Parent to Parent

As obscure holidays go, none is so important in our house as “National Winnie-the-Pooh Day,” celebrated on A.A. Milne’s birthday each year.

No one knows the origin of the holiday, and we’re not even sure if “national” refers to the United States, Great Britain, or somewhere else entirely. But my daughter Haylee, who would be a serious contender for the title of “Winnie-the-Pooh’s biggest fan”, has very big plans for the day every year. This is not the sort of holiday where you just watch one little movie. She needs to be surrounded by her stuffed animals, watch a marathon of Pooh movies, and have appropriate snacks – honey obviously, but also something to honor the other characters (carrot cake

Haylee had two disappointments as National Winniethe-Pooh day approached a few weeks ago. The first was that she learned that her uncle, who was of course to be invited to her party, was going to be in England on the big day and wouldn’t be able to attend. That disappointment was at least mitigated by the realization that he would actually be in the place where it all happened.

Then, due to lots of company and some other scheduling conflicts, that weekend turned out to be the only time when we could take my son Daniel to Disney to use up the last two days on a four-day pass before it expired. Now, Disney wouldn’t generally be a problem, except Daniel wanted to go to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, neither of which has a significant Winniethe-Pooh presence. Sometimes you can see Pooh and Tigger in Epcot, but not always.

So we arrived at a compromise. Dad would take Daniel and Hanna to Epcot, and I would take Haylee to Magic Kingdom, where one can always count on finding Pooh characters and taking a ride through the Hundred Acre Wood. I even managed to get a reservation for a late lunch at Haylee’s favorite restaurant, Crystal Palace, so we could meet multiple characters without waiting in any lines.

Even though it wasn’t quite like she had pictured it, it turned out to be a great National Winnie-thePooh day for Haylee. She packed up one each of all of her Pooh friends in a giant bag and brought them along. And as a result, the characters at the restaurant definitely recognized her as a top fan – we were there for two parades, and each time, one of the characters came and got Haylee to lead it.

And the icing on the cake was when her uncle returned the next week with a new Pooh stuffed animal from Harrod’s, the same store where the original Winnie-the-Pooh was purchased.

Until next time,

Jennifer

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