A Miniature Winter Wonderland in Athy

Little Gift Shop on the Alps

If there was ever a time when I wanted to be a couple of millimetres tall, it was this morning. 

This morning standing outside this window display, looking in.

Bradbury’s Bakery on Leinster Street, Athy have outdone themselves yet again this year with their Christmas window.

Since it appeared over the weekend, we have been craning our necks in the car as we pass the bakery shop front on the school run each morning. 

For a change I am willing the traffic lights ahead to change, change GO to red so we can stop and have a little look.  

The entire window is a perfect winter wonderland with ski slopes complete with skiers, a miniature bakery, a gingerbread house and a Christmas gift shop.  The town’s population are making snowmen, skating on the pond and buying Christmas trees.

These little skaters actually whirl around!

I was hugely impressed with the little cart at the skating pond.  Take a look.

It is my wish come true; a little cappuccino cart.  And if I am not mistaken, he has some warm croissants piled up there too.

The boys were entranced with the Ferris wheel.  Which moves, by the way.  Round and round complete with teeny tiny passengers and flashing lights.

Moving Ferris wheel

A little train makes its way through a tunnel up on one of the slopes. 

Santa himself is flying overhead in his aeroplane. 

It is a magical scene.  No detail has been forgotten.  Even the trees are wearing their winter colours and snow coats.

Every window in every building has a flickering light.  The street lamps are lit.  Some of the houses even have porch lights.  There are even tiny holly wreaths hung up on the carousel at the Christmas carnival.

If you are of a mind to kneel down and do a bit of peeking in through the windows of the houses, you will see families inside.      

There are several types of dogs running about or just standing still, taking it all in.  Lovely Liam spotted a black lab with a red collar, like our own dog, having a sniff at the bottom of a lamp post.

And just when you think you have seen it all from the street, if you take a moment to go into the bakery, there is still more to see from the other side of the town.

Winter Wonderland

Children building snowmen and beside them two more on a moving see saw.

Frosty the Snowman

A little Christmas gift shop with a candy cane entrance and a family buying their Christmas tree.

There is so much to see, so many things to point out and after half an hour of looking at it from every angle, we kept discovering something new.

One thing that stood out for me and made the winter wonderland all the more special was the absence of road traffic. 

It was a village snow scene with a single train wending its way across the mountain but cars, trucks and lorries were noticeably absent.

The only vehicle I saw was a man pulling a sled with his child on it in front of my friend the cappuccino seller.

It is a thing of beauty.  If you are finding it hard to feel the festive spirit, you could do a lot worse than pop into Bradbury’s of Leinster Street, Athy for a coffee and a scone. 

To be eaten in the front of the shop, of course, where the hot drink will warm your hands and body and the snowy winter wonderland will surely warm your heart.

Disclosure:  I took an hour this morning to walk down Leinster Street with Lovely Liam and Smallest Boy with the express intention of showing them Bradbury’s beautiful window display.  It is my pleasure to write about it.  All opinions are my own and I have not been paid to give them. 

Being Thankful

One of the many many things for which I am truly grateful as a parent is the all-round robust good health of my family. 

It is a rare event where any of us are sick and at that it is usually a cold, an annoying tickle or just generally feeling run down.

At the same time it never comes as a surprise when someone falls foul of something a little harsher than a sniffle.  It is an inevitability during life with four kids, that one or another of them will, at some stage, present with something different, something I may not have experienced before.

Over the last five months we have seen grommets, a double dose of chicken pox, an eye test, ear tests, common colds, a minor infection or two and a second boy coming down with seasonal asthma.

Nothing too serious, all targeted and treated appropriately.

Presently Lovely Liam has croup. 

Croup is an inflammation of the windpipe and voice box which results in a harsh barking cough.  It is a contagious airborne infection and very common in young children.  Breathing is noisy as a result of the inflamed airways and can be quite scary to behold.  Symptoms are very often worse at night.

Thankfully he is not too bad but will take the week off school just to be on the safe side. 

It also meant we missed our beloved Group this week.

Instead of meeting up with friends and their children, meeting new people, melting over tiny newborn babies, drinking coffee, eating nice biscuits and having a great time, I stayed at home and washed the floors.

It was during this tiresome task I found myself thinking about our health and realising how lucky we are.

That evening when we were all ensconced in our warm, comfortable home with full bellies, I decided to ask the Awesome Foursome what they were thankful for and this is what they told me.

Oldest Boy is thankful we have enough food to eat.  He is also thankful for his friends, family and cousins.  And he is very, very thankful to be alive!

Shy Boy is thankful for his toys.  He is thankful for his dog but not very thankful when she takes his stuff.   He is also thankful for his strong body because it helps him run really fast and do triple forward rolls in the swimming pool.

Smallest Boy, if he was able to communicate clearly would, I am sure, say he is thankful for his bubble lawnmower, his “sock,” his parents and his “good knife.”

