My Childhood Christmas Memories

This post is not going to be a sugar coated version of events.  No rose coloured glasses are involved in my recollection of events.  It's an accurate portrayal, an exposee if you will, of our family Christmas experience in the 70's!

Our home was a small two bedroomed semi in Slough.  Given that there were five of us (mum, dad and three daughters), it immediately posed a problem.  The solution was that my parents made the front room of the house their bedroom.  This left one small backroom as our sole living/dining area.  At Christmas this really presented a challenge. Space was extremely limited and my parents' style was sadly the antithesis of minimalistic.  With the extra demands of the festive season, coupled with the whole family together in that one room, the result was an atmosphere akin to claustrophobia!

Our green tinsel style tree was put up and took its pride of place on top of our old Radio Rental TV set.  The decorations would be hung by our Dad, who was quite protective of his job, with us three girls fighting over who'd bagsy which wise man and where they'd be hung on the tree.  This would inevitably result in me crying, a common theme to my childhood with sisters aged 5 and 10 years older than me, who'd tire of their attention seeking younger sister!  My Dad would keep the plastic gifts from the previous year's crackers and put them onto the foil boughs.  Plastic moustaches and false teeth adorned the branches, and woe betide us if we dared touch them!  If and when we did touch the tree, tempted by the lure of the fake red lips, the tree would topple off the TV, spilling its booty into the exposed vents.  How there was not an electrical mishap, I do not know!

When it came to the big day, we'd be up early and race downstairs to a pile of presents positioned on our pre-allocated sofa seat.  We'd dive in whilst the parents busied themselves in the tiny kitchen peeling sprouts and stuffing turkey.  By now Dad would have started his first rum and coke of the day and, on account of the fact that he was a non-drinker all year round, would get progressively more slozzled and tearfully profess his love for his kids.  They never shared in the unwrapping of presents nor did they see the delight on my face as I received my much coveted Rolf Harris Stylophone or Girl's World.

After presents, Dad would bring in the table in readiness for our dinner.  As previously mentioned the room was small.  TV in one corner, real fire adjacent to it on the back wall, three piece suite squeezed around the remaining wall space.  The table was a big, heavy duty wooden affair that filled the floor space.  The five mix and match chairs were positioned around, meaning we had to climb into our seats and squeeze into the gap between chairback and table edge.  We children were left to our own devices, whilst our parents continued to make dinner.  Now, this often resulted in unfortunate situations.  One year I decided to see how close I could get my Christmas cracker over the table candle.  Great game until...WOOF...up it went in flames.  I spent the rest of that day hiding under the table crying!  Barring any pyromanic disasters, dinner would be served.  By this point though, the seat that was directly in front of the fireplace would be getting quite hot. leading to complaints.  These protestations would go unheeded.  Similarly, one person would be sat with their back to the TV.  Telly was permanently on in our house.  When Top of the Pops coincided with Christmas dinner, the person sat in the telly seat would have to twist and crane their neck to see, whilst the rest of us would moan that they couldn't see past them.  More friction!  I don't remember the food...only the arguments!

If we survived lunch we'd spend the rest of the day packing away numerous chocolate bars, satsumas and sneaky shandies!  We wouldn't have been so greedy. but the Christmas food would be out on display for the whole of December and we were forbidden to so much as look at it.   "Not until Christmas day!" was the household mantra, meaning that when the day arrived we'd stuff whole boxes of Maltesers, bars of Galaxy and Just Brazils, until we were green!  I remember eating eight satsumas one after the other.  Also being dared to eat Quality Street concoptions by my sister, consisting of all the suspect flavours squeezed together by hand into a melted mass of chocolate and fondant centres!

Tea was another stressful affair.  Masses of buffet food laid out alongside the turkey carcass and leftover lunch.  My Dad always used to make stilton, brussel sprout and digestive biscuit sandwiches. It was a tradtion.  But when we helped ourselves to the excess of festive food, we'd get in big trouble.  My big sister took five varieties of cheeses from the cheese board.  She thought she was being sophisticated, sampling the dairy delights.  The shout of "Five cheeses!!" was bellowed in disbelief by Dad, crumbs of Brussell Sprout, Stilton and Digestive biscuit spewing from his mouth.  Even as a very young child, the irony of this exchange was not lost.

