The Curse of the Christmas Tree (and other gruesome tales)…

Now as Emily is 5 and Niomi coming up to 3, I reckon we are entering the golden years of Christmas-tasia. It’s the great epoch of magical, tinsel-tastic, glittery, cheesy tuneful Christmas joy. I can indulge my inner Christmas elf to my heart’s content, and nothing can stand in my way.

And so to tales of Christmas. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...It was a dark night as we set off on our voyage of Christmas discovery. It all began with a wintry, forestry delight of a Woodland light experience. All day the kids were giddy with excitement at the prospect of this sparkly extravaganza. But why couldn't it have happened in the morning? They had peaked far too early in the day and were knackered and grumpy by the half way mark of our evening walk…It had started so well, but now we were forced to beat a hasty retreat back to the car to avoid meltdown. We skilfully managed to get them there and into pyjamas (avoiding excessive mud), and calmed enough to nod off on the drive home. Phew we cried.

And then Niomi was car sick. And as we stood by the roadside trying to clean and change a shivering, screaming child – I chalked the evening up to a 5/10. The first gruesome tale.

 Lit up before it went wrong

But then we had kite flying and some Christmas dancing and that insatiable Christmas spirit started to rise up in me once more. For Emily’s birthday this year (and mine), my parents had bought us tickets for the stage production of The Snowman. And so with the festive season proper looming in the wings, we engaged in a preview of Christmasy delight. And it worked well – the excitement built and we set off, only for Emily to forget she wasn’t wearing wellies and do some excited puddle jumping before I could stop her. Cold, wet feet. I started to get an uneasy feeling. But the show itself was brilliant – her feet dried out and we spent a good few hours engaged in the magical, fun tale of a boy and a snowman. Emily really enjoyed it.

And so with a bit a festive spring in my step, I decide to push my luck and head to Hamleys for some toy-tastic joy. As a child I remember going to Hamleys as one of those quintessential child in a candy store moments as you walk through the doors to a shop of delights. But somehow it didn’t quite seem the same anymore. Maybe I am just cynical, or was formerly oblivious to the lurid commercialism, but barring a life sized cuddly toy elephant all I saw was my innocent daughter getting lured into the marketing man’s dream. So thankfully I was glad when we escaped with only a glitter tattoo and one fingernail painted – off for some well-earned pizza. But Emily’s Christmas joy was fading fast – tired and missing Mummy, we just about made it through the meal before she half sobbed her way home. Verdict? Well the show was a brilliant 9/10, but we slowly fell off our festive cloud after that till we arrived home in barely a better state than the Woodland light experience. This wasn’t all going quite to plan. The second gruesome tale.

Let's go fly a kite

Ready for the off  to the Snowman

I am dogged and resilient though. And with the dawn of the 25th November – the festive season officially commenced. At least it did in our house. It was the day of the Christmas Tree buying. A day traditionally associated with endless optimism and ill-fortune. A day for the brave and ardent Christmas believers like myself to use the power of Christmas cheer to do battle with the forces of fate. No matter what lay in front of us I needed to shift reality well and truly into the paradigm of Christmas-tasia. Let battle commence I cried as I was awoken at 6am. 

And so the day progressed – the hour of 3pm looming closer when the doors to arboreal delight would open and pine-clad joy would come forth into the world once more. As ever though such matters are a little late in the day though for our young offspring. By 3pm they are starting to get a little ragged round the edges, but aided by a small chocolate boost, hats and gloves were on and we were into the car and van to go a-Christmas Tree hunting. And then the Curse of the Christmas Tree hit. Every year something happens (see any previous posts on the matter), and the brave must step forth and continue relentlessly onwards. So with a van suffering from frostbite, Mummy and the kids returned treeless to the house, and I set off by myself to catch the tree and keep this Christmas voyage on target.

30 minutes later I returned victorious. The deed was done – now let nothing else dampen our Christmas mission. And so with a few Christmas tunes, some mince pies and mulled wine, and a few reindeer races round the kitchen… the Curse of the Christmas Tree was once more abated. So much so, by the time we’d visited the Kirkintilloch Lights switch on (Niomi was completely entranced - first fireworks?), had an evening of festive tunes with our friends Yvonne and Wilf, and stirred up the Christmas Pudding the next day, we were ready. Let Christmas commence!!!

