After the first lockdown, things started to slowly open up again. I actually booked tickets for us to go to Lapland UK in November 2020. I always said that I wanted Little E to experience the magic of Lapland UK when she would be old enough to remember it. As things progressed through the year I thought about booking a backup plan visit to a local Father Christmas. It turned out that this was a good plan as we entered a second lockdown in November. I decided to claim a refund for our Lapland UK visit. Little E had recently asked about ice skating as apparently, that is something you should do at Christmas. Having to cancel Lapland UK would mean that she would miss her chance to experience it. I was so pleased when I spotted Ice Skating at Firstsite Colchester. It would mean she would get her first experience of ice skating as we celebrated Christmas in Colchester.
Ice Skating at Firstsite Colchester
To book the ice skating at Firstsite I had to call them as online booking wasn’t available. Ethan gets stressed if I make calls and I’m on hold for a long time. So I made sure I made the call during school hours. It was very simple to book and I was able to secure our 45-minute skate on the day we wanted.
The skating rink at Firstsite was a synthetic rink. This didn’t worry me as I knew the children would still have an ice skating experience. Skates would be provided and they would even have some skating aids available if required.
How Did The Children Get On?
This was Ethan’s third experience of ice skating as he has been able to ice skate at Lapland UK. He was five the last time he skated so I had no idea if he would remember how. He took to the ice using one of the penguins for support at first. But he quickly got the hang of it moving around the rink without any problems. We did make a bit of a parenting fail with him though. When we took off his skates we saw that we had put them on the wrong feet. We were even more impressed that he had no issues skating with his boots on the wrong way round!
There was no stopping Little E on the ice. She was full of confidence and moved away from using the penguin support very quickly. She was spinning in circles and showing me lots of ‘special moves’. Little E had no fear and I couldn’t be prouder of her.
I on the other hand have forgotten all the ice skating skills I had at the age of fourteen. I hardly moved from the edge of the rink. Thankfully Darren was a little bit braver. He would happily skate into the middle of the rink when the children needed him. I have been told that skating on a synthetic rink is very different from an ice rink. That’s what I’m blaming for my forgotten skills.
I love that we got the chance to take the children ice skating. I hope we can ice skate with them again in the future. In the below video you can watch how both children got on at the rink.