The Christmas Trees

On Saturday, this one and I managed to fit a visit to the Christmas Tree festival in between piano and GB PE practices, following a Night at the Museum with very little sleep.

It was certainly worth it.

When we arrived at the Church, one of the most unique trees greeted us..

Before we had even made our way into the church, we had spotted the gift tree

...and the Abbey Community College tree which was filled with the dreams of the students.

The church looked stunning.

Of course, one of the first trees we had to visit was the GB tree.  It wasn't hard to find as it was beside the GB window and sparkling with "whiter than white" lights.  It was the brightest tree in the room (reminding all of the glare of freshly whitened GB guddies)

Bea was delighted to find her star

... but was somewhat put out by the nonsense of the glittery guddies at the base of the tree.  Everyone knows that GB guddies are whiter than white!!!  At least the toes were all pointing.  

We stopped at the BB tree too, filled with little drummer-boys (their drumming muffled by the cotton on their cotton bud drumsticks)

The work and detail on the patchwork trees was incredible.

Truly a work of art!

As was the craft tree from the Church of the Good Shepherd where everything was knitted.

On a shepherd theme, we spent some time at the "Ewe Tree" from Mossgrove looking for Josie and Phoebe's creations (we didn't find them)

The Men's Only tree was very inventive....

...as was the carpenter's tree

...and the bowler's tree was just perfect

The Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer tree...

...and the worship dance trees had to be admired...

(although I wish someone had ironed that tablecloth!)

The Prayer tree, with a cross in the centre, was very effective...

One of my favourite trees was Mums + Tots Snowman.

...and the most popular with the young people was of course the McDonald's tree

Some trees broke your heart a little, like Heaven's Nursery

and the Refugee tree

The Friendship Clubs tree (in a wheelchair and decorated with bus passes and milk of magnesia bottles) certainly started a lot of conversations.

You can see it here beside the library's Knit and Natter tree.

All of the trees were beautiful and memorable.  

But, as always, I have left the best to last.  My favourite tree was...

 the Bell Tree

Harry Birthday Bea

So it's your 9th birthday and you've just returned from the Warner Bros Studio tour when you get THIS message for your birthday...

... you know there may be a bit of a theme ...

So you unwrap your first gift (wearing your Hogwarts jammies)

...and it's Voldemort's wand!...  

Then you unwrap another and you get a Hogwarts cushion 

(You didn't even know it was possible to get a Hogwarts cushion!)

So the day gets off to a good start, especially when you get your favourite breakfast....

(Homemade pancakes with nutella - candle optional)

Then it's back to school, but you don't mind because

(i) You get to wear your "Star for a Day" birthday badge from the WBS

(ii) You get to hold up your new Hogwarts School List chalkboard

and 

(iii) You get to see all your school friends again and bring cake to school (which you get TWO pieces of because, well, it is your birthday)

Then after school, you go for a cycle with your cousins...

...and you cycle to a coffee shop for lunch...

Then for tea, your family arrive...

...and there is another chocolate birthday cake!...

... nine candles, count them if you like...

For your birthday, you collected some Claire's vouchers, so you head off to spend them the very next day.  Because it's your birthday, they have a "buy 3 get 3" offer on.  So you buy all the essentials a 9 year old needs...

... including sparkly nail polish, a beanie baby, 2 lip glosses, a choker, make up bag and bff keyrings.

Then, you need to take a packed lunch to school and you get to christen your Hogwarts lunch bag!

Just when your birthday SHOULD be all over, it is the weekend and some of your friends come to watch Harry Potter with you.

You make sure that they know where to go...

... and that they are most welcome...

So you start to watch the movie, but you need to get some pick 'n mix, so it's off to Honeydukes sweet shop...

Where you can take some ...

or...

strangely, no one ate the Fudge Flies!?!  

Lots of people took the "Every Flavour Beans" though (and despite the fact that they were really regular jelly beans were convinced that they had a vomit flavoured one that they had to spit out)

There were however, REAL Every Flavour Beans, which remained untouched....

You could even have a golden snitch, if you could catch one...

After much slaving in the kitchen driving to McDonalds, there was food to eat.

(Well, there was a little slaving in the kitchen)

Then it was back to the movie.

Just after Harry's wand chose him and he was presented with his owl, we discovered Olivander's Pop up Wand Shop....

The wands spun around and selected their owners, and then the birthday girl taught everyone a little bit of wand choreography.

 Then everyone had the chance to choose a ribbon.  The ribbon matched a Hogwarts approved pet. (Rat, Owl, Cat, Goat?)  The pets were duly cuddled while we watched on. 

As Harry and Ron traveled on the Hogwarts Express, Harry had his first experience with a chocolate frog "It's the cards you really want", and so we had to try one too...

(the chocolate frogs inside were Freddos)

Eventually the Hogwarts students were sorted into their houses, and so we moved into the dining room, to be sorted too, where, by selecting an upside down ice cream cone (looks a bit like a sorting hat) you revealed an m&m.... green for Slytherin, blue for Ravenclaw, red for Gryffindor and yellow for Hufflepuff.  You then get to fill your cone with ice cream.

Finally, it was time for cake.

Of course, when you slice into the cake, you find the Hogwarts house colours...

Then it was time to say goodbye...

Thankfully there was a Hogwarts chalk board to remind you what to bring home.

It was only then that the birthday girl got to put her feet up!

(in her new socks of course)