We headed to the hotel on the Wednesday and after un¬packing our things we headed to the bar in reception and slowly started to meet the other families who were also going with us. There were overexcited children every¬where. Early evening we headed to the function room for dinner and had a lovely meal served followed by an en¬tertainer for the children. Brooke was his helper through his act and she had great fun laughing at his silly antics. After this had finished the children were given present bags provided by the children’s heart federation which were packed with goodies. We headed off to bed then at it was past 9pm and we were being woken up at 3am.

The following morning we had an early breakfast then got the coach to Gatwick. We checked in and got given luminous belts to wear so we could be seen clearly by the group leaders. We got many funny looks as we walked around, 42 of us with bright belts. We boarded the plane and had a 3 hour flight to Santa’s wonderland.

We arrived in Lapland all excited and ready to go. We headed to a big changing area where we got provided with snow suits and boots and got prepared for the cold, except it was warmer than it was when we left London. The view was amazing from the airport even though it hadn’t snowed for 2 weeks there was snow everywhere. We had a short coach journey to the hotel which was our base for the day.

Surrounding the hotel were all the activities for the day. Snowmobiles, sliding slope, horse sleigh rides, reindeer rides, kick sledges, husky rides, an ice palace to look around and of course a skidoo ride up to see Santa. We had a go on the horse sleighs first and Brooke sat up front with jack and us in the sledge. All you could hear were the horses’ bells and it was really peaceful. We then headed up a snowy path through the trees with candle lights showing the way and found a snow maze where the kids had fun while we waited for our skidoo ride to see Santa. Santa was in his cabin and knew who we were when we entered. We took a mince pie for him and a car¬rot for Rudolph but Rudolph was resting for the big day so Santa said he would give it to him later that day. We had a long chat with Santa and before we left he gave us an early Christmas present.

We headed for a reindeer ride after and had a lovely ride through the trees. We heard the huskies barking so de¬cided to do these next and Jack wasn’t too keen but we persuaded him. We laid on the sled and were pulled by 6 dogs; it was fast. The dogs we had kept arguing and it was quite scary. Just near the huskies there was a ice pal¬ace and we had a look around this 3 bedroom place before stopping in the ice kitchen for a hot chocolate and cookie. We headed back to the hotel for some food and there was a big buffet for us to dig into. We saw some of our group and had a chat before we headed back out for more fun. All around the activities there were log seats and campfires with tents where you could warm up but we didn’t need these as it was so mild. The kids had rides on the mini snowmobiles then headed to the kick sleds where they spent ages going up and down the slope. Brooke found a spot of soft snow and start¬ed making a snow angel but we had to move her as she was at the bottom of the sled slope! Typical Brooke! We headed to the shop for a bit of souvenir shopping before heading back to the hotel to wait for the coach to take us back to the airport.

Back at the airport we got our snowsuits and boots off and headed to board the plane. The children at this point were exhausted but they didn’t give in easily. After a gentle struggle our 2 children were asleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  Back at the hotel we sleepily headed to bed.

The next day we headed to breakfast and said our good¬byes to the rest of the families.

We had a brilliant time even though it was exhausting and fun was had by all. It was very well organised and we would like to thank everyone who was involved in helping our children experience such a magical day.

The Lapland trip is offered every year to a child aged 5-11 with a heart condition. Please let us know if you would like your child to go into the hat for this year’s trip.

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