Welcome Christmas!

 I won't have a Christmas tree this year - not in my apartment - because construction on the ceiling is still pending.  I'm disappointed that the ceiling hasn't been fixed yet, but I'm not disappointed about the tree.  Trees are for sharing with people, and I don't think I would want one here by myself even if there weren't the trouble with the ceiling.  Like every year, I will help trim a wonderful tree in my mom & dad's living room.     No, their tree isn't up yet - it has to be done in my mom's time, which is usually at the last minute.  In the meantime, at my apartment, I spent a happy evening haphazardly stringing lights around my kitchen windows.  I have a little rosemary plant with a gold paper star pinned on top and little gold beads tied on... I have starry looking dried grass seeds, and I have porcelain NOEL letters that I found at the Goodwill a couple years ago.  Somebody lovingly glued the "E" back together after it'd been shattered, and I think it's just perfect.  So now I look forward to dusk falling in the evenings so I can plug in the Christmas lights... it's such a good feeling to walk into the glowing kitchen to put the kettle on for tea.