 Christmas Tree excitement

Christmas Tree reality

 Seriously excited wishing

 Seriously meditative wishing

Seriously wishing

Videoclip: Niomi enthralled by the lights and fireworks

Never-ending cake...

5

And so after many, many weeks of planning and preparations Emily's 5th Birthday finally arrived. Bless her, she'd worked so hard in the preparation of it all - handmaid invites, organising decorations, party bags, games and surprises had all been in her planning. We are really not ones for going overboard but the whole homemade affair was to last 4 days with 3 distinct parties, numerous pass the parcels, treasure hunts and pin the carrot nose on Olaf. Much of it was Frozen themed but importantly it was all about people. Not just in terms of the hoards that were coming over the days and the experiences that we were to share with them, but she also decided that she'd like some of it to be raising money for Mary's Meals. And double bless her - her foregoing of numerous presents helped her raise over £250 - feeding 18 children for a year. I was dead proud.

And then there was cake. You can't have a birthday without cake. And Mummy worked the miracle of fishes and loaves making sure that there was enough cake to go around. Niomi and her had been baking for 2 weeks and whilst the birthday cake shrank - it managed to feed everyone. I was again dead proud of my star bakers.

 Her first cash present went unprompted into the Mary's Meals box

 Jazzed up sparkly 'new' bike

Party games Part 1 at Party 1

Party games Part 2 at Party 1

 The never-ending cake

 Party 1

 Never-ending cake Part 1 at Party 1

 Party 2 with never-ending cake Part 2

 Party 3

Never-ending cake Part 3 and the miracle baker still rocking at Party 3

And there you have it. My little girl is 5. And boy did she celebrate in style - all homemade but lots and lots and lots of fun. What was left? Well some hasty tidying up and then recuperation before the next round of winter fun commenced...Bring it on!

The dark days...

The hour changes and the dark days begin.

But this year I have a winter blues beating plan that involves a whole catalogue of exciting activities planned to get us through to beyond February. You see it seems I’ve miraculously managed to plan at least one event every weekend between now and Christmas. And, although as yet unplanned, there is also already plenty for us to celebrate in the early part of the year as well. I’m actually really looking forward to all of this: Emily’s 5th birthday; Niomi's first Christmas with us; family festive visits and our very own 1st Family birthday; Niomi’s 3rd birthday and then Mummy’s 21st again; our house anniversary and a whole range of other fun-packed activity which is all sure to see off the worst winter will throw at us. It’s all very exciting and more than enough to keep those dark days at bay – so let it all begin…

And with the first crunch of autumn leaves, the whole Rooke family steps out to enjoy the start of the fun. Autumn has come fast this year, as it seems to be a little later than normal but with fine weather forecast we headed off to Inchmahone Priory on Lake of Menteith (Scotland’s one and only lake). And this visit to the island didn’t disappoint with fallen leaves aplenty to enable maximum crunch and leaf fighting potential. A great day amongst Scotland's autumn finery.

And then the dark days meant that Halloween was upon us which we spent at a fun filled party with lots of little witches (Niomi), skeletons, princesses (Emily) and a range of other spooky or not costumed children. And if that wasn't enough to bring warmth to battle the cold, the glorious sunrises on my morning commute have not disappointed.

 Leaf delight

Growing up fast

 Ready for battle

 Let battle commence

Morning world - the view from my bike

So with every threat from the dark days we must look for a window of opportunity. In this case its stars, and time in the early evening to look at them. And so we did. We switched off all the lights and then by the light of our Halloween pumpkin we sat and star-gazed. Actually Niomi jumped with excitement as we saw the sky come to life with stars, planets, satellites and planes. And then a moment happened that you just want to hold forever. She started singing. Our little one who 10 months ago said nothing started singing "Twinkle Twinkle" unprompted and all by herself. Magic that brings its own light to the dark days.

Soundclip: Twinkle Twinkle

 By the light of our Halloween pumpkin