Tag: Tinker Bell

🐟🪸🐠 🐟 What A Wonderful World! 🐟🪸🐠 🐟

Disney Themed Apparel

It was the Friday before a long week-end. The son was excited that his college-going sister was coming home, and bustled about in the morning. “Amma! Do we have any Disney t-shirts?” He yelled in response to my “It’s getting late, what are you doing? We have to go.”

“It’s Disney themed clothes today in school. I don’t have any Mickey Mouse tees or even Marvel tees. Anything?”

I stopped – midway through pouring my coffee into a cup. How could there not be any Disney t-shirts in the house? How could Disney have snuck out so quietly? All those years of Disneyland trips and Disney themed toys and clothes. How could there be none now? I felt a pang for those childhood years that seem like they just rushed past & pulled myself together.

I vaguely remembered an old sweatshirt I had picked out for the donation pile, and was happy to see a small Mickey Mouse on it. Off we went to school jabbering about the daughter’s visit, the son sporting a sweatshirt with slightly short sleeves.

The daughter arrived later that day. After a joyous and somewhat exuberant reunion that made a few rose petals fall out in the flowerbed outside, order was restored.

“Movie night!” They yelled together when asked what they’d like to do.

Movie Night

Choosing movies for week-end movie nights is something of a process in the nourish-n-cherish household. Every person is allowed 3-5-10-12 vetoes. Then, among the ones that did not get a veto, there is a vote.

Sometimes, a process like this tests Yours Truly’s patience, but the husband never really tires of it. Every veto spurs him on, like he is watching a great wave gather power before crashing on the shores. He gets excited. He bows to the almighty powers of whatever is trending then: the internet, social media, AI, and relentlessly chases after good entertainment options. It is like watching a puppy play with a butterfly. The more the butterfly flies, the more excited the puppy gets.

It baffles me.

One day, on a walk with my friends, I confessed that I sometimes just agree to something to get the process over with. I was still wincing with the previous night’s choice: Amazing Superhero This or Fantastic Superhero That. One of those.

Much has been written about the democratic process, but one of my friends nailed it that day on the walk: “I am all for democracy, as long as I get the outcome I want.” She was referring to the choices she would like her children to make, of course, but I found that true and hilarious. Ask any politician, and it is something they would heartily agree with in private. Some may even be brash enough to tout it as their trademark.

Over the years, the process has become more laborious. The husband rises to the challenge each time, and I felt a little sorry for him. I notice he rarely exercises his own veto just so that we can agree on something.

So, I told the children that between them, whatever they agreed upon, we’d watch that, and headed out for a walk with the husband.

Themed Choices

“Okay – how about we watch Tinker Bell today?” The daughter said, almost as soon as I set foot in the house.  I thought about it. “Interesting choice, but did your brother get a chance to agree?” I said. I could not imagine her newly-minted teenage brother who did not own any Disney tees agreeing to Tinker Bell.

“Of course he did!”, she said, ruffling his hair. “Tomorrow, we are watching Cars!” The son beamed. “We thought it would be an interesting back-to-our-childhood themed movie week-end.”

I smiled, and the husband moaned. “As if it wasn’t enough that we had to watch these movies on repeat for years!”

“You can use your veto.” I said, feeling sorry for the man, while the children objected furiously, “You said we could watch anything as long as we both agreed!”

The husband, ever a sop to appease the children said, “No no! We’ll watch.” And then sighed so heavily as he took off his shoes, I thought he was getting a foot massage from an alligator.

So, that’s how we found ourselves in a Back-to-Disney movie marathon.

Back-to-memories

It was wonderful. Both movies had to be stopped several times as we remembered little anecdotes from their childhood. These movies formed the basis of so many conversations, stories, games, Disneyland visits, theatrical shows of display, and dumb-charades games. It was a part of our culture.

We seldom to stop to think of long-form entertainment. But any time we do, we realize how important it is to have good entertainment options. Books, movies, art, music, theatre. What would we do without it?

It would be like living in a monochrome world, my mind supplied. I watched the children cackling over some joke in the movies, and thanked the world for Disney movies. The memories in our heads seem so much more colorful thanks to them.

I made a note to buy some Disney t-shirts and beamed my happiness, feeling almost bioluminescent.

What a wonderful world!

The Secret of the Wings

So many days in the past few weeks, I have tried desperately to snatch a moment here, and a moment there, in the midst of hectic, crowding days of meetings, expectations and deadlines. Sometimes, I peek out of the window in the precious moments between ‘Leave meeting’ and ‘Join meeting’ to catch a glimpse of the beautiful November days with its soft sunshine through the yellowing leaves, each leaf 🍁🍃🍂 taking its chance to show its beauty to the world in a grand flourish before it lets go. The evenings are dark by the time the little tiles on my meetings are gone, and I clutch my coat about me as I stare at the tiny ✨ dots lighting up the night sky instead. 

So, we went:  before the crowds hit the mountain resort for the Thanksgiving holidays, the husband worked his magic and found us a little house that was free for a couple of days only. 

