Twelve Days Of Christmas 2016 Reveal

This Christmas was the worst I've ever had, called in to the hospital late on Christmas Eve as my dad wasn't expected to live and not getting home until the early hours of Christmas Day morning, visiting throughout the festive season not knowing what was going to be and on top of that, feeling ill myself, it hasn't been the best Christmas. My Twelve Days Of Christmas swap gifts were a little light relief in each day.

The swap came about as my lovely blog friend, Lisa from Jumble And Jelly, asked if I'd like to do a swap with her back in 2014. We each really enjoyed it and so last year I hosted a swap on my blog for other people to join in too. It was such a success that I decided I'd host it again this year.

Lisa and I decided we'd still do the swap between ourselves as well so I thought I'd show you the things which we swapped first of all. These are all the gifts which Lisa sent to me.

I've never read anything by Katie Flynn before so I'm looking forward to starting this book and when I do, I might have used the paper cake cups and cake toppers and made myself some buns to eat whilst I'm reading, how cute are they? Those little snowmen are adorable. Lisa knows how I love my old films, especially musicals and White Christmas is a lovely one to add to my collection. One of my favourite gifts was the piggy foldaway bag and piggy sticky notes, I'm such a huge fan of pigs. I'm always scrabbling about for a bag and this one is great because it can just be clipped to the outside of my handbag and doesn't take up any space.

I took these photos in the conservatory to give me a little more light in these dull days and I'm not sure you can read what's on the mug, it says If Friends Were Flowers I'd Pick You, isn't that lovely? It came with two hot drink sachets which I'm itching to try. The cute cupcake tin will come in very handy, I do love a tin, and it was filled with a packet of Snow Bites, yum yum. I remember Holly Hobbie well from my childhood and I just love these notecards, they so pretty. I've been itching to open the cinnamon & hazelnut mini stars all Christmas but I've been saving them until I did the photoshoot, I shall be opening them very soon.

I love these Cosy Footlets, they're so pretty and very toasty. Lisa knows that Green & Blacks is my favourite chocolate, it's very rich though so these miniatures are just the right size for when I fancy a taste. The stocking plate is really lovely, it's something I'll be able to use each Christmas and it came with Ferrero Rochers, another of my favourite choccies. The table games have already been in use and I can give them a big thumbs up, we all enjoyed playing them and they'll be brought out again when we have another family gathering.

Thank you so much, Lisa, you've got my tastes off to a tee now, I love everything I received.

Here are the things I sent to Lisa.

A Santa filled with Dairy Milk chocolates, paper straws and ice cream tubs & spoons, I thought they would be nice to use on a summers day, an egg cup with a chicken shaped cover to keep the egg warm and some cute girly notelets.

A spotty dotty mug with some flavoured tea sachets, two pairs of cosy socks, a shopping list pad which is magnetic to stick to the fridge and a pretty butterfly coaster which I saw when I was on holiday in Cornwall and couldn't resist buying.

Twelve Days of Christmas book by Trisha Ashley, I thought this was quite appropriate to add to the swap parcel, a silver tealight holder, packets of Snow Bites and Malteaser Reindeers and a notebook and red spotty pen.

I thoroughly enjoyed our third swap and we've already decided that we'll do it again next year.

My swap partner from the swap I hosted on the blog was Kim from This Happy Homemade Life. I received some wonderful gifts from Kim and she definitely knows the things I like as they were all themed to my likes and my hobbies.

A set of three Botanica notebooks, I love stationery and these little notebooks are so pretty, a butterfly writing set, again pretty, I just love this design, a craft paper pack, now I don't know whether Kim knows this or not but I used to enjoy scrapbooking and it's a hobby I'm keen to take up again so these will come in very handy, and a mini cross stitch kit which will be a nice little project to do in between some of the larger things I've got on the go at the moment.

I've never read anything by M. C. Beaton but I do like this genre as I'm sure you know with me working my way through the Agatha Christie books so I'm sure this will be a good one, the orange & cinnamon scented tealights smell divine, I love anything with a tangy scent so these will be lovely, such a cute gingerbread man bath bomb, it will be a shame to melt him but it will be nice to take a relaxing bath after the stresses I've been under lately, and the cutest cross stitched Rudolph, how I love this little tree ornament and it will take pride of place on my tree in the years to come.

A pack of adhesive fabric sheets, how clever, I'm thinking up projects that I can use these for, a Baileys truffle bar, yum yum, a pack of gel pens which I'm thrilled with as mine always seem to go walkabout so these will replace them and the most beautiful project bag. The fabric used is just so me with my love of gardening and growing veggies, and can you see those cute little pea pods? One of them is a stitch marker and the other is a progress keeper, how fabulous.

