Eilir has never had a proper Christmas stocking. In our household we've always used pillow cases, so when I suggested that we make one, Eilir was over the moon. On Christmas Eve we still hadn't started, but the sewing machine was still set up from the sock monsters and I thought it wouldn't take us too long (that was a mistake!). We chalked out a stocking shape on an old green sheet folded in two and cut it out. I got out lots of bits of material (cut-offs from curtains etc), and suggested different ways we could decorate the stocking, including cutting out letters to make words that we could sew on applique style. Again Eilir had his own ideas, deciding he wanted stripes of different materials the length of the stocking and a length of red fun-fur at the top (left over from an old carnival costume of his). Eillir arranged the stripes and I tacked them on while we watched Matilda on the telly.

We then went back to our team approach to the machine work, Eilir on peddle and me on guiding and calling out commands like "Put your foot down", "Step on it" and "STOP". Eilir was getting really into using the machine and taking a great interest in how it worked, he loved it when we had to refill the bobbin - "Wow! That's really cool!" By this time it was getting very late (and me a little worried - I hadn't even started wrapping any presents...!), so Eilir got ready for bed while I persevered in finishing it off. It was eventually done at 10.30pm, Eilir took it upstairs and promptly fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The excitement in the lead up to Christmas is getting unbearable.... tears and tantrums everywhere. To occupy Eilir, I suggested that we make sock monsters. Eilir has been wanted to do this for ages, having seen the instructions in a magazine, but we hadn't yet got round to it. I selected a long stripy sock of mine that had lost its pair, but Eilir wasn't impressed ("too stripy"). He went off to his own sock draw and picked out a really scraggy pair of aquamarine coloured socks that had seen better days. I got Eilir to chalk the outlines of where we needed to cut out, and then I did the cutting because all the sharp scissors had disappeared, leaving us with a fairly blunt pair. I set up the sewing machine and demonstrated how to guide the material through. Eilir had a go, but was not keen to continue, and suggested that it would be better if I did the guiding while he controlled the foot pedal. As we were sewing Eilir got very concerned about my fingers saying "You're terrifying me!", but once he got the hang of easing the pressure on the pedal so that the needle worked slowly he was much less worried about the danger of sewing my fingers!

We stuffed our socks with cotton wool, pushing it in with our bamboo skewers for the fiddly bits (like the arms). Eilir's arms were made from the other sock in the pair, while mine were made from the fingers of my gloves, which were riddled with holes anyway (I hoped Santa had picked up on my many hints for new ones!). Next came buttons for eyes. Eilir rummaged around, and decided that buttons of similar size were more important that matching colours. In the end he found a nice brown pair that he was satisfied with. I made lots of suggestions for what he could do for the mouth, including a line of beads, but Eilir opted to use some t-shirt pens we have to draw one on. He first had a go on a piece of paper, and announced that he was "taking a risk", before drawing on his mouth. All this activity was accompanied by a soundtrack of Eilir singing festive and made up songs. Eilir was a bit concerned that the sock monsters weren't 'Christmassy' enough for the blog, so we used some mini bobble hats that were decorating the tree to finish them off.

On the tenth day - return of the hazel

Back in day three we went looking for a nice piece of hazel for Eilir's shepherd's staff and we saved the remaining piece to make a traditional Christmas decoration for Eilir's bedroom.

During the day yesterday we made a few things to adorn it, including pomanders like Steph and G made in their first day, inspired by a load of reduced to clear oranges in the shop (24p for a bag-full - bargain!). Ours are a mixture of designs, including names, faces, and spirals. Eilir liked doing these, particularly making all the holes with our trusty barbecue skewers (we seem to be using these a lot lately) and ran upstairs to his older brother (Tathan) calling "Smell my hands", to which he suspiciously replied "Why?", and got the response "They smell Christmassy!" Didn't take any photos of this making process, my phone had suffered enough the day before with the icing - I thought it best not to cover it in sticky orange juice and cloves too!

We also collected up silver cake cases that Eilir's brother (Fred) had amassed (he's a cherry bakewell addict), and again poked holes in them with our skewers and threaded old laces through them, making knots in the lace in-between them to space them out. Eilir grabbed one of these and did an impromptu song and dance while shaking it "Ding-a ling-a-ling, ding-a-ling-a-ling, clychau Santa Claus. Ding-a-ling-a-ling, ding-a-ling-a-ling, yn canu yn y nos" (rough translation: Santa Claus' bells, ringing in the night). For the final touches we added some decorations Eilir had made in school.

Eilir was very excited on re-entering the room when he realised it made his room smell festive, Fred (who he shares with) was less than impressed though, "It stinks!" The next morning the branches were overhanging the bed - the load had got too much. Eilir liked the effect and wanted a photo of it with him in bed. We've managed to anchor it now so that it's upright once more, it should still be in place when Santa comes a calling (fingers crossed).

Back to cakes! My mum is a big Christmas food traditionalist and spends most of November preparing mince pies, Christmas puddings, and Christmas cakes. We were lucky enough to receive one this year, and all we needed to do is decorate it. I wasn't feeling too well today though (running nose, sneezing, sore throat, etc etc), but had promised to do this after work. The greedy vultures had been closing in, but I'd said categorically that no cake was being eaten until the decorating had been done (so extra pressure there).

