The One Where We Visit Lapland UK and Christmas at Kew

Good morning all. It's just about 5.30am here and I'm doing my usual 'wake up in the early hours and can't get back to sleep' thing so thought I would blog as I have been meaning to for the last couple of weeks. As per usual, loads going on, days are full and/or I am tired and anxious about one thing or another!
Anyway, on to cheerier matters....Christmas! Yes, it's fast approaching and I have just ordered two festive duvet sets via Amazon on the spur of the moment so I'm looking forward to them arriving.

Two weeks ago I took my three eldest grandchildren and their mummy to Lapland UK in Ascot, Berks for a special treat. It was not a cheap treat and as the day approached I became more and more concerned that this might be just another one of those Christmas set ups that actually end up being rubbish and stories about them are splashed all over the local news. Well, I could not have been more wrong. What a brilliant time we had!
From our arrival at the departure centre where we picked up the children's Elf passports and collected their Jingles ( the only currency allowed in Lapland and which came in a little drawstring bag) through the the Enchanted Forest and our introduction to Elf Sage, onto helping the elves make toys in the toy factory, gingerbread men decorating with Mother Christmas, ice skating and finally meeting the man himself....the whole thing was completely magical and worth every penny. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The children, aged 7, 6 and 4, were the perfect ages for it and to sit and watch them spellbound by the best Father Christmas that I have ever seen was something I will never forget. It brought tears of pure happiness to my eyes.

One week later and it was time to revisit Kew at Christmas, an event that I went to last year with heavily pregnant daughter and her hubby and an occasion that we recall often with great fondness. Basically, Kew at Christmas is a mile walkway of lights and illuminations through part of Kew Gardens. It is magical and very Christmassy. This year it was also very busy! We went on a Sunday evening as it was the only date that we could all do. We queued to get in and we huddled along with the double buggy and hundreds of other people along the trail with little opportunity to stop. I felt a bit like I was on a conveyor belt. It was almost impossible to stop and look at the lights without causing a hold up or a bottleneck.
Last year we enjoyed mulled wine/spiced apple juice and toasted exotic flavoured marshmallows. This year we didn't have the chance to do either of those things. There was only one marshmallow toasting stall and 2 mulled wine stalls on our way around and the queues for them was causing more problems for people trying to get past. A generator had packed up on one section of the walk and so it was very dark there and the illuminations were definitely not as good as last year in my opinion.
I think that we were so blown away by it last year that it was never going to have the same wow factor this time but we all wanted to go back with the twins and especially with Phoebe who, had she been awake for more than 5 minutes, would have really lovely the visual experience. She did see a couple of the trees and was mesmerised by the lights until she nodded off. Sam was awake throughout but was tired and a little grumpy. I think we will go somewhere else next year.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

A xx