It's New Years Eve, and as we lie on the edge of 2012, looking forward to another Year, I am thankful that the Mayans were wrong, there will be a 2013!

Heading back to Singapore after spending Christmas and indeed the last 6 months, in the USA.  I am looking forward to once again getting back in step with Singapore, and I must admit relishing the thought of some warmth.  

I love, love, love my Christmas pixie!  He is my favorite tree ornament and has quite a history.  

Here is how this little guy came into my life and why he holds such sentimental value for me.

Way back in the 1960's, my Dad took a job at Manchester Airport in the Northwest of the U.K.  He started working for B.O.A.C as it was at the time, later it became British Airways.  Dad was ground maintenance crew, so his job was the cleaning, re-fueling and towing of the British Airways aircraft coming and going from Manchester Airport.  It was thanks to his job and his staff/virtually free/standby airline tickets (a perk of the job back then), that we got to experience amazing family holidays (Spain, Malta and Cyprus).  Back in those days, not many people were taking holidays abroad so we were very lucky.  To this day I still love flying, I have been doing it since I was 6 or 7 years old so it just feels like second nature to me.

Anyway, I digress - back to the Pixie.  Sometimes travelers would unintentionally leave items behind on the planes.  The cleaning crews would find all sorts of things and one day, in the early 1970's, my Dad found these two little Pixie's.  If I recall correctly they were left on a flight that had come in from Scandinavia.  Found items were put into the lost and found, if unclaimed after a period of time, the person who found them was able to keep them.  Dad brought home these two little pixies and somehow they ended up on the Christmas tree.  Every year when we were kids, my sister and I would put them on the tree. 

The first Christmas I was married, in 1983, my Mum gave me one of the Pixies so I could put it on my own tree. My sister got the other one when she got married. Every year it is one of the first ornaments to go on my tree, and has been for the last 29 years!

My Dad ended up working for British Airways for over 30 years.  He was one of the best.  We lost him in 2003 and I think of him often, but never more so than when I put my special little Pixie on the Christmas tree.  Nice find Dad!

Do you have any special Christmas traditions?  If so I would love to hear about them.