I have been pondering over the ‘Advent’ part of Christmas in my head for a while now. Over the years I have done various things including these tiny old-fashioned advent calendars that contained no sweets at all just a different little Christmas picture each day when the window was opened. 
It was opening this Advent calendar that reminded me most of the anticipation I felt as a child and the delight of revealing a glowing candle or a decorated Christmas tree picture on peeling back the little doors – I thought they were the most wonderful and magical part of Christmas and I could hardly wait each day to see what the Christmas picture was going to be.
A truly simple pleasure.
Then one sleepless night recently I thought about all I wanted to do in the days before Christmas; all the things that generated the same excitement for me – which ideally is a mixture of simple Christmas pleasures, a few trips out and about to one or two festive towns and villages, and of course lots of crafts. To pace myself I hit upon the idea of using the daily advent as a way to ‘timetable’ the things that are both important and pleasurable for me to do.
For the calendar itself I decided upon some simple craft card (from a tiny pad I bought from The Range for £1) and stamped numbers on them in white or gold from 1 to 25. On the back I stuck a little ‘surprise’ activity of something pleasurable and Christmassy to do or make that day. 
Then placed them all on my photo stand.
Of course the activities couldn’t be a complete random surprise as I have had to work around days when we are in Scotland and my mum visits and other commitments – I also had to make sure I had all the bits ready to make the crafts – so a little planning had to be done. 
And so DH doesn’t feel left out I have individually wrapped some Amoretti biscuits as a little daily treat in some greaseproof paper decorated with a gold pen.
With all that in place, but not actually posted on my blog, imagine my surprise when I got home late last night and read Gillian’s post from Tales from a happy house (see my blog list at the side) where she has had an almost identical idea – and her little envelopes are so lovely. (If you are reading this Gillian I have left you a comment).
We are heading off to Scotland tomorrow and my Advent trail will begin from there on Saturday (I hope we have an internet connection) and each day I will do a quick post revealing the activity for the day and a few photos.
I hope you will join in and let me know of your pleasurable Christmas activities as we go along. Of course there is a chance that ‘events’ might steer me off course a little – you know how it is with the Christmas build up – but fingers crossed.
Welcome to my recent new followers – I try to post most days – apologies for lack of post and comments yesterday I went out to the pub last night! A lovely pre-Christmas gathering of old friends round a warm log fire.
 What a surprise when we drove up the road and onto the moor that takes us over the tops of Saddleworth to Greenfield, Mossley, Ashton, Stockport and finally Cheadle Royal our destination – there was a covering of snow. 
On the way home it was thick fog too and a bit hairy coming over the winding moor road but at least it was still open as often when there is any snowfall it is soon closed off and we have been stuck getting home a few times, you really have to watch the weather here if you venture far when it snows.
To save on costs we added in a few bunches of our own courtesy of the cheap bouquets sold at the local Co-op the day before, together with a bunch of Hypericum and eucalyptus from our local market stall! These were used to fill the jars we hung on the railings and Shepherd’s hooks in the Church grounds.
Luckily my daughter wanted a home-made country look for her wedding so we were able to work to quite a tight budget.
We used a professional photographer that was both fun and willing to take a mix of formal and more informal shots. He certainly kept all our guests entertained with his humour and he took us all for a wander around Masham capturing some very unusual scenes – these are two of my favourite – in the telephone box on the left and outside the Bah Humbugs shop.
The reception was held in the local town hall and once the formal pictures had been taken outside the church we all walked round in procession to the venue led by the bride and groom – no need to hire any cars. Local friends, neighbours and shopkeepers from Masham came out to cheer the happy couple.
As the town hall is not considered a normal wedding venue these days we had to hire in tables and white linen cloths from a local caterers and we added the plain orange napkins. The chairs were supplied with the room but were rather shabby so one of biggest expenses was the hire of the Lycra chair covers and organza bows but this made all the difference to the room and the locals said they had never seen the town hall looking so good!
The favours were in plain calico bags decorated with pine cones and dried ferns with hand written craft labels.
For the pew ends we bought rustic twig hearts and added a natural raffia bow.
We had a wonderful and fun day finishing with a rousing Ceilidh with music by The Applejacks.
the apples… and yet more apples to deal with – they are now peeled, chopped, cooked and in the freezer. I kept a few apples back to make individual crumbles (together with the last ‘use up’ jar of apricot puree from the kitchen cupboard clear out) – they are also in the freezer. 
And finally I baked an old favourite from the basic Good Housekeeping cookbook – a mouth-watering apple and sultana cake. This didn’t even make it as far as the freezer.
I know my friend likes hand-made cards and also anything made of wood. We only buy small gifts for each other so when I saw this lovely hand carved wooden bookmark in Scotland it was the perfect present. I added a box of luxury chocolate Raisin and Hazelnut biscuits by Elizabeth Shaw (they were reduced to £1 in Sainsbury’s shhh don’t tell).
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