Lovely Liam is thankful that his cough is almost better and the sore spot on the back of his hand is nearly better too.  He is also thankful that we had to have our car retested today because that meant we were in the same place as McDonalds and had to go there.

Oldest Boy came back with a little bit extra.  “I think we are really, really lucky because he have lots of stuff and all the stuff you said too, but I think we are not really, really, really lucky because we don’t have an x-box 360.”

And my darling boy, because I am very thankful for your interest in and ability to become absolutely absorbed in the book you are reading, if I have anything to do with it, you never will.

Quotes, Jokes and other Stuff

It was a week for changes. 

Changes when I wasn’t looking.  Yet another developmental leap to remind me that time and child alike wait for no man.  Or mother.

I was enjoying those couple of hours every day when Smallest Boy went for his little siesta.  

It never mattered what time he went to sleep; he always slept for two hours.

I got lots done.  Sometimes it was real work.  Sometimes it was drinking coffee and emptying my head of thoughts and words.

But it was two hours with one less person to tend to. 

One day this week, Smallest Boy decided he had better things to do than sleep.

Like this.

I should have seen it coming I suppose.  He has been stretching his nap later and later every day.  It is just another thing to go as he continues on his journey towards independence.

It was a week for unexpected feelings.

We met boy girl twins at Group this week.  Two teeny tiny squishes, no bigger than a child’s doll. On this earth four weeks but really it was their due date. The little one was a pink scrap that managed to reach out with her starfish hands and not only charm Lovely Liam, but awaken dormant and scary broody feelings inside me.   I thought I was done with all of that.

Lovely Liam was a bit fascinated with them.  Never before has a girl baby had her head rubbed so softly or her tiny hand held with such reverence.  On our return home he said to me, “those little babies were so cute, my eyes, ears and head almost DEE-SPLODED!”

My heart!

It was a week for powerful statements. 

The public health nurse was also present at group.  My group.  My saviour.  My social outlet.  My support network.    She said, “There is nothing like the power of women when they meet together like this.”

It was a week for parent teacher meetings.

I am thankful I go in there knowing I am going to hear only good and encouraging things about our boys.  But mostly I want to know they are enjoying school, are mannerly, and honing their social etiquette skills.   

It was a week for jokes.

Oldest Boy is going through a comedic phase at the moment and using me as a guinea pig for his made up jokes.  Thankfully he has one or two that actually work and have made me laugh.  I suspect, however, these two were “found” somewhere.  Nevertheless I would like to share them with you.

“What do you call a dinosaur that sat on a sharp stone?  A mega-sore-arse!”

"What do you call a dinosaur what’s blind?  Do-you-think-he-sawrus?”

How has your week been so far?

Comfort Zone

image credit:  theprospect.net

I’ve a question!  I’ve a question!

What’s the big deal with “leaving your comfort zone” every once in a while?

I don’t get it.

I like my comfort zone.  And it likes me.  I don’t get snarky, I don’t feel anxious or feel under pressure.  Equally I don’t stress about every little thing when I’m in my comfort zone.

I don’t like leaving it.  Not one little bit.  I’m happy there.

I’m at that stage in my life where I know what I like and I don’t bother with what doesn’t interest me. 

I’m fine with that. 

Sometimes a change isn’t as good as a rest.  Sometimes a change can stress someone [me] out so much, they [I] need a damn holiday to recover from it.

I like routine.  I am fond of routine.  It helps me function.

I often joke that if you visit my house even twenty years after I first move in you will find everything in exactly the same place. 

Years ago someone said to me that she keeps her stuff all over the house.  She doesn’t have any one place for her belongings.

I didn’t get that either.  There’s a certain comfort for me knowing if I put my book down somewhere, it will be there when I return to pick it up.

I like that. 

I kind of like knowing what to expect in as much as can be expected.   

For example, I don’t like things changing at the last minute, putting me under pressure. 

I don’t like driving in unfamiliar built up areas.  I don’t like worrying that I am about to cause an accident and put mine or some other family in danger, because I am unfamiliar with the road.

If I were a flavour I would be vanilla with not even a hint of ripple in my make-up.  Vanilla through and through.  Bland, plain old boring vanilla.

But I happen to like vanilla.  A lot.

And FYI after chocolate, vanilla is the world’s favourite flavour.  Closely followed by orange.

That’s right.  The world. 

None of your mysterious, sexy dark velvet somethings.  Not a mention of daring rocky road.  Rum raisin anyone?

Recently I attended a 6 week Control Your Stress course.  It was great.  I really enjoyed it.  I identified with a lot of what the instructor spoke about.  I learnt a lot.

I learned to recognise the early warning signs of stress and what can happen if they are allowed get out of control.

There is nothing to be gained from ignoring those little alarm bells and sometimes, in order to relieve the pressure and anxiety of a certain situation, there is simply nothing for it but to face up to the matter and tackle it head on.

In other words, abandon my comfort zone, leave the safety net behind and deal with it.

Gulp.