Thank you so much, Kim, you've done so well choosing these gifts, they're all things I'd have chosen myself.

Here are the things I sent to Kim.

Twelve Days of Christmas book by Trisha Ashley, yes, you saw this in Lisa's swap parcel too, too appropriate for the swap to pass it by, a manicure set, French manicure nail varnish and a couple of mini cross stitch kits.

A row counter for knitting and some Made With Love charms and in with these I popped some pins and a crochet heart kit which had come free with magazines, I thought Kim might be able to make use of them, a tin of Whittard's afternoon tea, some pretty tealights and a set of lip balms.

I'm afraid I mixed up the gifts here, oops! This photo shows some bath bombs which were actually popped in a different parcel, in their place I sent Kim some Drops cotton yarn, a writing set, a Peter Rabbit notes & lists pad and some Dairy Milk and Smarties chocolate.

Thank you for taking part in the swap, Kim, you were a brilliant swap partner.

I took on another swap this year. Cath from Clicky Needles was left without a partner after the one I allocated her pulled out so I said I'd swap with her instead. Here are the gifts I received.

A giant Toblerone triangle, we're all fans of Toblerone in our house so I've been careful to stash it away, some cute t-shirt shaped sticky notes, they'll be very handy in my Filofax, some pretty ribbon, always handy and the cutest little Rudolph brooch and flower covered button badge.

Cath didn't leave Archie out of the swap, he got a bag of treats, a torch which will be very handy for his night time walks and a safety ID tag, such a good idea. I'd listed some Etsy shops on my Christmas wish list and said that I wouldn't mind a notions pouch but I didn't receive one so I was thrilled to bits with the one Cath sent, it's just lovely and will be very useful, some pretty covered buttons, I need to find just the right project for them and some more pretty ribbon.

A tealight holder and three glitzy gold tea lights, they'll jazz the place up, three spools of decorative tape which will look great in my Filofax and a sparkly notebook which will be handy to pop in my handbag, I don't always carry my Filofax around with me these days so it's handy to be able to jot things down when I'm out and about. I also received a chocolate treat with each day's gift.

Those were my Twelve Days Of Christmas swap gifts but Cath had put an extra special gift in the parcel for me, a beautiful skein of yarn which Cath had hand painted herself. This colourway is called Bazaar. I just love all the different colours and I know I'm going to love using this. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Cath, I'm really happy with the gifts I received and I'm glad I could step in when you were left without a partner.

Here are the things I sent to Cath.

A pair of cosy footlets, a ha, there are those bath bombs that I mentioned earlier again, this is the parcel they were destined for, a lip balm set and some Whittard's truffle praline tea pyramids.

A row counter for knitting, a thimble and some Made With Love charms and I popped them all in a little notions pouch which had come free with a magazine and also included a heart brooches kit which was also a free magazine gift. A Yankee Candle votive and holder, two bottles of nail varnish and some Green & Black's miniatures.

Another Twelve Days of Christmas book by Trisha Ashley, I added one of these books to each of my swap parcels, a cute owl writing set, a to do list pad and two balls of Drops Love You yarn.

Thank you for taking part in the swap, Cath, you were a great swap partner.

I had such a lot of fun with each of the swaps I took part in this year and I hope that everyone else who took part did too. Thank you so much, it does add to the excitement of it all when there are lots of swappers joining in.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, when I hosted the swap last year it all seemed to run very smoothly without any hitches at all that I know of. Unfortunately, this year, there's been a few problems. I've had people pulling out after they've been allocated a partner, miscommunication and others who have simply ignored all posts, comments and emails which have been sent to them. I know there may be hiccups along the way and that some people may sign up and then something unforeseen happens which means they can't fulfil their commitment, I totally understand that, but this wasn't the case and I've had swappers left disappointed after being left without a partner and, to be honest, it's taken away some of the enjoyment for me. I don't get anything for hosting the swap, I just thought it would be a nice thing to do but there's always people who will put a downer on these things and spoil them. I'd like to apologise to those people who were left without a partner this year, I certainly never foresaw this happening.

To this end, I've decided that I won't be hosting this swap again next year. I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank all the lovely people who have taken part over the last two years and hope you've all enjoyed joining in. It's been nice to get to know you and I hope you all had a lot of fun with the swaps. If you write a blog post about the gifts you sent or received I'd love to see them, do please leave me a comment so that I know.