Misunderstandings, Reconcilliation and Excitement.

Christmas is that time of year when you see so much of the negative aspects of human behavior. Greed, selfishness and ultimately families disintegrating, children screaming in shops and hitting other people. People shoving others out of the way. Fighting over tinsel and turkey. What I don't get is why people act like this these days.

When I was a kid, Christmas was a magical time of year and no matter what trouble we had in the year, it was all forgotten and the family would be together. Even the year of my parent's divorce, we all found a way of being together on Christmas day with the rest of the family. Christmas eve was always spent at my Nan Jordan's. Nan would make a huge spread and the rest of the family would drop in, we'd all exchange greetings and some gifts and around about 7, Nan would always put "The Snowman" on BBC. My brothers and I would all sit together, Stephen would be complaining about how he didn't want to watch it and then as soon as the opening piano theme of "Walking In The Air" began he would sit watching with the rest of us.

Christmas day would always begin with Stephen coming in to my room and waking me up, then when I was up, we would go to my parent's room and ask "Mum, Dad, can we get up?" and eventually we were allowed downstairs to see a huge heap of presents for us. One of my fonder memories would have been the year I got a Barbie Horse Trailer and Stephen got an Action Man Jeep. Dad had assembled the Jeep days before and wrapped the empty box. A bemused Stephen had to watch my Dad wheel in his ready built and set up Jeep. And HE LOVED IT! My Dad and I spent the morning assembling my Barbie Horse Trailer. He was good at things like that.

Another thing that made me laugh as a child was when our Labrador Cross, Judy found the Christmas Cake. I was only 4 at the time, but my mum found the poor dog swaying and staggering. My Mum had a habit at Christmas for putting lots of rum in the cake... Enough said really...

This is what Christmas should be about. Family and friends. Speaking of friends, I have manage to reconcile with an old friend recently so I am very happy about this.

Loves
Wendy x

I need more DVD storage...

I have WAY too many DVD's these days. The weird thing is, I actually spend most of my time watching them and relaxing. It's a way of occupying myself and helping to distract me from the things that concern me. Or escaping when I'm in pain. I spend a lot of time in pain these days, but I think it's keeping it all in perspective that helps me stay grounded. Makes me think though, about what my favourite films are and why.

I guess the earliest film I loved was "Little Shop of Horrors". I used to watch that way back when I was a little tot. Singing along to all the songs and loving the character of Audrye. A funny memory of this was when I was about 4 or 5, I cant remember exactly, but I had this curiosity involving the flap of our video player. I used to like ejecting videos and trying to stick my finger in and pull it out again. Don't ask me why, I was a strange little kid really. I will admit this right now, but I digress, one day this backfired and I got my finger trapped in the player. That really hurt and I did what a little kid does and screamed my head off. I can't remember what happened next but I know my nail did come off after a few days.

As I got older, I used to like watching films with my older brothers. I was the only girl and I often felt left out because of this, but I used to like watching "Transformers The Movie" with my oldest brother, Richard. Yes it  was cheaply animated and cheesy as hell, but it holds some very fond memories and the fact that Stan Bush's "You've Got The Touch" still makes me grin like a mad woman has to stand for something.

In the late 1990's, I would say either '95 or '96, I fell in love with a Disney film, "The Lion King" and I remember my favourite character was Scar, around this time, I started talking to an imaginary friend, who was a lion called Scar and my usual companions in the car would have been "Biker Mice From Mars" another cartoon that I have rediscovered from my youth. I got a Vinnie and his bike for my birthday when I was 7. I remember this because my mum and nan had both brought me these. Instead, my nan gave me a Gymnast Barbie. I got the rest of the "Biker Mice" and their respective bikes that Christmas. I found a toy of Scar in the Disney Store in the Florida Mall and I had to have him!

My final favourite film that I feel is worth a mention would be "Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children". As I have said before, FFVII has been a part of my life for many years, but in 2005 when the feature length film came out, I was hooked and in love. Seeing the new 2009 cut recently, this is going to be a favourite for many years to come.

Having got all the films I love recently on DVD, I had some of them, now I have them ALL, it really got me thinking about how watching things that we used to enjoy as a child really brings back those warm, happy memories. I think this is important, especially when you have few happy childhood memories or when you have a very uncomfortable present and you just need to distract yourself. Plus taking part in a protest on Facebook for the NSPCC (changing profile pics to cartoon characters) really made me think about this and about the way certain things and films make us feel and it is a reflective thing really. Instead of my general ranting just lately, I guess this week has been very frustrating and my home environment wasn't a healing one, but C'est La Vie.

Loves
Wendy x