Advent Calendars, done slightly differently

Back in 2009 I made two quilted advent calendars, one for me and one for my brother. So for December of 2009 I had my advent calendar, excitedly taking a chocolate out of it each day in the lead up to Christmas. Then in 2010 disaster struck! I couldn't find my advent calendar. I was SO upset, I'd spent so much time making the advent calendar to only be able to use it one?! I was gutted! So I turned into a bit of a scrooge that year. Again in 2011 the story was similar, my advent calendar hadn't turned up and I wasn't quite ready to make a new one, so again, no advent calendar.

Then, earlier this year when I was moving it turned up! My Christmas decoration had been stuck inside another box so we hadn't found them when looking! MASSIVE thanks must go out to Darren, who is the one that actually found them. So this year I'm very excited to have my advent calendar back again! Also, since I'm now living with my brother the two advent calendars are reunited, so of course they've been put up on the wall next to each other:

In celebration of having my advent calendar again, I am doing something a little different this year. Rather than just getting some chocolates and having one a day, I've teamed up with a friend and I've filled her advent calendar and she's filled mine. The friend in question is the talented Kristy of HandmadeRetro.

We set ourselves the guidelines of:
- Weekdays get a chocolate goodie
- Weekend days get a little gift
- Every day gets a task of some description.

So Saturday afternoon I popped into Kristys and we filled each others calendars. Even though I took a photo of her advent calendar after filling it with the stuff I got for her yesterday, I won't post it as she needs to post about it on her blog, so keep an eye out over there to see hers, I'm very excited to find out whats In all of the pretty packages that she's prepared for me though! (pictured above)

So far I've opened two packages, both of which were weekend packages so had gifts! The first had a set of cable needles, which is great as I don't have any of them, I've been using a double pointed needle for cabling. The second had a spool of fancy silk thread, I'm not sure if it's meant to be used for anything special (Kristy? Pardon my ignorance!), but it sure looks and feels beautiful!

I have to confess, I haven't actually done the task for day 1 yet, as I was headed to a wedding and had already planned my hair, and today I was just bumming around at home all day, but I will definitely do it ASAP. The second task however I happily followed! And this evening I baked some Raspberry and White Chocolate muffins.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the packages hold! Do you have an advent calendar?