Someone at Safeway has a sense of humor.

That's just too good to be unintentional.

Oh Solstice Tree...

I admit, not the best picture ever. But it's a pretty tree! I think lit Christmas trees are about as difficult to photograph as black cats.

We did have to move it out of the window because it was blocking all of our light. But it can still be seen from outside, so I can see it when I'm coming home from work. At this time of year, it's fully dark here by about 5.

I was interested in the effect of being both farther south and east of where I used to live, and it turns out that we get 20-25 more minutes of sunlight in the winter than our friends in Michigan, but we get it earlier in the day since we're farther east in the time zone -- so we'd have to get up awfully early to take advantage of it. Darn you, standardized time!

Tinsel Trifecta part 1...

Rob and I have the good fortune to have three Fancy Parties to attend this year. I'm a contractor, so two of them are mine -- one at the home office in Detroit and one with my clients here in the DC area.

First up in the Tinsel Trifecta was my home office party. Rob was a trooper and flew with me to Detroit very early on Friday morning since I had important tedium to attend to before the festivities, and he flew back Saturday afternoon. I stayed until Monday for still more meetings.

Unfortunately Detroit had hardly any snow for us, but it's always good to visit the Great Lakes State and see old friends! And also to have cheap breakfast at a coney island in Dearborn. There aren't any $4.79 breakfasts to be had in Northern Virginia, unless it's just toast and juice.

Our first Thanksgiving

Rob is out of leave days this year to go visit family, so we had our first Thanksgiving dinner for two. It was also our first vegan Thanksgiving. I wouldn't call myself vegan, but I tend to cook that way at home. We had lentil loaf, mashed potatoes, candied yams (complete with vegetarian marshmallows), stuffing, cranberry relish, and dinner rolls -- all home-made! And a bottle of lovely Michigan wine, of course. Rob had pumpkin pie for dessert and I had a home-made cinnamon roll.

Even though we were only cooking for two, it still took about 3 hours of work in the kitchen to get everything on the table! And we still have abundant leftovers to last for a couple of days.

The big tree is all decorated but I don't have a good picture of it yet! Just this one of Miss Zellie resting underneath it. It's her favorite place -- and we can't begrudge a kitty for loving velvety hiding places.