More Advent Activities - Badgers, Berries, Cherries And Cookies

Here's a special bumper issue post with a whole bunch of our Advent activities. We did something every day and it really made December feel special - in fact I'm thinking of extending it to cover Winter activities in general to cheer us up through the traditional miserable Manchester January.

I decorated our twelve foot tree by perching perilously at the top of a step ladder:

We made Christmas cards:

A family of badgers moved into our gingerbread house:

I made a garland for the front door with evergreens and skimmia berries from the back garden:

We wrapped presents - and made tags with gold paint and a potato stamp:

(Eva also crafted some fabulous be-sequinned and stickered tags courtesy of a lovely Mum friend):

Two girls donned their tutus and danced to The Nutcracker (when they're older we'll go and see it at the theatre, but whirling around the living room to the Waltz of the Flowers is fun for now!):

We read winter stories - these are my old childhood books:

I decorated some cherry tree branches from the garden with wooden ornaments to make a display on the hall console table:

I tangled a rope light around the staircase - I like it so much I think it's going to be a permament feature:

We baked cookies for Father Christmas:

And we made a chocolate Yule log:

Plus we visited Father Christmas, made paper stars, sang a million carols ("SING JINGLE BELLS MAMA!"), donated a gift to the Key 103 Mission Christmas charity, cooked traditional Christmas lobster, dined by the light of the Christmas tree, set up the nativity, decorated the mantelpiece... but I think this post might explode if I add any more pictures!

Happy Christmas one and all! Eat, drink and be merry all round.