Ellen at ReadyForTen has tagged me on to the end of her latest blog. The blog is about Holiday Mementos. Ellen blogged about her son’s – (Boy 2)  – love of cuddly toys. My daughter, Little Miss Outdoors, has never been able to resist yet another cuddly toy and she, too, has a pile of the furry things next to her bed. I’m convinced that there are at least five pairs of identical toys in that pile but according to Little Miss they are all unique, to be loved and utterly gorgeous. Many of these toys have come from holidays or weekends away.

But it’s snow globes that are LMO’s true holiday gift passion. The collection started years ago when she was about four. My mother, Granny Outdoors, knows that I really do not like ornaments. (She hates them, too.) As  a joke Granny Outdoors decided to buy Little Miss a truly splendid, sparkly version of a snow globe. This inaugural globe was of a mermaid sitting in a silver shell. How could Little Miss resist?! Granny Outdoors knew Little Miss would love it – and that I would need to smile and enjoy the ornament, too.

And, of course, Little Miss fell in love with these cheap, naff ornaments and now is insistent that wherever we go she must have one. I’m sure that in my childhood a snow globe only depicted a scene of winter and, er, snow. These days the snow falls on all kinds of things and places. We have snow falling on the London Eye, the Tower of London, a beach in Lanzarote, kittens, lamas at a zoo and  the Eiffel Tower.

At first Little Miss insisted that we line up the globes on full public display in our dining room. But last year I managed to get Little Miss to agree to re-locating the dust-covered ornaments to her bedroom. I think I told her that she would be able to enjoy them so much more if they were in her room. Thank goodness for that!

Oh, and in retaliation, Granny Outdoors now has a truly wonderful display of those painted ceramic ornaments that Little Miss so enjoys painting at our local Ceramic Experience. Hee hee!