Pictured is out Christmas pyramids, a gift from Evelyn from long ago. These decorations have their roots in the Ore Mountain region of Germany and have become popular worldwide. They comprise a decorated pyramidal outer frame that is surrounded by candle holders and a central carousel with a rotor at the top, which is driven by the rising warm air from the lit candles. This carousel’s decorations include a nativity scene, plus other Christmas figures such as angels, shepherds and the wise men. Ours still twirls round-and-around and except for some soot on its propeller blades is as good as new, having survived two boys.

In other Christmas news, Anne is baking Cuccidati cookies. She finished one batch yesterday and will likely make the rest today. It is a good day for baking. It is kind of cold and dreary out. The outdoor Christmas lights are on a photo-sensitive timer, so that they come on at dusk, but this morning I noticed that they had come on again. The rising sun must have shone beneath the clouds, before rising up into them. The weather aside, everything is coming together nicely this year. I don’t feel the least bit rushed by the holidays. The fact that neither of us are working this year, in the first time like forever, might have something to do with that. That and the fact that our social calendar is wide open now helps too.

We had good weather over the weekend and got out both days for walks. We’ll likely do the same today, but we might need a mission to help get us out there. Normally, we’d toss in a luncheon someplace, but that is highly problematic these days. We’ll think of something though. Yesterday, we stopped off at the post office, just to drop some letters in the box. We’ll likely be doing that a lot soon. Anne has engineered a pretty slick scheme for getting in-and-out of the post office quickly and more safely. Using the scale that she bought to weigh her yarn with, she can weigh the packages to be mailed too. That combined with her USPS account allows her to print postage and a mailing label, meaning all she has to do is briefly duck into the lobby and then duck back out again. All in under a minute. No waiting in long Covid lines for us, thank you very much.