Today I went to our county town for a car service and a few bits of Christmas shopping. Walking back to the garage, I passed this amazing tree outside an old peoples’ home. My photography skills don’t do it justice but it is a tree covered in knitted woolly squares with pom poms hanging down. I love that the residents have been creative in making something to brighten their grounds. I thought it was wonderful and such an original, fun idea.
This week, we have started to decorate the house for Christmas. For me its not simply about the tree so the decorating will take a few days as I do window displays, tableaux etc. However, the tree is up and it is a beautiful real tree chosen by Mr S and gleefully decorated by us all. Today’s post is just to illustrate the stories behind some of my favourite decorations, dressing the tree is a reminder of our story and our joy at being a family.
Our first decoration is a Swarovski star from 2003, the year of our wedding, its beautiful and the light shimmers and sparkles through it. 2003 was a wonderful year, we started the year on a dream holiday in Australia and married in Rome in the Summer, it was also my 30th birthday and a year full of hope, excitement and anticipation.
For many years, I found Christmas really difficult, its a celebration for children and we desperately wanted our own family. During these years, Christmas was spent quietly at home or abroad on holiday. This Swarovski crystal angel is so important to me, its our little angel, our baby boy in heaven who is loved so much and always in our hearts and thoughts. I always shed a tear putting this up, so I do it on my own when I can have a few minutes to reflect.
Whilst you cannot read the bauble clearly, it reads Happy Christmas 2010, the year all our dreams came true and we became a family. Joy and Love are placed around the bauble to remind us of the gifts our children have brought to us.
These knitted decorations are also from 2010, I loved getting ready for Christmas this year and my style changed from one of elegant stars and angels to bright and fun characters. Christmas in our house is bright, bold and fun now.
Whilst we embrace the fun and excitement of Christmas, I strongly believe that we should also respect and honour the true Christmas story. We have a very simple Nativity scene, I ‘inherited’ it from Mum and Dad who bought in one year on holiday, I loved it so much it was gifted to me after lots of hints. Its simplicity is what appeals so much. I have a full nativity scene on my wooden Advent calendar but this is my favourite. The angels remind me of our annual trip to the Cologne Christmas market, I taught German to just one class but this was suffice to get me on the trip as a leader, the best school trip of the year. Traditionally the angels are hand crafted and unique and I would buy one every year for my decorations.
Finally here is this year’s new decoration, I like to add one decoration a year and with this year’s first visit to Disney, this was my special purchase. Its bright, glittery and fun, perfect for us and reminds us of a very special family time.
I love that our Christmas tree tells the story of our family. It is complemented by the children’s’ beautiful home made decorations and each year a little more history is added.
I have read a number of recent blog posts and commentary arguing that Halloween was never as ‘big’ as it is now, however I differ to this thinking as I remember Halloween being an important part of my childhood, perhaps a little less commercial, for example costumes were fashioned from existing clothes but still a time of fun and treats. This could be down to my Celtic connections, Halloween was always celebrated, bobbing for apples and 50p pieces, jumping up to the syrup pudding and getting dressed up, always followed the next day by the Holy Day of Obligation Mass. We were often in Scotland at my grandparents for Halloween as it coincided with half term and so its a time of year I always associate with them. Sadly, my lovely Gramps died on Halloween when I was 18 and fifteen years later I was back in Scotland for the half term week for my Grandma’s funeral. That week has also been a busy time for family birthdays so there were often lots of cousins and family up with my grandparents too, happy childhood memories.
Halloween is also a significant date in my life, not only did I lose my Gramps on the date when I was 18, a wise, kind and loving man but on Halloween when I was 25, I met my husband. I like the symmetry of these two men ‘sharing’ a date as they have so many shared characteristics, love, kindness, family values and responsibility. Sixteen years ago Halloween was a miserable, wet and cold Saturday night and I was out in town with a friend to see a band, the sort of night you wouldn’t go out in but we wanted to see the band, it was only a gig in a pub and they never made it big! When we left the pub we ran to the nearest club for a dance and a few more drinks and there on the dance floor I met my husband, I even remember the song playing, Daydream Believer by the Monkees. Whilst our wedding anniversary is important, Halloween always has a little more significance, its our day!
Our plan for today is a trip to a local attraction which has free entry for everyone in fancy dress. We went a couple of years ago and it was brilliant, stunning costumes and lots of Halloween treats with a great atmosphere. We have our Halloween picnic ready. Before we leave we will pop over to the neighbours to show them our costumes, I’m a witch, Little Miss a gothic bride, her choice following the Phantom House at Disney and Little Man is Frankenstein. When Daddy gets home from work tonight we’ll play some traditional Halloween games, it just isn’t Halloween without apple bobbing!
Today was the deadline for the Rotary Christmas boxes. Its a very simple idea to fill a wrapped shoe box with little gifts for children living in poverty around the world. Over the years I have collected boxes as my year group’s charity project and made contributions. Its an appeal which is close to my heart, we live such a blessed life and I get upset that there are children in the world who live in such poverty and hardship. If my box can bring joy to a child, I feel privileged to be able to do this. I spend lots of time choosing presents for the boxes, games which can be played easily that’s Jenga and dominoes this year, nice stationery, little toys and a Christmas card. This year I have done two boxes for children the same age as our children, this has made it all more emotional for me. Amid all the excitement of Christmas Day, I always think of the little people receiving this year’s boxes and hope they are enjoying their Christmas presents. The presents show that someone is thinking of them and sending Christmas sparkles, to me this is the true meaning of Christmas.
