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GLTC, winner of the Best Children’s Retailer at the ECMOD Awards, three years running, have teamed up with Ski Famille to offer a Skiing Holiday prize worth up to £4800.

The prize includes:

-Seven nights accommodation

- Breakfasts x 7

- Afternoon tea x 7

- Adult’s evening meal with wine x 6

- Pre-dinner drinks

- Children’s evening meal x 7

- Five days childcare – up to 8 hours per day

- Children’s ski school collection/delivery

- Channel crossings or airport transfers

The prize is based on a standard Ski Famille package for up to two adults and two children in a catered Ski Famille chalet of the winner’s choice.

For full details of this wonderful competition – click here

When I was very young, (22 and 3 kids under 5!!) extremely poor and living in a ‘back to back, 2 up 2 down house,  my favourite hobby, and escape, was ‘ extreme daydreaming’  about the future.

I envisioned myself taking my kids to the newly opened DisneyWorld in Florida, I walked through my  beautiful double fronted
house and cooked fabulous meals in my state of the art kitchen and swanned round Ascot with the toffs wearing a designer dress and drinking champagne – and being able to afford all this without depending on bank loans or credit  or sacrificing my honesty and integrity – this at a time when I was hard pushed to afford a day out at the local seaside

I’ve always ‘looked’ 5/10 years into the future and ’saw’ how I wanted my life to pan out – what would make me happy and content and ergo my husband, kids, grandkids and friends.

I never had any great plans, burning ambition or a clear idea as to how I was to achieve all this – but every decision I’ve made has been easier – almost automatic – in leading to the life I wanted, because of those ‘daydreams’.

When disaster and traumatic times have happened – and they have – I’ve found solace in my ability to ‘conjure’ up the future knowing that ‘this too will pass’ and, maybe, readjusting my hopes.

I now live in a lovely house, just enjoyed a day at Ascot and my kids all live locally, work in the successful family business and have provided me with the joy of grandchildren and, hopefully, are all happy and ‘daydreaming’ about their futures.

And – if it all goes pear shaped! No worries, I can ’see’ myself pottering round a small 2 bedroomed flat, playing ‘adventure’ games and watching morning TV and having time, lots of lovely time to daydream.

If you know the destination and the people you want to share it with, then choosing the right path becomes a whole lot easier

Children’s Rooms now have their January Sale up and running with some great savings across the board in kids bedding and bedroom accessories PLUS they’ve decided not to pass on the increased VAT – all good news for anyone looking to revamp their childrens bedrooms this New Year.

They have great savings on a range of top current character bedding and curtains, such as Ben 10, Disney Princess and Winnie the Pooh and end of range bargains on Noddy, Hannah Montanna and High School Musical. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for January Sale prices on kids lighting, wall stickers and clocks.

For anyone looking for bargains on kids beds and toddler beds, Children’s Rooms have reduced their character single beds from £99.95 to £64.95 and some of their toddler beds to £69.95.

Happy Shopping.

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m busy updating my JANUARY SALES 2011 page – in fact I’m too busy looking for all the online January sales that actually start a few days before Christmas, to take advantage of any winter bargains I might find.

This year I think we’ll find lots more bargains and genuine sales appearing in January when online stores, particularly, start counting the cost of the incredibly bad weather we’ve experienced this winter, and find their shelves still full of Christmas gifts – which is bad for them but excellent news for the consumers.

Most of the large high street stores, who also have an online presence, have started their January sales early, with the early bird certain to make some substantial savings – a few – Marks and Spencer, in particular, have yet to announce when their sale is due to start – I’m sure last year it started on Christmas Day – but rest assured as soon as it is announced I’ll be listing it on the Allkids January Sales page.

Happy Shopping

On Friday evening I was recommended this free website – Portable North Pole, from a friend who had created a personalised message, online, from Santa to her 5 year old daughter – she really enthused about it, but, being the cynical website owner, that I am, I didn’t think it would be very professional – free things usually aren’t!

On Saturday my daughter was visiting with our, nearly 3 year old, granddaughter, so we decided to have a go and see what happened.

It is a nice clean website – there are a few ads, but nothing too intrusive, and we found there are 3 options – Toddlers, Children and Grown Ups.  We chose the toddler option and found the forms easy, clear and simple to use, and we had the choice of uploading a photo of Imogen and a picture of her main chosen Xmas present. The form also asks what problems, if any, you are experiencing and how good your child is – so far so good.

We finished and waited while the ‘elves’ got our video ready and then brought Imogen to see the finished result – what an absolutely magical experience, we both had tears in our eyes as we saw Imogen’s face light up when she heard Santa say her name,   saw him read from HER  christmas file, and congratulate her on being a very good girl – WOW.

This is a great website and one I can heartily recommend – and, if you can, video your little one as they talk to Santa.

Character merchandise is gaining in popularity and now mainstream products are being also being manufactured with full size kids beds being the latest addition.

Toddler beds arrived first, at Children’s Rooms with pink Peppa Pig and Disney Princess and blue, Toy Story and Thomas proving to be incredibly popular among the 2/4 year olds. Many parents opted to go the whole themed bedroom route as prices proved very competitive for the bedding and bedroom accessories.

We now have full size single beds – 3ft wide and 6ft long with painted headboards depicting their favourite characters or football teams – Disney Princess, Ben 1o, Toy Story, Peppa Pig and Thomas the Tank Engine and Manchester United and Chelsea for the football fans. These beds originally sold at £99.95 but have now been drastically reduced to £64.95.

I’m in the process of listing all the best January Sales which will be online over the next few weeks. Some of the winter sales have already started and there are some great bargains over at GLTC and Verbaudet – two of my favourite kids online stores.

Marks and Spencer may start their sale in the early hours of Christmas morning – I’ll post as soon as I find out, and the rest of the large department stores will soon be following with probably some eyecatching first offers, which will go almost immediately – fastest fingers win in this situation.

So don’t forget to bookmark the January Sales 2010 page and check regularly for the latest winter sales.

My dad used to sing this every Christmas – although not as good as Nat King Cole’s verstion – The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forget - and every year I’d be reduced to a blubbering mess, and made me appreciate the few Christmas presents we did find every Christmas morning, even though times were tough in the early 1950’s.

Today it still brings a lump to my throat, even though most kids have a fabulous Christmas and get far too much, there are still children whose parents or carers are unable or simply don’t care to provide them with Christmas – this is where Kids Company comes in ..

Kids Company was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996, to provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people. And although they work tirelessly all year to provide this help at Christmas they create a Christmas Day Party for hundreds of these children, who have nowhere else to go on Christmas Day.

They also have an online gift list at John Lewis - gift list number 384415, or why not lend a hand and volunteer – you could make a big difference by showing one child that someone does care.