Dear Santa, do you know where I live?

Dear Santa,

Is it really that time already?  How is it, that this year has flown by so fast and I simply can’t believe it’s time to put up the tree, battle with the Christmas lights and think of cunning ways to stop the cat from climbing it and destroying everything shiny…..again.

I’m sure your year has also been very busy, working away with your Elves trying to keep up with the new and latest gadgets…I think you forgot to bring me my Wii Fit last year by the way….either that or you delivered it to the wrong chimney! Well, I HAVEN’T MOVED HOUSE, so maybe this year?

I have also been busy myself, mainly trying my best to be nice, keeping in touch with friends, helping old people across the street….. (sometimes, even when they don’t want to cross) and generally trying to be a good person. It’s exhausting!

It’s funny, as I look back and remember all the Christmases I have experienced so far ( I try not to think about how many really,that’s a secret only you and I share) and although I have spent many of them in different places and with different people- on beaches, up mountains, across the sea from my family, I always marvel that you are still able to find me,so I feel it’s important and try my best, to hold on to the traditions that make Christmas’ Christmas-y’ for me. Long gone are the days of waking up at the crack of dawn, feeling my way in the dark to the end of my bed to my pillowcase …. (well it was a makeshift stocking, improvised by my mother) blearily inspecting everything with glee, before running excitedly down to create chaos under the Christmas tree. I tend to take it easier these days, sit down have breakfast and welcome the day with my family…there may even be a Christmas Mimosa involved in there somewhere, when we are lucky enough to be in the same country and I really stop to appreciate each gift as its carefully unwrapped. Well I suspect it takes the Elves most of the year to wrap everything; seems a shame to rip it open so quickly.

 I also feel it’s important to reach out to those that I haven’t been able to keep in constant contact with all year, a little reminder that I’m still here and thinking about them. With the many friends and acquaintances we make throughout our lives, especially those I only see during the summers at Long Lake, there really is no better time than Christmas time to extend well wishes, greetings and salutations, to those you love, like or just want to say ‘Hi’ to. That reminds me it’s almost time to send out our Long Lake Camp Christmas cards, I already know there has been some anticipation as to when they are going out, but all I can assure you is, it’s soon. So be on the look out. I’ll of course be sure to include you Santa, along with the Elves and the reindeers, on our vast mailing list.

With warmest wishes,

Me

P.s. I know you must eat a lot of cookies and milk on Christmas eve, so I have decided to make you Sherry Trifle instead, Just a dash of sherry however, so as not to interfere with your sleigh driving.

Who needs plastic reindeers....

So as I start hitting the shops at night (mainly because this seems to be the best time as its so cold out most sensible warm blooded people are already curled up on their couches with hot coco) I  feverishly scour the heavily laden shelves for that perfect present. I desperately look at everything, because I want to give something thoughtful and unique and my promise to myself that I’m going to make every one I know, something cool next year, fly’s out of the window because its already December… eek.

 After hours of this and when my blood sugar is dangerously low, the panic has started to slowly creep its way up and I start grabbing at anything shiny. I suddenly wonder what an earth I’m doing. Why is there a compulsion to spend ridiculous amounts of money on lets face it, things nobody really needs…..ok so maybe I really did need that pizza stone my mum got me…how would I cook pizza otherwise?…oh and maybe without that drill set a few years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to put up those shelves…but most of it…most of it is just extra clutter in our lives that we just don’t need!

Catalogues then start arriving in droves, the postman can barely fit them into our mailboxes and small woodland creatures have started to gather outside the windows looking for shelter as most of their forest homes, have ended up in our recycling bins. Its Christmas madness I tell you!!!

Wouldn’t it be far better to get an experience as a gift instead, you know like those ‘sky dive lessons’ or ‘spend a day grooming monkeys’. Or how about a big red shiny brochure to Long Lake wrapped under that tree, with a golden ticket saying ‘admit one’ …holy Christmas cake… a million experiences all in one go, what could be better.

 Now please don’t get me wrong… I love the sound the paper makes as you rip it open on Christmas morning, and the anticipation of hidden surprises….but actually I think a wrapped up adventure sounds much more exciting and less environmentally destructive as I guiltily look at the crumpled tinselly explosion under the tree after everything’s been unwrapped.

However……

Saying all of this….

Surely the joy of Christmas at the end of the day, should be about being alive and spending quality time with the ones you cherish, rather than wondering if you’ll get something useful this year, that you won’t have to return. A time to be kind to others, appreciate what we already have in our lives and worry less about what to buy people to let them know how much we love and appreciate them…when all you really have to do is tell them or show them , just by being there.

 So lets just take a step back shall we, breathe in the peppermint, take a whiff of the cranberries and kiss the ones you love…with or without the mistletoe, because really how many singing Santa’s and inflatable reindeers does one person need.

Hoglake summers

Hoglake summers.

Well having read all of the Harry potter books cover to cover over the years, it was only natural that I go and see the new adaptation of the film the deathly Hallows, this Thanksgiving weekend. Actually what with the turkey overload and the only activity I could actually still manage after all that pie, sitting down in a darkened movie theatre to digest was perfectly welcomed, especially as I’ve been waiting desperately and patiently for a year now!

It was of course everything I hoped it would be…kind of similar to the book…well as much of the book you could cram into a film already hours long and in two parts!

Anyway…as I sat there caught up in the magic and with a wondrous sense of anticipation, it got me to thinking how much I would have loved to have gone to a school like Hogwarts. Ok so I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s fantasized about such things, but really, how fabulous would it be, to get involved in such amazing activities have exciting adventures and cool lessons and be surrounded by all my friends all day long!....

Wait a minute…..hang on to your broomsticks….. so the activities aren’t actually magical per se, and I can’t actually create potions, walk the grounds in my invisibility cloak (although that would be handy for bunk sweeps), or hide Horcruxes amongst the millions of different studios we have…. mainly because I would have to kill someone first and that’s just not an activity we do at camp, but when you actually think about the magic that is created at long lake every day, it truly is astounding.

 The way a kid can come to camp, timid, shy and unconfident in their abilities (a bit like Harry potter on his first day at Hogwarts) and after just 3 short weeks, they have magically been transformed into this amazing, creative and much more confident being.

 Strong bonds have been made, some for life, and a sense of accomplishment and team work that can only be brought out by like minded people. Also the great sense of togetherness, as if we were all in the same house team (Gryffindor of course, well, that’s just my preference) and the overwhelming sense that are all party to a secret magical world that only us Long Lakers’ know about.

So yes all in all, long lake is a bit Like Hogwarts in a sense, definitely somewhere to grow and learn new things, but most of all a place to discover the creative magic in all of us!