Last week we bought new outside lights, because our old lights died 3 years ago, and we just didn’t bother for 2 years. We installed them and admired them, texted pics of them to Miss M in Brooklyn, who cannot wait to see them on 12/23. I bought new chili-pepper lights to put around the kitchen window over the sink; I found some shortly after we moved here in ’98 and used them until they died & I couldn’t find substitute bulbs. The last 3 years I settled for less-worthy lights and had that nagging feeling of “meh.” This year I’m back to festive around the kitchen window.

Yesterday we went to the local Christmas Tree farm, as we have for the last 14 yrs. (with the exception of ’09, when we bought an 8′ Douglas Fir for $25 from a tree lot that was struggling). We get Leyland Cypress…