Tensions always ran high on Christmas Day and it'd often end in tears.  However, the limitations of an inappropriate house were responsible for most of the problems.  Money was tight but Mum and Dad always worked hard and did their best to give us girls a good Christmas.  I thank them for my unique experiences and blogging material!!

The Gallery...White

Everything is white in this wintry wonderland created by the meteorological effect of  a large area of high pressure developing in the Atlantic, causing a ‘block’ to the westerly winds that tend to keep us that little bit milder. As a result this has allowed very cold Arctic air to move south across mainland Europe.  (Just in case you were wondering!!) 

Here is my entry into The Gallery this week.  A lovely, white, tinselly cobweb, courtesy of Mother Nature and the high pressure block!!

When Breastfeeding Goes Beyond the Call of Duty

Don't get me wrong.  I adore the fact that I am able to still feed my glorious little boy.  Nothing beats the fact that I am still able to provide him with vital nutrients direct from my body.  The closeness I experience still overwhelms me.

However, right now I'm feeling that this Attachment Parenting lark is a game for Masochists.  Surely, what I am experiencing is beyond the call of duty.  I truly deserve a medal for enduring this afront to my human rights. European Conventions should be held regarding this violation.

The torture to which I am referring to...breastfeeding in this weather.

Here I am in my snuggly jumper, all cosy and warm.  Along comes my sleepy boy looking for his comfort food of choice.  Pulling up the aforementioned jumper exposes flesh that really does not want to be exposed to the chill air.  Then, here comes the real sting in the tail...a pair of freezing cold little baby hands creep up under the ruched up jumper, searching out new areas of flesh to touch with their icy fingers. There is no escape, no position that can be adopted.  Until a temperature equilibrium is reached, whereby the heat from my body moves by means of conduction to warm his extremities, I feel like someone has slipped an ice cube down my top.  But unlike that childish one off prank, this is occurring several times daily.

Roll on the warmer weather, or weaning, or both!

Oh Christmas Tree...

Against my better judgment, I have put up my Christmas tree.  I never put my tree up until after Winter Solstice on December 21st.  This year though, seeing Freddy's delight at displays in shop windows, I decided to try to create a magical December for my little boy by decorating the living room with fetsive splendour! 

This year for reasons of safety, we decided to go with our artificial tree.  We sent daddy up into a freezing loft to fetch our tree and the numerous plastic lidded boxes filled with all manner of Christmas-y bits, some dating back to 1988 and my eldest son's first Christmas!  When opening the boxes, a sense of nostalgia comes flooding over me.  A history of 22 past Christmases is contained within those boxes.  Although the older pieces only represent a small fraction of the contents, which has been added to by January sale purchases in more recent years, they never fail to raise a smile and sometimes a tear.  A book of press out cardboard Christmas decorations (which I never pressed out) has been with us now for almost 20 years.  A present from my big sister Carol, who is no longer with us.  It's typical of the sort of gift she'd buy.  And it's typical of me that I never made them, not wanting to ruin the beautiful book!  Every year, I take out the book.  I flick through its now creased up, aged pages, then return it to the bottom of the box where it will remain until I repeat the ritual again next year.

It's like a display of our family history seeing Baby's First Christmas Baubles lying alongside a wooden mouse on a candycane that my eldest son's first teacher gave him.  Each decoration holds its own memory of Christmas.  I am also reminded of my own childhood.  The one over riding memory I have of Christmas, when all three of us sisters still lived at home, is our fighting over three particular decorations.  They were the three wise men, represented by three different colour, felt covered cones with a featureless ball for a head and stick on headwear.  For some reason, the allocation of who got to "bagsy" which king was theirs for the duration of Christmas became a major event.  As the youngest sibling, I usually got last dibs and would inevitably end up in tears because I had wanted the red one and ended up with the green one!

