, but to those that do, I'm sure it will bring back great memories. New York City really has the Christmas Spirit going it is pretty amazing! 

Christmas Eve, my host dad's family came around. They are all Italian so the Christmas Eve tradition is to have seafood and pasta. Very different but pretty cool (I do like seafood a lot). Also the family buys presents for every Aunty and every Cousin, which is insane, but pretty sweet for the kids! I also went to Hillsongs Christmas Eve service which was awesome! My friend and I sat in the front row where Vanessa Hudgens and her boyfriend were sitting just down from us (just casually).

Christmas Day was a hoot! The kids opened their presents which was insane I have never seen so many presents been given my whole life, I was shocked. After that we headed to New Jersey to my host mums sisters house which is a mansion literally. It has a movie theatre inside, a library, gym and a sauna, it was massive and so nice!  It was real chilled. The kids and I played games, watched movies and ate (of course). oh and I wore my ugly Christmas sweater (best thing ever).

I hope y'all had a great Christmas, I sure did! Have an awesome New Years and maybe you will make a new years resolution that will actually last the whole year instead of just for a week or two.

peace out homies!

#lovelife
#Christmastime
#uglysweater
#kiaroanewyork

krystal xo

No time for my talent!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, it has been very busy! I've had to put away my talent of twerking (for now) and have been busy working and studying hard! Well and going to parties and events because it is that time of year to be jolly (CHRISTMAS TIME!). 

So at the end of November I went to the Christmas Spectacular Rockettes Show. It was one of the best shows I've seen, like all the acts were REALLY good. How it all was put together was so well done. And I was well impressed with the stage! It also made me feel all Christmasy, I was ready to put on my ugly Christmas sweater for sure! 

Next came Thanksgiving and it SNOWED!!! The first snowfall for the winter, although it wasn't winter yet (not okay). We had a big family get together with all the cousins and aunties and uncles of my host family. We literally ate all day (this is not an exaggeration). We had turkey, mashed potatoes all the good stuff, it really felt like Christmas but without the presents. 

The following day my kid had her sweet 16th party. So we all got dressed up looking all fancy and fly. It was like a wedding! Americans really do go all out for sweet 16th parties (was insane).  

These are my kids. It was the middle ones birthday she looks so pretty! 

My youngest kid and I taking selfies while we wait. 

As you know I have been going to school taking a class and it's been pretty crazy doing exams, projects and studying. Tomorrow I have my finals and then il be done for this year (oh happy days). 

Tonight while the kids and I were having dinner which was Tacos (we went Mexican), I put some more taco shells in the oven to grill and next minute I opened the oven door and they were on fire, literally!! I screamed, shut the oven door, turned the oven off and go to the kids 'get water' they were like 'no not water that will make it worse' I'm like 'umm umm ohk fire extinguisher' they don't have one. then my eldest kid was like 'I'm ringing mum' I'm like 'no ring the fire people!' Then they run outside and I'm in the kitchen running back and forth from the sink to the oven thinking of ways to put out the fire. Then I give up and run outside and thank goodness they have gone to get the neighbor and of course He comes in all calm, opens the oven and only the taco shells were on fire (we were thinking it was the whole oven). He just took them outside, these burnt charcoaled taco shells, then He goes home like it was no big deal! We were cracking up laughing cause we were thinking the oven was gonna blow up and that the house would be burnt down (yes we were abit OTT)! 

So now you are all up to date with what's going on over here yay! I'm so excited for Christmas it's gonna be amazing and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas as well. 

Peace out 

#kiaoranewyork

#tacosonfire

Krystal xo

Connecticut I've arrived!

Saturday morning two of my friends and I, drove down to Connecticut to meet up with our other friends and went and watched the Yale (smart people school) verses Princeton Football game.

It was awesome but let me tell ya it was freezing!! It felt like I had no pants on and that I was wearing flip flops. It wasn't snowing or anything it was just in the negative degrees (shiver), didn't help that we were sitting in the shade either (not smart). Both teams had a marching band which was really good, one team pulled their pants down (unnecessary).