I cheated a little by buying ready-made coloured icing that looks and behaves a lot like playdough. I also had some writing icing in the cupboard from previous bakings. Eilir had already had the idea that he wanted Father Christmas and a 'carw' (reindeer) to feature. I started with Santa, and then realised that I didn't have any pink 'playdough' icing - so plumped for a 'Simpsons' yellow face instead. Eilir made his carw and I suggested breaking up some bamboo barbecue skewers to reinforce the antlers. I started the snowman, again in yellow, as Eilir commented "Like someone wee'd on it" (boys and their toilet humour....). Eilir then took over, making a scarf, hat, eyes, etc. He again used bits of skewers for the arms, but was a bit concerned that someone might try to eat them. Last came the sleigh covered in presents, this started with each of us making individual presents, then Eilir suggested that he should make the squares and I should decorate them. As we were doing this he mused "We're like a factory, a house factory. We're elves, cake elves". The last parcel was made by Eilir and decorated with silver balls - this was to be HIS present.

We had a bit of help with this one - thanks to Roath Park rangers who organise this event as a fundraiser every year.  Eilir and I went along to Roath Park and had the choice of creating either our own wreath, yule log, or table decoration.  I wanted a log, Eilir wanted a table decoration (I think he fancied the look of the oasis), so we ended up with one of each.  Despite starting on separate projects, it very quickly turned into one shared project.  We collected bits of fern, fir, holly, pine cones etc and started to randomly arrange them around a candle by pushing the bits of plants into the flower arranging oasis.  Eilir was soon finished with this task and wanted me to finish it, as my yule log making (which required attaching the different foliage with metal staples and a hammer) looked much more fun.  I'd try to start it off, getting the staple in place, then Eilir would hammer it fully in.  He soon became expert, complaining if I hadn't set it up properly "You've hammered into the plant, not the wood - I can tell".  His enthusiastic hammering produced some squished holly berries and a lot of smiles.

On the seventh day I suggested to Eilir that I demonstrate the 'ancient art' of potato printing for the purpose of making our own homemade wrapping paper.  This age-old tradition (I explained) is what I used to do in school in the days before mass-produced, ready-shaped, painting sponges.  I think he thought I'd gone mad when I brought out the potatoes and started cutting them in half!  I kicked things off by cutting out a star shape, Eilir then had a go at scoring out a Christmas tree shape and a holly leaf shape.  After letting him loose on the knife for a short while, I then took over the fiddly bits in order to prevent bloodshed.  I made a little berry shape to go with the holly, which Eilir was unsatisfied with, so he produced a double berry design of his own that worked much better.  Eilir was in competitive spirits and wanted to better any design I created, so after I printed a bunched holly design, he printed a wreath shape using the holly spud print and announced "Definitely better - a whole circle".  He also played with different effects - dragging the star spud across the page saying "Look! It's a shooting star!"  Great fun and very messy.  We hung the sheets up to dry, and were able to use them for wrapping presents that we delivered on Sunday - Eilir was very proud.

Eilir is going through an intense drawing phase.  He is constantly scribbling something, but his favourite subject at the moment is 'Moshi Monster' characters.  A number of his best friends are similarly obsessed with these and other characters, so we thought we might make Christmas cards for them that featured their favourite characters in Christmas scenes.  My input in this was minimal, really.  I made the cards themselves - by papering over odd leftover cards from previous years (with Eilir doing the gluing) and prompting Eilir regarding spellings etc.  He started by drawing some 'Pokemon' balls for Joel, and put them in a snow scene.  He then suggested that Eve likes 'Odi' (a Moshi Monster), so again Odi was put in the snow (there's a theme developing....).  Eilir was particularly proud of his stylized snowflakes, which ended up appearing on each card.  For Iago he drew 'Iggy' and told me that he always bounces, so he drew snow being dislodged where he'd 'knocked it out of the way' jumping.  Eilir's greetings inside demonstrated his tendency to code-switch/code-mix at the moment, so some started 'To' but ended 'oddi wrth', others opened 'I' and concluded with 'from'.

This weekend we put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. Eilir wanted to decorate the room too (something I don't normally do much of because our living room is pretty colourful as it is), he also wanted to learn how to make chains of paper people - so I thought we could combine the two using newspaper (the black/white/grey would be a contrast to our shocking pink walls).

I first showed Eilir how a standard 'stick man' chain is made, folding the newspaper, drawing the design and then cutting out. Eilir then drew his own design with spiky hair that worked really well - on each he drew a different face, some with 'sticking out tongues'. Depending on how well we did the folding we'd get the occasional off one with bits missing, like one mysteriously was missing a head 'maybe he had a skiing accident...?' We then tried different Christmas themed shapes, like a snowman that Eilir drew - I did the cutting out while Eilir provided commentary 'Is it hard [cutting out the scarf], is it worth it...?' He then asked if he could do ‘corachod' (Welsh for elves), and proceeded to draw a practice elf. He commented 'Do you know what I think will be the hardest part? The curly shoes', and he was right - they were a devil to cut out (but definitely worth it)! We finished off with some weird and wonderful ones, including some fat birds (mine) and a man wearing a snowman suit (Eilir's).