One other memory that putting up the Christmas tree evokes is from 1990 when my eldest boy was two years old.  We had dressed the tree and covered it in foil wrapped chocolate decorations.  One morning as I came into the living room, I realised something did not look quite right.  I realised that where once had hung Cadbury's finest chocolate discs, now hung  single golden threads with a spent foil wrapper hanging from each one.  Little Joe sat there with a chocolate covered face and an "It wasn't me" expression!  He had painstakingly worked his way around the tree eating the festive treats insitu, leaving only the inedible bits behind.  Nothing has really changed with Joe.  Up until last year when he left home, I still bought him a choccie advent calendar, the contents of which he had totally consumed by the morning of December 1st!

This year we have used only plastic baubles, which the girls helped hang.  Freddy loved delving into the box and pulling out the sparkly trinkets.  But as predicted, the lure of the projectile properties of the decorations became too much and we had to duck out the way of Freddy's missile attack!  We got him to hang a few on the lower branches of the tree, but he just as readily un-hung anything within his reach.

Today, the lower branches are all bear.  Anything within Fred's reach has been removed, thrown, secreted in the seat of his sit n ride truck or rolled under the sofa!  I've stopped replacing them hoping the novelty will wear off.  Then I can put them all back on the tree in time for Christmas!

Professionals in Competitions...what do we think?

Rightly or wrongly, recent events have again caused controversy to raise its ugly head in Planet Comping. The issue of people in the filming industry entering video competitions and raking in prize after prize has been raised, and is an interesting area for debate. So in a purely hypothetical way I aim to question this topical phenomenom. The terms and conditions of competitions do not say that entrants in certain areas of employment are exempt from entering competitions. But, although not against the rules, do we think it is ethical or moral for people in the industry to use comping as a lucrative sideline?



My first concern is that these entrants are not part of the community that we enthusiasts call home. As we join up to Facebook groups and 'like' the promoters' pages, getting involved in commenting and generally enthusing and sharing the competition (...and therefore promoting the company hosting the competition, which is the aim of the marketing team who run them...) they can hide away anonymously, often adopting various nicknames unlinked to their professional self, taking no part in the proceedings other than producing their entry and uploading it. It is quite a sterile process aimed solely at winning, with none of the heart of us amateur enthusiasts who engage with the promoters' banter in an open forum. Again, nothing illegal here, just not in the spirit of the process that we know and love.



Obviously the capability of someone with access to top of the range cameras and editing suites is way in advance of us amateurs with our flips. Someone who is, for example, a video producer will know all the tricks of the trade to produce 30 seconds of top quality, celluloid gold. Will companies be seduced by these anonymous, slick, beautifully produced videos with crystal clear sound production? Of course they will. And they are. The danger is that the average enthusiast will stop entering, knowing that their own efforts produced at home on their Flip in real time just won't be good enough. Will a good idea with lots of effort put into it, win out over an MTV worthy finished piece? Probably not. Much like the voting competitions, where average people fear to tread, due to the presence of the masters of vote courting, we will see genuine FB likers put off, knowing it's a done deal before the competition even begins.



As Facebookers, we are transparent in our activity. People can see who we are and what we do. A lot of the reasons why we enter competitons is for the experience, the fun, the sense of community. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to win a prize, but that isn't the sole motivation. To distance yourself from this and to remain anonymous is a luxury we don't have. By setting up various Youtube accounts, under comp specific nicknames, to keep previous successful winning videos and current entries separate, and using different faces in videos, individuals are allowed to win over and over again, without anyone realising that the videos all come from one source. You could argue this is just good tactics. Who are we to say that this method of comping is any less worthy than our own? Are we in danger of becoming the Facebook Gestapo by assigning ourselves the role of moral highgrounders based on our own beliefs? Or are we simply acting out of frustration knowing that competition promoters are awarding prizes without realising the origins of the entrants...or indeed possibly not even caring? Either way. a little transparency and honesty in this area would make such activity look less suspicious. If there is nothing to hide, why cover your tracks to avoid videos being linked?



I am all for judging things on merit. I am a big believer of letting the best man win, but if the judging does not take into consideration the individual's effort based not just on slick production, we will soon be marginalised by the pros. Where success is based on views, a pro with hundreds and thousands of upload views will wipe the floor with someone like me who gets excited if my view count goes into double figures! However, if the promoter will be getting a video entry that would cost thousands of pounds to commission independently, you could argue that this is a mutually beneficial outcome. Entrant wins, for example, a top of the range household appliance, promoter gets a top notch video to display on their website. Win, win???