There were also cheerleaders. I only saw them do one lift, then the girl at the top fell off and that was the end of them doing that (I may have laughed) and they just went back shaking their Pom Poms. There was also a chick that twirled a pole (don't know what that's called maybe pole twirler?) anyway she was absolutely amazing like she threw this pole so high and then would catch it (incredibubble). 

We decided to leave in the 3rd quarter as we were frozen! We went to our friends house where we were staying. She is an Aupair aswell but she has her own cottage next to the family she works for, and she lives on the waterfront (amazing)! We got warm, had dinner, then had a singalong to really old school music (loved it) yes we did get S club 7 out! 

Later that night we went and cruised into the city and had a dance (such fun)! 

Sunday morning we had a cooked breakfast then headed off home. 

Was a great weekend! So cool that I can just head over to another state only half an hour away! 

#lovemylife

#kiaoranewyork 

Krystal xo

First Halloweeeeeennn

I know Halloween seems like it was ages ago (two weekends ago), but I've been slack on doing new posts every week and thought now would be the best time to tell you about my Halloween. 

Leading up to Halloween has been awesome! All the houses in the neighborhood are done up with skeletons, creepy flying things (pretty scary at night), pumpkins and many more. My kids and I carved our own pumpkins which was disgusting at first because you chop the bottom off, then you have to take out all the insides with YOUR hands. Now I can take guts out of fish with my hands, but this really grossed me out. Mostly because the inside was cold and it was just WEIRD. I felt like I was touching the insides of a person. Like I kept saying to the kids 'oh I've got the liver', ' there's the Lungs' (they didn't appreciate that). I think that also made it worse for me, so I had to get the gloves out (oh yes, smart move).

Once I got carving it was really fun! This is my pumpkin..

It is a volts-wagon. I'm pretty proud of myself, my first carving and it came out perfect (oh happy days)! 

On the actual day of Halloween there were 10 kids over after school and they were all getting ready to go trick or treating (was a madhouse!). When they all left I got ready into my outfit which I was so excited to get all dressed up (I love dress up party's). My 16year old did my makeup, she is an incredible artist!

Then I put my outfit on and I was ready! 

I am Black Swan if you couldn't figure it out. I felt like a ballerina! We were at a party in the city and Hip Hop music would come on and I would try and do ballet to it (don't worry I only did this once), you need to act the part some of the time. Someone actually asked if I could go on pointe (haha no no!). 

And that was the end of my Halloween experience it was fun but wish I could of worn my costume longer. 

The next day I went to Brooklyn with friends from church (Brooklyn is my new obsession). It was freezing that day! We get our nails done which was the worst manicure I've ever had (struggle is real), then we went and got food because I am always hungry. 

I also serve with these girls at church they are amazing! 

Church was great! Me and some of my host team got stuck in a room while Carl Lentz was getting interviewed by ABC tv. We tried getting out but got shushed and told to go back into the room. We were in that room for like two hours so we decided let's take a whole lotta photos. 

These are of course only a few of them but these are my peoples! I love serving with them every Sunday, we also have group chat so during the week we will text encouragements or people text prayer requests and praise reports. We don't just serve together on a Sunday we keep in contact and this makes me feel like they are FAMILY! 

Love y'all to the moon and back 

#whenindoubttakeselfie

#brooklynobsessed

#kiaoranewyork

Krystal xo

Brooklyn selfies

Oh the weekend was such fun! 

I went to Brooklyn with my long lost sister (people actually think we are sisters) and we also take the best selfies together check it..

   

Boom.. There it is!

All though on this day we were actually having a bad selfie day. We had to redo many photos, but normally we take one and it is absolutely perfect, no need to redo it! Do you know what I mean? Like you have that one friend, and you take selfies with her, and the first take is actually perfect like it could be your Facebook profile pic, that is how perfect it is. 