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If you haven't guessed already, we are big time greedies in our house.  This recipie was one that I fancied making back when we were doing the biscuits, so this Sunday we had a go.  The original instructions produced pink and white coconut ice squares, which I thought could be given a festive twist by using green instead of red food colouring, and if we stacked the squares in a particular formation we could make a Christmas tree shape.

Eilir again relished the task of mixing the ingredients - "The chocolate brownie milk [condensed milk] is winning" i.e. the other ingredients were getting covered in it.  Then, letting his imagination fly, - "It's wetting Camelot up, sucking it into the deep water".  He was particularly enthusiastic at the stage of adding the food colouring - "I want it to be super green".  

"It looks good, it smells good, will it taste good?"

This recipe involved waiting for it to set overnight.  I explained my idea to Eilir about making the Christmas tree shape from the cubes we would cut, but he had a much better idea.  He had seen something on a craft programme that showed you how to make a tree from star shapes, so he dug out his star shaped play dough cutter, and wanted to use this to shape the coconut ice instead.  The next day (after washing said cutter) I let Eilir show me what he meant and (hey presto!) it worked really well.   I gave him some edible silver balls (left over from making a birthday cake) to decorate it with - "This is really cool with the baubles", and he then demanded the orange slices (that he knew were in the cupboard) to represent presents under the tree.  I used the left over coconut ice to make my own tree shaped heap with some cherries.  I think we all know that Eilir's small but beautiful version wins hand's down!

Our third mission was to get the authentic finishing touch for Eilir's school concert costume.  Eilir has been a shepherd three year's running now (his choice), and has been wearing the outfit I originally sewed together from an old sheet 16 years ago for his older brother!  This year it required a little mending but was otherwise ready to go, all we needed was a shepherd's crook....

This was the weekend of Grandad Leigh's visit (who incidentally is a real life genuine shepherd being a sheep farmer in France), so we went out with the expert to learn some bushcraft (he's also Australian to boot) and to get ourselves an appropriate implement.  We went for a walk in Howardian Nature Reserve to look for a likely specimen.  Grandad advised us that hazel was the best for a sturdy crook and we soon found what we were looking for, he cut a large section which he then cut down to Eilir's size after much "a bit shorter, a bit shorter" from Eilir.  Myself and Eilir then sanded down the rough bits using sandpaper from the house to get a lovely smooth (and hopefully acceptable for school) shepherd's staff.

Grandad also advised us that hazel was the traditional wood brought in for Christmas decoration pre Prince Albert and his fir trees, so watch this space, we have kept the left over section for another Christmas making project.......

Our second project was to make some homemade treats for Grandad Leigh's visit.

We had a look at a range of different recipes, and Eilir picked out the one he fancied making, which were sandwich style biscuits which featured cut out letter shapes in the top biscuits revealing a jam centre.  Eilir always loves baking and this was no different, he sang and talked to the mixture all the way through the process.  As he mixed the dough together he said things like "You can't escape this time....." to the flour, and would sing, stop and stretch, and start mixing again (and singing).

Rolling out the dough was accompanied by an improvised "roly-roly" song.  The cutting out was a more serious business, with lots of thought going into what letters and shapes he wanted to cut out.  Most were letters, including E for Eilir and G for Grandad, then lots of random ones inspired by his fridge magnets, followed by a smiley face, and a stick man.

The first one to be tested was a smiley face. Eilir was very excited after adding the jam - exclaiming "The jam comes through!  He's bleeding!"

After this initial test Eilir thought he'd like to try them with squirty cream middles too, experimenting with the effects - all very yummy.  We had to hide some away for Grandad - Daddy and brother Freddy were greedily eating them all!

Our first project of the season is one that we've been doing every year for some time.  My dad (Grandad Leigh) always comes over from France towards the end of November for his annual 'Christmas visit', and over the years a tradition has developed where we exchange a box of edible goodies (French treats for British ones - I think we get the better deal....).  Me and Eilir always decorate a shoebox that will contain the presents, and normally we will get it back again the following year refilled.

This year we decided to cut up all the junk mail Christmas catalogues that have been pouring through the door since October, choosing festive images we liked, and then higgldey-piggledy pasting them onto the box using PVA and water in a crazy decoupage patchwork.  We also shredded junk mail to make protective padding for the inside the box.

Here are some of Eilir's best quotes during the making (which took place over a couple of weeks - what with the drying and everything - we used a lot of glue!):

"I think Grandad Leigh will really like this one"

"...this one's really funny [a finger puppet snowman image]"

"This is my favourite sort of gluing.......Can I get my hands messy?" - silly question really!

"That's awesome isn't it!"

"I'm gooder at cutting circles than you"

"Oi! You glued me!"

"Just a bit more.... [box overflowing with paper shreds]"

"The Moshi Monsters are helping"

"Write 'Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas'"