Maybe the inclusion of these quality entries will raise the profile of this hobby, make it appear less embarrassing to admit to! Is it a good thing that people with the potential to create great things want to be involved in this activity? There is nothing worse than seeing poor, ill-conceived entries winning competitions based on vote exchanges. I would applaud the inclusion of better entries. as long as it is done with integrity. It doesn't take much research to track an individuals' online activity. When it becomes apparent that someone with huge talent is attempting to work below the radar, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. As I said before, if it's not wrong, why hide it?



There is of course the possibility that someone in the industry would enjoy this hobby as much as us amateurs. Perhaps to them it is an outlet for more frivilous pursuits, an opportunity to hone their craft in a new and exciting forum. In which case, who are we too criticize or question? Using your skills to their maximum advantage is what we all try to do. But would Manchester Utd enter a team for a local 5-a-side football match? Would Delia have entered the Tesco Recipe Comp? Would Tom Jones enter Britain's Got Talent? Would Freddie Flintoff field a test team in a local village CC match? No...it just wouldn't be cricket!

Silent Sunday

                                                             

The Ugly Side of Comping Part 2

There have been a few more examples of competitive ugliness that has come to my attention this week!  A hobby that is such fun and which opens your eyes to so many opportunities and experiences should not be tarnished in this way.  To me, the comping world is a place where I can use my creativity and have fun, doing things that I wouldn't ordinarily do.  I make mad films like my Ski Sunday Theme Tune effort.  I have fun with my children Playing with toys!  I take photos of Ella in a face mask. !  To me, the thought of winning is not the incentive.  Any prizes that come our way are an absolute bonus.  It's taking part and having a focus for my creativity and ideas for family fun that drives me!

Shame that this is not the motivation of others.  Toys R Us held a snowman competition on their Facebook page.  Mums and Dads took time to go out into the unseasonal snow and build snowmen with their little ones and posted photos on their wall.  The winning effort was an acrobatic snowman standing on its head. Within minutes, their wall exploded with accusations of cheating.  Apparently this fabulous snowman appeared in the Telegraph Snowmen feature online, and the winner had googled it and used it as her own, even having the cheek to write how she had "had a laugh" building it with her kids!  Thankfully, after a feverish witch hunt with outraged parents demanding the cheat be banished from Facebook, Toys R Us issued a statement stating their disappointment and re-chose a genuine winner!  The one positive thing that this has highlighted, is how competitions on Facebook are becoming self-regulated by vigilant fans!  They spot a scam and out the cheats.  The fact that Toys R Us took the moral high ground was reassuring, in what was an embarrassing position for them to find themselves in.

Another thing that made my suspicion sirens go off is an entry in a competition that I am in the final three of, the Ski Sunday competition for Alpine Elements.  This Facebook competition had a shockingly low number of entrants given that the prize was a £2000 ski-ing holiday.  On the final day of the competition there were five videos, all produced at home with homemade props and recorded on camcorders.  At the eleventh hour an entry appeared, not posted on the Facebook wall by a Facebook fan, but uploaded directly by the company from YouTube.  As the t & c's stated that the video be uploaded to their wall, I wondered how they discovered it out there in the ether of the virtual world?  I have to say the entry itself is marvellous...like something you'd see on a TV advert.  It incorporates split screen and green screen technology, with an expertly recorded soundtrack.  It is incredibly professional...not a DIY Flip job like mine!!  It is way beyond the capabilities of the average comper.  Now the skeptic in me wonders if a company, embarassed by a poor turnout, would commission such an entry to justify the prize pot on offer?  Or is it just that professionals are recognising a lucrative sideline to their expertise?  Will this squeeze out us genuine compers with our limited capabilities but with bags of enthusiasm and original ideas?  The results are due in on Monday...we will see what happens!