Yesterday the photo album of our Disney holiday arrived in the post. Normally I create an annual photo book using all our digital images, but having taken so many photos and in recognition of the very special holiday it was, I felt Disney merited a book of its own, likewise a review and some personal reminders on this blog.
It has taken me a long time to visit Disneyland Paris. Twenty years ago when it opened, I was on my placement year working near Paris. However the art galleries, tourist attractions and night life of the capital were more appealing to me than Disneyland and I never visited the new park. At the time there was a feeling of indifference to the attraction in France and as I tried to embrace the life of a Francophile, I focused on more French pastimes. Fast forward twenty years and some of my preconceptions about Disney were slowly dissipating. Since having the children I have warmed to Disney as a brand I can trust and I also wanted to believe that Disneyland would be a magical experience for the children and a very special trip they would always love and remember.
My feelings for Disney improved as the holiday approached and lovely, little details emerged. For example when our tickets arrived, the luggage labels were lovely and practical, hard wearing plastic coated labels of Disney characters. Little Miss got to be Cinderella, Little Man, Buzz Lightyear and Daddy and I Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The excitement built at the train station, Ashford International where Mickey does the train announcements for the Disney Express, by the time I got on the train I was genuinely excited. One of the benefits of staying in a Disneyland hotel is that your luggage is delivered directly to the hotel so we were in the park minutes after arriving at the TGV station. I genuinely had butterflies in my tummy as we walked through the entrance, down Maine Street and I got my first sight of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Its beauty is breath taking and it is emotional to see it for the first time, I did blink away happy tears. Its not just a castle its a symbol of something bigger, its the image you have seen so many times when watching a Disney film, something you associate with dreams and magic. The castle was so beautiful, the sun glistened on the gold turrets in the day and it was truly mesmerising in the evening all lit up.
We stayed at the Sequoia Lodge hotel. The rooms were clean, large and perfect for our needs with a beautiful view of the lake. We enjoyed the Lodge’s facilities, the swimming pool and restaurants were excellent. The half board option was brilliant, we were able to use our vouchers in other restaurants in the park and village and we also received a daily afternoon snack token. On our final night, we were booked into Café Mickey and it was an amazing experience. We met Mickey, Minnie, Tigger, Pluto and Goofy. The characters were fantastic with the children lots of photos and high 5s. Little Man amused us all as he hid under the table when Minnie arrived, his explanation was that he doesn’t like girls!
We had done our research prior to the holiday and realised that as we were going at the busiest time of year, we needed to be organised. This meant we used the 8am early opening every morning. It was the best time of the day and we got to ride on our favourite rides many, many times! We also made use of the Fast Pass so queuing was not the issue we had feared. The iPhone app with waiting times was also a big help when we were looking for ideas and areas to head to. We tended to stay at the park until early afternoon and then return to the hotel for a swim, rest and change of clothes before returning for the evening.
The rides were excellent, we did all the possible rides for our height. We all had different favourites, Buzz and Star Wars were the main attractions for Little Man, whilst Little Miss loved the Carousel and surprisingly the Phantom House. We returned to Pirates of the Caribbean several times for Daddy, but for me Peter Pan was so beautiful and simple that it was my firm favourite. The surprising aspect of the rides was that it was not about amazing effects, state of the art trickery but simple ideas beautifully executed. The children loved Autopia, which simply was 1950s cars they could drive. I also greatly admired the grounds, so exquisitely presented. My over riding impression is the level of detail and care in the park, at Disney it seems that every little detail counts. I have never been to an attraction so clean and tidy. Detail is everywhere, the beautiful shop windows, the Queen peeping out of the window by Snow White’s ride, there are so many tiny details everywhere you need to do the rides many times to notice everything.
The Disney parade was magical and the reaction of our little ones so heart warming and delightful. Our daughter’s reaction to seeing the Frozen princesses Ana and Elsa on their float was perfect, such delight and disbelief, more happy tears behind my sunglasses! For Little Man the highlight was the Toy Story float, although I think having his photo taken with Buzz the next day may have topped the parade. He just couldn’t take his eyes off his hero and cuddled and high fived him with such joy. It is these moments which will live with me forever, being able to give our children such happy and joyful times give us indescribable pleasure and delight.
Whilst we did spend more time in the park, we also visited the Disney studios, with Cars and Toy Story rides it was hugely popular with Little Man. Personally I liked the shows here, I thought Animagique, Cinemagique and the Cars stunt show were very cleverly done. I did find the studio much busier than the park, but the new ride Ratatouille had just opened and was very much in demand. Again great planning here meant I queued for 5 minutes for Fast Pass and then we just had a 5 minute queue for the ride when we returned at our allotted time. At this time the queue for the ride was more than 2 hours. Given such demand, the expectations of the ride were high and again Disney did not disappoint, its a multi sensory ride which you ride wearing 3d glasses. I have no idea how it is done, but it is very special, innovative and creative.
Disney was an amazing holiday, it was everything I wished for and more, it softened me and made me just a little more sparkly and joyful. I loved the way our family relaxed, smiled and shared such magical experiences, such a special and precious holiday.
Seaside Sparkles 