The Laboratory

We hope your weekend is going well. We had an exciting day with friends opening advent calendars, singing Christmas songs, learning some new games, eating pizza, and after a 10 minute training session, playing FIFA on the XBox against Sarah. I'd like to report that we mastered the game's mechanics, but the only goal was an own goal and the shouts of "Switch! Switch! Press B, it's on the right!" did not help. Final score Adam 0 Sarah 1. Decorations are halfway up, and we have been sent some lovely pictures from our friends Lou and Joe in Cardiff, who always have an amazing display of foliage and vintage. Enjoy!

Even if you haven't started putting up your decorations (maybe a job for this weekend) we're sure some of your neighbours have made an early start. Our street already has rainfall-style hanging lights, wreaths aplenty, and neon penguins seem popular this year. But of course there's also a trend for dressing your home, and our friends Emma and Louise both produce beautiful displays that accessorise their lounges, larders and studys with seasonal garb. Lou first: And Emma's:

You've already seen some decorations by her friend, but now here's the main attraction. Lou and Joe who live in Cardiff, long-time buddies and Jon Ronson fans, have THE most vintage gorgeous 1950s Morecambe Bay flat cap gin bottle super house ever. And at Christmas it gets even better. Lou writes: "We bought the ‘The Drunk Parson and his Clerk’ at the weekend from a junk shop in Ingleton for £5" and look how Christmassy the whole affair is.

Every year on the Advent Calendar we are delighted to present guest posts from our friends, and making a regular appearance is Louise from St Fagan's: "Here are two wreaths for your advent calendar. They were made by my sister Kate, and we foraged for most of the greenery in Williamson’s Park, Lancaster."