2 Weeks Before Christmas

My Sunday Christmas List:

• The tree is up and it looks pretty. H. bought it today with Figgy and Punch. We are so far ahead of last year, when we got the tree late, put the lights on, but didn't even decorate it until after we got home from our long Christmas in Maine. Crazy, I know. That's the kind of year it was.
• I went to church. Liked Advent wreath. [2 purple and 1 pink candle lit. Partial to the pink one.]
• Ate mindfully...even the bagel, the pumpkin pie.
• Walked Sug around block with H. in bracing cold.
• Sis and Don came to visit!
• Drove to cemetery to put a Christmas wreath on Dad's grave, but it was dark already at 5:03, and the cemetery closes at dusk. So we paused at the tall black iron gates and pledged to go back another time.
• H. made a quick dinner--ready-roast chicken, sliced tomatoes, bread, fresh mozzarella, veggies--and we ate it on my parents' elegant wedding china [MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN, as it says in small caps on the back of every piece].
• It's comforting to see all of Christmas again--things I've had since I was a little girl, gifts from Catholic school: a small plastic statue of an angel bending over Baby Jesus in the crib, and a tiny wooden angel in a purple robe. One of her arms is broken off at the elbow. But she's still beautiful.

Tidings of comfort and joy. Good night.