Counting down

I am officially into the countdown to Christmas now, school's broken up so no more work for me until January 8th!  Woo hoo!
The last parcel that I was waiting for to be delivered arrived at 6pm last night and all wrapping is now done.  I've done the first of my 'last shops', we all know there will inevitably be more trips to Sainsburys for things I've forgotten!  If it wasn't for the fact that the supermarket is just 10 minutes walk away, I am sure I would be more organised.  I finally made a fruit cake this morning.  There's only one person in my house that eats Christmas cake so this is the first year that I have not baked a 'proper' one.  I was only going to have a sponge cake here but relented and made a light fruit cake this morning.
So today Shimelle asked us to think about what has contributed to our Christmas spirit and for me I think it has been the phone calls, texts and emails from my son saying how much he was looking forward to coming home and spending Christmas with the family. Although he's enjoying living in Edinburgh, I think he is a little bit homesick.  I've had some lovely messages from him and I think it's proved that absence really does make the heart grow fonder!  I really wish he could travel down earlier but his girlfriend in working until 2pm on Christmas Eve so they can't even start their 7 hour journey until then.
On a different note and one which I am sure that all crafting mothers can relate to, my daughter sent me a photo of a pair of socks that she had bought.  They are those 'slipper socks' and have knitted, slightly padded comical reindeers stitched onto them. The message read:  'Can you help me turn these into a Christmas jumper, Mum?'  It made me think of the expression 'The impossible we can do immediately, miracles take a little longer'.  Wish me luck - I have until Monday!