My favourite holiday decoration

This is it, my favourite holiday decoration that has come out every year for the past decade and a half. It is a Playmobil advent calendar originally sent to my children from Germany by a very close friend but at that time I felt the kids were just too young to respect the small bits so I kept it in storage. And then forgot about it. And then one day had the sublime pleasure of rediscovering it. The kids have never shown an interest in it but to me, it is the epitome of Christmas decorations. As each day passes I open the next box and place the contents onto the numbered area in the tableau to make Santa's workshop. The final two items to go out are the tea set that sits on the green box to the left of the stove and then a grandfather clock that goes just behind Santa who is sat at his desk with a book of the names and a feather pen in his hand. I know every item by heart and each year carefully pack it up to unwrap it again next year.

Sat next to Santa's workshop on our windowsill is another advent calender that is also a favourite. This calendar is a stylised depiction of Jesus' stable and each day a cut out of the various characters of the bible story are added with the last day, the 24th, the baby Jesus is placed in the manger.

In other news, currently another batch of meringues are baking as I had egg whites left over from making the crème patisserie which I discovered can be made in advance and frozen. The same with the bread sauce which is also now cooked and frozen. Several loads of washing have been done today and a partly successful shopping trip for food. An extra large turkey eludes me and normally I would have it bought by now. Luckily the shops will re-open at midnight so I will pop out then to the next town in search of one. I am working long hours back to back tomorrow so it suits me to do that tonight. Mad or what?!

UPDATE: 5.15am Monday I've slept well and woke up way before my alarm was due. I did that midnight trip along silent roads until I reached the mecca of bright lights hidden within the supermarket walls. People were silently arriving from all directions. I located a super large turkey and popped it into my extra large bag wondering if the secret camera operators might have thought I was going to try to shoplift the beast. Of course we do not have a refrigerator big enough so it is in a cold bag with frozen blocks until its big injection day on Tuesday and then long roast on Boxing Day. That's three days of trying to keep it chilled without any facilities nor garden shed.