It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The house is finally decorated for Christmas! We tend to wait until around St. Nicholas' Day (December 6), because Dear Husband likes to keep the tree up until at least Epiphany (January 6).

Again this year we picked out a pre-cut tree from the Trees for Veterans stand in Homewood, where the sales guy makes friendly banter. This time he talked me into accepting a garbage bag full of clippings, some florist's wire, and a large red bow. After we got the tree into its stand upstairs, I made a mess on the kitchen floor fashioning a homemade wreath, to which I added some swag from prior years.

I would show you the handmade vintage Christmas tree skirt to which I treated myself from eBay, but it's stuck somewhere around Columbus. It's red and white with cardinals on it.

Also not pictured: the lights we put up on our porch and that of the abandoned house next door, to make the neighborhood more festive.

Spotted on the mantel next to the grand piano: the pinecone chorister I made in Brownie Girl Scouts.

On the shelf above the shoe caddy: a felt nativity from Palestine, our wedding invitation in stained glass, and steel map cut-outs of Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

On the entertainment center in the dining room: the poinsettia from Third Presbyterian Church, the straw nativity from the Czech Republic, and wedding photos.

In one of the cubbies: the glass nativity S.H. gave me in 8th grade, D. and B.'s wedding photo at the Inner Harbor, and the Kitty Godzilla birthday car DH gave me 2 birthdays ago. When you press the button, it "roars" and rocks back and forth like it's terrorizing the city.

There was a lonely middle section of Advent/Christmas, when DH and I spent 10 days living and sleeping apart after he woke up with COVID symptoms one day. (This was my view from the air mattress in the front room.) We aren't sure whether he got it from Best Buy on Black Friday replacing his laptop or if I brought it home from the clinic, but he tested "negative" and I didn't develop clear symptoms (everyone's a hypochondriac by now, right?).