Advent Swap Day 1

I've been so excited today as today was the first day of advent which meant I could open one of my gifts from Annie who was my swap partner in the Advent Swap organised by LaaLaa.
Annie decided to go with a bag theme and all my gifts are tucked away in this wonderful red snowflake bag......
Rather than dated all the gifts have a little clue as to what they might be and I can choose depending on my mood or just take pot luck....

How tempting are all these little packages......

For my first advent gift I chose.....

and this is what I found inside - a pretty sparkly brooch - which is going to look just fabulous on my new winter coat.

I used to have a pair of earrings with drops just like the beads on this brooch and will have to have a look in my jewellery box to see if I can find them to wear them together.
This advent swap idea is fantastic and a real grownup way to enjoy the build up to Christmas.
So it's a big thank you to Lynda for organizing the swap and to Annie for being my super advent swap partner.

The children haven't missed out either as well as the usual chocolate (Christmas is the one time of the year they can eat chocolate for breakfast) advent calender this year I have also put together some envelopes with a different activity for each day and today's activity was to put up their small trees and decorate them. Rachel and Jack keep these in their rooms to add a little festive cheer.
Now we all can't wait for tomorrow to see what advent brings us on day 2.......