Out of the darkness and into the light

On the 1st day of Christmas, my 7 year old daughter was rushed to intensive care.

She couldn’t breathe.

She was struggling, gasping, fighting.

I watched her close her exhausted eyes as they put her to sleep.

A thousand thoughts rushed through my mind.

I was scared, bewildered, overwhelmed, numb.

Her tiny body in a big bed surrounded by endless wires and monitors.

The machines were breathing for her.

She looked helpless, motionless, vulnerable, peaceful.

Painful needles poked into her fragile body.

Drugs and medications coursing through her veins.

Painkillers, sedatives, muscle relaxants, antibiotics.

We were like walking zombies in the day. Staying awake all night.

Puffy eyed and weary limbed, we paced the corridor outside her room.

Waiting, watching, praying, hoping…

Should we talk to her? Could she hear us? Would we hear her laugh again?

If only we could just give her a cuddle? Tell her how much we loved her.

Longing, yearning, wanting, wishing.

The phones were ringing and pinging non stop.

Messages and texts came pouring in as slowly the news spread.

Family, friends, colleagues, parents, teachers, acquaintances and even strangers.

All praying, consoling, supporting, comforting.

They held special prayers, services and chantings.

In the temple, church, gurudwara, mosque, and at home.

All that faith could not go unanswered. Somebody had to listen.

On the 7th day of Christmas, my daughter opened her eyes.

All her guardian angels must have been very busy.

Watching over her, smiling down on her, protecting her.

Bringing her out of the darkness and into the light.

She is blessed, and so are we to have her back.

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A special mention and heartfelt thank you to the amazing unsung heroes in the PICU at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. Thank you for giving our daughter a second chance. Xxx

The bear and the hare – how did it fare?

So hands up those of you who have not seen the latest John Lewis Christmas Ad???

I’m sure most of you already have. What was your verdict? Sad? Soppy? Boring? Brilliant?

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet – please click on here and enjoy…

I thought it was just lovely and so heart warming. No, I didn’t cry the first time I saw it, but I did well up the second time round when I showed it to my husband!

The market-savvy, creative guys behind the ad know exactly how to tug at your heart strings (and maybe your purse strings too if the latest sales figures are anything to go by!). I mean who doesn’t love a little animal animation advert?

The ad received just under 90,000 tweets over the weekend that it first aired, and around 4 million views on YouTube (a figure which is rising all the time). As a direct result, John Lewis acquired 7,000 new twitter followers, and in the week after the ad was shown, reported sales of over £100 million for the first time in 2013.

Not bad for a short story starring a bear and a hare. But, that is exactly the point. We all love stories. We love happy endings and we love seeing people (or animals) who care for one another. It touches us. We get it. It makes us feel good. It takes us to places – somewhere only we know.

The best part of the advert for me is that they are not shoving toys, clothes, and other ware so common with Christmas time consumerism down your throat. The only thing they are promoting is finding the perfect gift for a loved one – whatever that may be – in this instance, an alarm clock.

It is the season of good will after all.

Clever, cute and oh so cuddly!

So did it get you too?

 

The Secret Room

This year at the twins’ school Christmas fair, they had a room called The Secret Room. This is the kind of room that you would imagine Santa’s little helpers to be working away in the night before Christmas. Although, I use the term working very loosely, as this was a fun room! I secretly wish I had a room like that when I was at school. For a start, all the lights were off apart from a few fairy lights twinkling away in the corners. This just added to the magic of the Secret Room…

There were shimmering Christmas trees adorned with bouncy baubles and tangled tinsel. Soft, white ‘snow’ had settled everywhere like a sprinkling of icing sugar. The tables were covered with a myriad of treasure items such as glitter, beads, stickers, feathers, sequins and sparkling jewels. The gifts were placed lovingly all around the room. These ranged from bracelets, smellies, candles, and mugs to Santa oven gloves and even back scratchers?! Who uses those anymore? Although, Hubby did buy me a wooden one for our Wood Anniversary, but that is another story for another time!

But, by far, the best bit about the Secret Room was that no parents were allowed in there! How cool is that? Of course, there were a few responsible adults in the room to help wrap the gifts and keep an eye on those over zealous kids who might get high on the glue and the smelly pens and just go crazy!

The rules were simple:

1. Pick a gift for your parents.

2. Pay for the gift by giving money to one of the friendly adults in charge.

3. Decorate the gift.

4. Take it to back to the friendly adults to get it wrapped and labelled.

5. Present it to your parents or place under the Christmas tree at home.

6. Enjoy!

Now, this was the first time that we had received gifts from the twins without any supervision at all so I was really intrigued and excited to see what I would get!

So, come Christmas Day, we all tore our gifts open like a pack of wolves!

  From my daughter, I got the most beautiful, little heart shaped  mirror decked with amethyst coloured stones.

From my son, I got a …….. just take a look at the photo.

Yes, it is what it looks like! When I asked him why he got me a Sudoku toilet roll, he just laughed! No comment…

But, for me, the best present was from the big man Santa himself. We had gone to take the twins to see him in his Grotto. I think he was the REAL Santa! He had a proper, long, white candy floss like beard, which some of the kids had tried to pull off, but could not. His thighs were as large as tree trunks, and he had looked like he had definitely eaten all the mince pies!

After he sat the twins down, and had a quiet chat with them, we were all ready to walk out when he turned to my Hubby and I and said “Your kids are a real credit to you Sir and Madam. You should be proud of them.” Maybe, he says that to all the parents(!), but not only did he make my day, but he made my year! Thank You Santa.

Happy New Year to you all!