Living with Cerebral Palsy 🍋🍋

Saturday 13 December 2014

Walking in the Air

Christmas has started at chez Drake and that's official, because the tree has come down from t'attic. Not just because of that though, but because today we took Elin to see a special screening of 'The Snowman' and you don't get much more christmassy than that. 'The Snowman' was always my Mum's favourite, then by osmosis one of my favourites. Then, Elin's wonderful childminder encouraged the obsession as her little boys played it pretty much on repeat from October onwards in the years Elin was with them. Since then we have played the DVD for Elin each year and her enjoyment of the music really can't be denied, she visibly listens each time and smiles her head off. Why wouldn't she? It's beautiful. So, when I discovered that Chester Cathedral were holding a screening of it, along with a 25 piece orchestra playing the music, we just had to go and take Nanny too of course.
Elin hasn't had the most relaxed week in the world so I was a bit worried about how she would react. The Cathedral was absolutely swarming, not only because of the screening but also due to a Chronicles of Narnia exhibition (which I would also have loved to have seen!) . I have to say it wasn't particularly well organised, you had to queue all the way through the narrow stone corridors , continually bumping into people trying to get out. Not much room for passing buggy's/chairs. Then, on arrival at the box office we were told to turn around, go all the way back out and around to the side entrance of the Cathedral- as were many others. People were pushing to get in and 'Snowmen' audience members were pushing to get back out. Not good. I wondered if it would have been too much to put a small sign at the entrance telling 'Snowmen' visitors to go to the other door. Or maybe one of the countless high-vis stewards could have simply shouted it out now and then to the teeming crowds of people?? It could have been pretty easily avoided- I don't suffer disorganisation very well! If it hadn't been christmas I might have complained, but I didn't want to be a humbug.When we got to the other door we had to wait ten minutes and form another queue. Needless to say all this had taken it's toll on Elin who was now bouncing around in her chair in the grips of stress-induced dystonia. I have to admit I was worried about whether she was up for an orchestral performance in a vast, unfamiliar space.
 I needn't have worried. It didn't take her long to calm down. As the orchestra started and the lighting changed she looked around, all wide eyed and wondering. So cute. The orchestra played a good 20 minutes of 'The Nutcracker Suite' prior to 'The Snowman' starting. Elin wasn't interested in this. She shot me a few 'bored' looks and wriggled around on my knee as if to say 'Oh Mum what's occurring-I thought this was the Snowman?'. I started to worry again that she wasn't going to cope with the duration of the show. Then- it started. We immediately noticed a change in Elin (not just Paul and I- Nanny noticed too so it definitely wasn't wishful thinking!). She stilled, listened intently and broke into a wide smile which progressed into extra loud guffaws. This pattern repeated several times throughout the performance-she really did laugh very loudly!!  To our minds, there is no WAY she didn't recognise the score of 'The Snowman'. She absolutely did and she loved it. And that, blog fans, is where Christmas begins for us this year. If the rest of the holidays are just as delightful, we will feel very lucky indeed.
Oh- we decorated the tree too, while 'The Pogues' were on. Carlsberg don't do Christmassy Saturdays.......

Waiting for it to start

I love 'The Snowman' I do, Mum.

Choosing decs for the tree...


 Ta-da!

Nadolig Llawen
xxx

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