All of the Californian plains that we traversed for the 100 odd miles was bursting forth with fall colors. The reds were particularly fetching against the browning hills. Traffic was very light, and as we started climbing the Sierra Nevada mountains, a nippiness crept into the air. It is the lunar waxing phase, and the moon was out early in the afternoon keeping us company as we climbed the mountains. The fall colors gave way to the snowy reaches, and soon, it was apparent that here, it was no longer Fall. Here it was Winter.

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The journey reminded me of the scene in the Tinker Bell movie where the warm fairies peek into the winter lands. The orange, yellow and the brilliant reds slowly gave way to evergreens and a world blanketed in snow. There is nothing half as marvelous as a sunny day with wispy clouds against the azure skies and a snowy backdrop. This was winter wonderland alright. 

Mulish as I was, I took off on a walk as soon as we reached our destination. I huffed and puffed up the steep hills, my lack of exercise clearly showing in the panting under the mask. I was grateful for the mask for it held the warmth of my breath in as I walked on towards the snowy reaches affording a view of the vast Lake Tahoe from up above. The moon twinkled its milky light on the snowy  reaches below, and I stopped here and there to take a picture. I remembered reading in The Sea Around Us that some of our ancestors thought the moon was made up of ice (it was a much older notion of course). It was an appealing theory – standing there in the light of the moon, with the thin glint of the snow light all about me, I could imagine how our ancestors came up with that one. 

I like to see how we made leaps in understanding, and I feel the joy of every discovery almost anew as I gain even a little understanding deeper than before. One of the things that still astounds me is the spatial intelligence required to figure out our position in the cosmos. I watch the constellations change their positions in the sky every night, I notice the moon at a different place and time, and yet, every time, I marvel at the leap of understanding for mankind. 

Read: The Man Who Deciphered the Heavens – a post on Nicholas Copernicus

That evening, the movie of choice was Tinker Bell’s Secret of the Wings. The daughter and the son overruled all the action packed thrillers suggested by the hardworking man who found us the cabin in the first place, and we settled in to watch the feisty fairy instead. Tinker Bell, the impulsive little thing that she is, is curious to see what the winter wonderland is like. Since the fairies of the warm lands are banned from going over to the winter side, of course she wants to go. It only seemed fitting to sit and watch the little movie together. 

Closeted in what looked like an adventurer’s cabin, with the soft light of the snow reflecting against the moonlight outside, a fun movie, and the warmth of food and beverage created the magic that Tinker Bell and her friends were creating up in Pixie Hollow. The pixie dust swirled and poured out in to the world, and we did the same with our comments. 

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We sought peace in the less popular trails. It was a trip meant to process the year, and say thanks to the world in spite of all that has happened during the year, or because of all that has happened during the year. I feel most like Anne of Green Gables when she says she does not know how to pray, but when out in the woods, looking up at the great gifts of nature, she can just feel a prayer and let it out into the universe. 

Isn’t it magical when our most positive thoughts take on wings and soar?

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“I’d go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep, woods, and I’d look up into the sky–up–up–up–into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer. …” Anne of Green Gables, By L M Montgomery

Curious George Dances Gangnam Style with Tinker Bell

For those who haven’t read Curious George and his adventures, I suggest you do so. I love the little monkey and his wonderful adventures.

Man-in-the-Yellow-Hat

This time, Curious George was in an adventure of sorts with The Man with the Yellow Hat, Professor Wiseman and Tinker Bell the naughty fairy.

When Curious George the monkey heard that Tinker Bell, that amazing fairy, was going be at large, he was excited. He was a curious monkey and fairies, especially plucky ones like Tinker Bell, always interested him. He climbed on to the Man with the Yellow Hat and said, "Oooh oohh aaa aa! Awwww! ooh ooh aaa aaa!" The Man understood him as usual and arranged for little Curious George to go to the party where Tinker Bell was going to hang out with her friends.

It was a wonderful party and the Man-with-the-Yellow-Hat was a big hit. He could barely fit into the pictures with his tall hat. Even Captain Hook forgot about being evil and relaxed in the radiating yellow of the Man. Passing cars slowed down mistaking the Man-with-the-yellow-hat to be a yellow traffic light. But Tinker Bell the fairy swooped in with her sparkling green wings and set them going again. All in all, it was a wonderful party even though Professor Wiseman acted out of character on occasion. You see Professor Wiseman had come for the party and was talking to the Queen when a wonderful witch decided to kick the party up a notch by getting folks to dance to “Gangnam Style”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Curious George and the Man-with-the-Yellow-hat loved Gangnam style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style) and really wanted Professor Wiseman to dance. Professor Wiseman rose to the challenge and tried to dance. But she chose her steps poorly and landed up twisting her ankle. Tinker Bell tried to heal Professor Wiseman’s ankle, but she was tired and there wasn’t enough magic left for an ankle to heal.

Curious George is now Professor Wiseman’s helper and plays with her whenever he can to make sure he distracts her mind from the twisted ankle. Tinker Bell is spreading her magical love about the place and making Professor Wiseman feel comfortable.

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The End