I'm making a list

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Christmas and that I especially love the build up. All the planning and the making, decorating the house and listening to Christmas carols and songs and wishing I was Judy Garland in "Meet Me In St Louis". December is usually never long enough for me.

Somehow this year is different - here we are at the 10th of December and I haven't unpacked a single Santa, snowman, reindeer, bauble or light - what is going on? I've been feeling unsettled all year and out of place. I thought that Christmas would be different from the rest of 2013 and that by now I would feel like singing White Christmas and Jingle Bells, but I don't.

Maybe if I just take a deep breath and close my eyes Christmas will appear.

My very favourite bit of festive cheer a Lucy Loose angel - I can never bear to put it away with the other decorations.

I am trying to get into the spirit and have been making a few things to give as gifts. As usual the to do list is longer than there are days left before the 25th.

I have been doing some knitting and I am enjoying the challenge of trying new stitches and using up yarn I already have. There is something so soothing about pins and yarn - for me it's a combination of concentrating on a pattern and yet at the same time my mind just seems to wander quite pleasantly, ambling around without any real destination.

So, I am off on a little journey from the comfort of the sofa - who knows where I'll get to tonight - but wherever I get to, hopefully the piece of knitting will have grown a little and another project will be closer to its finish by bedtime.