We chilled at the Brooklyn bridge park, it is so beautiful! We just sat at the pier looking at manhattan and all the boats going past and playing games like, first one to spot things like, the 9/11 building, people wearing nikes, mustaches, dogs etc sounds lame but it was actually fun and quite hilarious! We then walked abit to get a good pano of Manhattan. I failed at that one. I just have no patience to go slow and try and keep the arrow on the line, it's redonkulous I tell you! I would show you my pano but it's just embarrassing. I mean to be honest it's only half a pano, probably not even half! 

Anywho we were getting abit hungry even though we pretty much just had brunch a few hours before. So we went to Shake Shack and just WOW! I'm surprised I hadn't tasted it since I've been here. The burger I had their changed my life (that's exaggerating). But it was so good, well better than good it was like riding a horse on a Saturday morning at the beach good (what the?!). 

This guy ruined my photo. 

You all need to try Shake Shack it is the bomb! 

We then walked over the Brooklyn bridge which is probably one of my favorite things to do, because you get cool photos and get to yell at people when they are walking on the bike lane and they are about to get hit. My friend and I started yelling 'move that person' or if there was a stroller 'move that stroller' and 'this is not a stroller lane people' (ohh it was cray cray)! 

Brooklyn bridge, you say 'where did the colour go?' I say 'I put a filter on it cause I'm upper'. 

Upper=awesome, way to cool. 

And that's the end of our Brooklyn experience. Definately going to hangout in Brooklyn more because it's so hipster and a great place to chill, love it! 

Peace out homies ✌️

#selfiesforthewin 

#kiaoranewyork 

Krystal xo

American life! 🇺🇸

Elo Elo children! What fun things have I been doing this week? Well I've been Very American this week! Saturday my friends and I went and hungout at my college and watched a basketball game.

Everyone watching was so quiet. No one was cheering or anything, it was very strange. I wanted to be loud and yell out things like 'defense' 'pull your pants up' '3 pointer' and 'take ya top off' (oh to far, to far!) 

We then proceeded (wow, big word) to the glow in the dark mini golf! Yes it was pretty awesome, although lighting was limited and I may have got abit angry that the ball was going over the hole and not in the hole (struggle is real), I went all happy Gilmore on that! 

This is Nikki playing, I had to take a photo of her because she was so lit up she blended well into the theme. I was gutted because I was wearing all black and nothing glowed (remember to wear glow in the dark clothes always). 

Then we went and chilled at a restaurant called Applebee's for like 3 hours, had lunch and had so many free refills of diet coke..

This is only some of the empty glasses but I think we had 4 drinks of diet coke, and let me tell you it might be diet but wow, I was a little cray cray after! 

Finally it was time to go to the football game, boom! It was such a great experience! Seriously, they have music  going to amp everyone up, people are singing and dancing in the bleachers, the football players are dancing it was AWESOME!! 

In this photo everyone is singing the national anthem (was a beautiful thing), even I'm singing it, well trying to! 

Football is so much better in real life it's very interesting to watch! 

Sunday I went to Church and Chad Veach spoke. He is one of my favourite speakers (so funny)! I also volunteered, and those of you that know the tv series The Carrie Diaries? well the actress that plays Carrie was at church, and I talked to her, I said 'sorry thanks' (best conversation everrrrrrrrr)! 

So Halloween is coming up and it is a massive thing in America! Like all the houses are decorated, people just drop candy at your house (this happened to us), they have a big parade in the city and more. I actually am excited to dress up as I love dressing up! So if any of you have any ideas as to what I should dress up as comment below. 

Anywho until next time cats! 

#struggleisreal 

#kiaoranewyork 

Krystal xo 

All things Disney!

Bula everybody! This week went crazy fast (rode a camel, that's why)!

As you all know I travelled to Florida and met up with the Nimmo family so that I could take selfies with the one and only Morgen Nimmo (not the only reason, but it's the main reason). 

