A visit with Santa in Wonderland!

On Friday we went over to West Edmonton Mall as Lloyd had some alterations to collect from Harry Rosens.

While we were there, we took Abigail and Sam to meet Santa...at first there was a long line up and after a couple of minutes Abigail decided she didn't want to meet Santa anyway! So we went off and had something to eat, and then when we were going back there was no line at all and Abigail said she'd now like to go! So we went straight in and Abigail sat on santa and told him she was hoping to get Baby Alive! (Baby Alive, by the way, is a really FUGLY doll with Bratz style big eyes that you can feed and then she poops in her own disposable diapers (yuck - like I need to be buying more diapers groooan).

Sam wanted to LOOK at Santa but there was NO WAY he was going anywhere near that weird looking guy in red! Not even would he be bribed with Cadburys choccy buttons from the British Import Store OR a giant chocolate chip cookie from BP's.....So we only have Abigail in the picture! Oh and the white mad hair-do is actually Santas hat!

The Santa 'set' is the one used in the movie 'Christmas in Wonderland' - the mall kept it up for this years Santa :) Not that you can see much of it in the picture!

3o year old Fairy.....

Lloyds Mom sent us over the fairy that graced the top of their tree for the past 30 years.....she is now gracing the top of the childrens tree :) She looks pretty good for her age ;) Actually to me she looks a bit like Terry! (Lloyds Mom)!

Stunning!

www.thelope.com/blog.htm

Some AMAZING pictures of the ice storm that hit the US earlier this week.......as nasty as ice storms are, they are undoubtedly very beautiful!

Parents never seem to share the blame.....

www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/12/14/westjet-girl.html?ref=rss

This story was on the local news yesterday and just makes me shake my head......of course the first thing from some people at LP is 'Sue the f*ckers' sigh.....but what I want to know is when will parents start to take some blame for what happens to their children???? It seems it is NEVER the parents fault.....doesn't matter the situation, its always someone elses fault!

But my thoughts are "who the HELL puts a 5 year old on a plane with a stop over ALONE??????????? What if something was to happen? What if a situation occurred with bad weather/ engine problems/ severe turbulence......fire/ hijacking....ANYTHING slightly out of the ordinary????? That child would want a parent there...there are no if's or buts!!!! Geez, my 12 year old would want a parent there!

I think its insane and I think these parents are simply trying to ease some of their own guilt by blaming the airline! Surely if you are planning for your child to go and visit another parent...or have your child come and stay with you, you PLAN, you SAVE and you PRIORITISE the cost of an extra seat for yourself to fly WITH your FIVE YEAR OLD!!!!!

And the ideas of comparing having a 5 year old flying across the country with a stopover on her own to putting her in daycare is INSANE.....for a start, in a daycare situation (hopefully) your child builds up a relationship with the care-givers - they know them - they are not strangers they have just met! If something happens in a daycare situation the care giver is able to comfort the child much better because they KNOW that child..the child KNOWS the caregiver and can more easily be comforted and feel secure. comparing a daycare situation with a child being left on two flights (4 with returns) with flight attendants who the child has never met before that day is just ridiculous in my opinion. In a daycare setting, the child is surrounded by children he/ she knows and in a familiar place where they feel secure (if this is not the case then it is not a good daycare and the parents should not be using it)!

I am not willing to get into a debate on LP about this, so I am posting MY thoughts on MY blog.....feel free to disagree but this is my blog and I can post what I like :)

Our new lollipop tree.....

I've wanted a proper lollipop tree for years, in the past some years we never managed to find time to make one and storing one for a year hasn't worked in the past. I wanted to find a tree we could use every year to become our official lollipop tree. Today in Hallmark I fell in love with this little guy - its so pretty in its little red bucket! Such a lovely colour for its needles :) Love it! So I snapped it up and now Susie is decorating it with the chocolate ornaments and we will add some mini candy canes later too...

I just wish chocolate ornaments came with the strings already attached! Not even the pricier Purdy's ones we bought came with any! grrrrrr!

Ruths Chris cheesecake..

So this is a Ruths Chris cheesecake....Lloyd brought it home for me on Thursday night after having lunch there. It was HUGE...so we had half each buut even half was too much! It was ok...very creamy, but not much flavour to it.....considering how pricey that place is, I think I would order something else next time!! I mean, for that price surely there should be some chocolate on it SOMEWHERE ;)