So I made it home to Virginia before the Christmas traffic rush. I got here a few days ago. I guess I should have checked the weather forecast, because I packed thinking it would at least be cold . . . not 60 degrees! The past two days I’ve not even bothered putting a coat on to go out. It definitely has not yet begun to feel a lot like Christmas.

I have yet to take my stroll around the neighborhood to see the Jesus lights, who did a good job and who shouldn’t have bothered. Our neighbors fortunately did not seem to put anything out this year but a nice santa door decoration. Perhaps the neighborhood association wrote them a letter finally begging them to just not put their horrid trashy lights out? Or maybe they somehow found my blog or facebook posts indicating how their pathetic light display made the Tiny Baby Jesus cry? It really was bad. Like wrap a strand of lights around the trunk of a tree for all of three feet and stop bad.

There is another sad light out in the neighborhood this year. For as long as I can recall, ever since I was little, a man 3 doors down always had a blue star on his roof every year. Even when everyone in the neighborhood had grown old and didn’t bother with lights (this was my grandma’s house originally, and she got it in the 50s and raised her kids here), he always put the star out. In the past decade or so most of the houses have turned over to younger families and couples, so the lights have come back. But this year the blue star is not there . . . We don’t know if he died, moved, or what.

On a lighter note. tomorrow a miracle occurs. John is coming down! This will be the first time in 10 years we’ve actually spent Christmas together. I shall post pictures to document this rare occurrence. It might not ever happen again with that whole Mayan Apocalypse coming next year 😉