As ever, the voting element of comping has seen some ugly dialogue on Facebook.  Firebox ran a competition to win your wishlist judged on a most likes basis.  The same players who can call on huge banks of voters immediately accrued likes in their 100's, negating the chances of the average Joe to zero!  The comments box was soon a virtual battleground between the pro-voting and anti-voting lobbyists.  The Antis threw around words like cheat, scam and fix. I understand the frustration of people who despise this system  of allocating winners, as I do also disprove and find it a forum in which it is not worth competing.  I can't command 400+ likes.  I am not prepared to sign up to vote exchanges with American Pageant Mums in an attempt to secure prizes.  However, the people who do are not breaking any rules.  They are doing what needs to be done.  As long as these competitions exist, there will be vote exchange groups, and compers who are big players in these circles able to call up their supporters.  It is wrong for the opposers to attack the people who enter and win these competitons.  Several people have had direct hate messages sent to them.  The antis need to put their energy in trying to create change among the companies who run these competitions, and in trying to educate them into the problems of voting comps.  Then perhaps the current trend of change will snowball and create a level playing field for us all.  Personal attacks are unforgivable.

The Tesco Diets Competiton is still courting controversy.  Although the liking element was reduced, it still plays a big part in the judging process and all previous winners have been in the top three most liked.  I have seen some lovely recipes slip under the radar due to only having the mandatory 15 likes needed to enter.  It's a pity!

I have from time to time entered tentatively into the realms of asking for support from other compers in return for supporting them.  I've made a few good comping friends who I am happy to help out.  But the way this community escalates into begs for votes from far flung countries is just not somewhere I'm willing to go.  I now get direct messages from strangers asking for me to vote for all manner of entries on all manner of forums. It's overwhelming and certainly not where I want my hobby to take me. There is almost an arrogance and expectation of winning among some of these vote seekers. The effort taken over the entries is minimal.  To win is their perceived right, regardless of the quality or deservedness of the entry.  How this is good for the companies I do not know.  How many of these likers will return to Facebook pages after they have clicked the mandatory 'like' or 'vote' button?  There must be a better way!

The Fashionable Graco Symbio...the perfect accessory for fashionista parents!

Graco Symbio at The Clothes show...the 'designer' pushchair!

Select

Select Model Management

Punky Fish



David and Goliath



Superdry

Benefit


The fashionable pushchair for parents who don't want to compromise on style!  The Graco Symbio looked totally at home at the Clothes Show 2010!

The Clothes Show 2010

Today I returned to the NEC to attend the Clothes Show.  I'd won a pair of tickets courtesy of a photo competition on Facebook from Montagne Jeunesse, purveyors of yummy face masks (see my review at http://insidethewendyhouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/montagne-jeunesse-tottles-face-masques.html ).

The weather continues to be akin to the Arctic Circle and was reading -12degrees in the freezing Shropshie fog, but we braved the road.  Thankfully, the further we got towards Birmingham, the adverse conditions lessened and we arrived to a comparitively balmy -3 degrees!!

I had tickets to the Fashion Show at 11am and my wonderful husband agreed to look after Freddy while I went.  I just don't think he'd appreciate high fashion and male models in the same way as I would, and had visions of embarrassing toddler related moments in the presence of the fashionistas and beautiful people.  So while Daddy and Fred went to play balloon football with security guards, I went to the show.

A few weeks ago, my daughter Ella and I had front row seats at the Bullring Fashion Show (another win!!) and we loved it.  I fell a little bit in love with a particularly fine specimen of male modelness, and was a little embarrassing trying to stifle my "Phwoar" noises everytime he came near.  At one point, the temptation to reach out and give his well oiled pecs a squeeze was quite overwhelming!  So, imagine my delight to see him on the bill at the Clothes Show.

This year's show was hosted by Gok Wan.  The show kicked off with singing performances from ex X-Factor wannabe Austin Drage and new boyband Inju5tice.  Think I'm a bit old for all this...but I enjoyed the enthusiastic back flips and acrobatics and synchronised boyband moves!