The first day was a hoot! We went to Magic Kingdom in Disney World and got through most of the rides. My favourite were the Teacups (always have loved them), they just crack me up! Second favourite was Space Mountain. I may have worked the kids up and exaggerated how scary it is, because the whole time we were waiting in line we all were like 'omg need to pee, so nervous!'. Yeah.. afterwards they were like 'krystal what were you talking about?! You worked us up for nothing' (haha I exaggerate way to much woops!).  The lines were quite big for most of the rides so we had to do a lot of waiting (ALOT), but it was totally worth it! 

The fireworks were amazing!! 

Everyday was a SCORCHER (hot,hot,hot)! It got up to 30 degrees which is insane to be walking around theme parks everyday. But we dominated it, even though we were all so sweaty and literally felt like we were melting! 

It also would randomly start raining and thunder and lightening. So we got quite wet the first day, but then got smart and bought a garbage bag each to put over us (we looked hilerious)! Although they were a lifesaver for the week. 

Our garbage bags (absolutely horrific). 

The second day, we went to Universal Studios where I rode my FIRST proper roller coaster people (everyone applauses)!! You all should be so proud of me because it was HORRiBLE!! In the line I was so nervous I nearly wet myself and kept on saying 'I can't do it, I'm going back!' But according to the Nimmo's, once your in the line there is no turning back! 

I hopped into the seat and off we went up, then all of a sudden it just goes so fast into the sky (I'm screaming). It drops, it turns, it goes upside down like a million times (well 3 times). I do admit I may have had my eyes closed most of the time praying for Jesus to take the wheel (Morgen recommended that's what I should do), and also breathing like I was giving birth (this is not an exaggeration). Morgen was just laughing the whole time, I think I laughed once and then there was a massive drop so I started screaming again! But I do have to say I conquered one of my biggest fears, and I went on all the roller coasters for the rest of the week (go me)! It is such a great achievement when you conquer your fear (you should conquer yours this week?!). 

This isn't all of it, I just couldn't get the rest in the photo (amateur photographer).

I went to Harry Potter. 

Dr Seus land such fun!

I could be Cat in the Hat (the cat with a very big rat. Great rhyme!) 

Wednesday we had a break from theme parks and went SHOPPING (every girl in the hood say yeahhh)! 

I went in with a mental list of what I wanted to buy and by the end of the day had bought nothing on that list (always seems to be the case, WHYYY?!). 

Thursday was probably one of the most hottest days! We went to Legoland ('everything is awesome,everything is cool when your part of a team!'), rode all the rides, took many selfies with Lego people and got very hot and exhausted. There was hardly any shade or air conditioned buildings. 

Random Lego donkey.

In me mums car brum brum (only a few will get this). 

Now Morgen and I had a private roller coaster ride (Yes people we were the only ones on the ride). We were right at the front and we both sat on the same side, which made it feel like it was going to tip because it wasn't balanced (don't worry we lived). 

Friday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios which was great. The song for the day was 'Let it go' and 'do you want to build a snowman' (stuck in my head all day). There were a lot of shows and the buildings were amazing, all made out like we were on set of a movie. I also got my photo taken with Mickey, we also danced together and he just wouldn't let me go (he wanted me! Creepy or not?) 

That night we headed to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Planet Hollywood (had great music). 

Jakob and I at planet Hollywood. He finally called me krystal after calling me aunty for some of the week (so funny).
 

It was a fun filled week! We laughed so hard the whole week, and said some pretty random stuff (Morgen and I went cray cray)! I enjoyed hanging with the Nimmo's it was such FUN! Loved being with some of the New Zealand family, made me miss home and all the people back there. 

This is probably my favourite photo as we are meant to be doing Titanic, but hmm yeah it just looks like one of those awkward photos. Made us laugh so much as we looked back on it that night and wondered what the heck we were doing! 

I am now back in my home in New York excited for what this week brings! 

#nzerstookoverdisney

#iam4metrestall

#lovelife

#kiaoranewyork

Krystal xo