This was followed by the most amazing fashion show.  This year's theme was the movies with the scenes depicting various genres of film.  Both dancers and models performed in a beautifully choreographed routine set in front of computerised scenery.  Highlights for me were the gorgeous fairytale romance scene which included a fabulous ballet-esque dance; the High School Musical/Glee mash-up; the Horror scene with scary masks and horns and the fantastic Dirty Dancing scene complete with the iconic dance routine (they did the lift and everything!!!)  It was total visual eye candy...fabulously performed, a brilliant movie based sound track and some rather interesting clothes too!  Add to this the fact I got to see my favourite male model...it was a perfect hour of theatrical splendour!

After a hairy moment trying to find Ian and Freddy, we were reunited to hit the myriad of stalls and stands!  We wandered around buying bits and bobs for the girls' Christmas stockings and getting goodie bags.  We saw Jeff Brazier (bless him) and we entered all the competitions we came across. We dodged the over enthusiastic PR people who were over zealously attempting to spray us with dubious fragrances or more alarmingly "tan in a can"!! Unfortunately we had to leave early to pick up the girls from school as we were unable to enlist grandparents or auntie for pick up duties because of the weather.  However, we did enjoy the time we spent there amongst the beautiful people!

Mixed Blessings of the Snow!

As the Shropshire snow continues to fall, I am riddled with mixed feelings.  The practical  side of me fears the treacherous roads as I tentatively drive my girls to school in the morning.  Today I had two hairy moments where braking made my car slide.  Thankfully, I was going slow enough that I just juddered to a stalled stop, but the heart still beats a little too fast in these moments!

The cold is biting, even in the house.  I'm not one for cranking up the central heating, but desperate times call for desperate measures!  The gas bill may be bigger than usual. 

Everything grinds to a halt in England when a "big freeze" descends.  We are so ill prepared in coping with any extreme weather systems.  I can only imagine how the economy is suffering with everyone housebound.  My Christmas shopping is yet to happen...I'm cutting it a bit fine, but our nearest town is a good 18 miles away and no way am I risking that journey.

My parents who are 77 and 78 end up stuck at home because they live up a steep hilled road in Wales.  Thankfully the snow there isn't too severe, but it's enough to postpone their weekly visit.  Dad insists on walking to pick up The Sun everyday from the paper shop, and I fear for his safety.  His poor arthritic joints would not tolerate a fall.

However, in spite of all the negative connotations, the snow still holds a magic that is undeniable.  The freshly blanketed landscape looks beautiful, magically transformed into a Winter Wonderland.  Children come alive, catching snowflakes on their tongues, building snowmen and sledding. The promise of Christmas hangs in the air.

Freddy has seen snow for the first time since being able to walk on his own two feet.  He has loved shuffling through the ankle high snow, wearing his dinosaur wellies.  He has been fascinated by the new sights and sensations the snow has created, altering the world he knows into a whole new environment.  Inevitably, he falls over and feels the numbing cold and at that moment he has had enough! 

I think we have all had enough now!

Snowy Days...Snowman Population Boom

With all the snow that has fallen this week, the Snowman population has boomed.  Children everywhere have been getting creative, making frosty friends!  Here are some of our community of Snowpeople.  It's always a shame when the thaw sets in, and our newfound friends disappear leaving nothing behind but a few stones, a hat and a puddle!

The Gallery - Celebration

This week's theme for The Gallery is "Celebration".  For my entry, I've chosen a picture taken at our weekend away celebrating my parents' 55th wedding anniversary.  This picture to me represents celebrating our family.  Celebrating my children, my nephews and my nieces.  Celebrating the future!

The Award Winning Graco Symbio

Graco Symbio Wins Mother & Baby Awards

As one of the reviewers of the Graco Symbio, I am enjoying putting this pushchair through its paces.  I am genuinely loving the Symbio, and think Graco have come up with some great innovations.  So I was not surprised when I heard that the Symbio had been recognised in the annual Mother and Baby Awards 2010.

Now in their 18th year, The Mother and Baby Awards are the Oscars of the nursery industry and the most trusted brand approval mark for consumers.  Winning an M&B 'Gold' is the ultimate recognition of excellence.

When the winners were announced at the ceremony on November 18th, the Graco Symbio scooped the Gold Award for best travel system and the Silver Award for best pushchair.

Congratulations to Graco!  It's nice to know I'm entrusting my son's comfort and safety to your award winning product!