There were, however, a few other little things that gave me additional joy this year.
The lighting display, especially as seen from the dining room, was especially beautiful. We just used a more limited number of white lights for the Christmas tree this year.
The coloured lights were more widely spread, with the Christmas lights in the dining room, candles on the table, lights in the garden seen through the windows and the reflections on the glass all giving the dining room an especially warm glow.
Both our own external lights and those of the neighbours contributed.
Babcia had been worried that we would not have enough carrots a week beforehand, but on Wednesday she made her vegetable salad and prepared the vegetables for the Greek fish. It was therefore great to see her tucking into these like nobody's business during the evening meal on Christmas Eve, with her other great love, fish in jelly, joining them. She really loves her food. (The Greek fish isn't yet on the table in the picture below.)
The hoped for warmer weather arrived, with a great deal of the snow melting and large areas of grass appearing. There were even patches of sun on Christmas Eve, giving an unexpected rainbow.
Though just a few days, the warmer weather gave welcome Christmas relief to the feeling that cold and snow had become an entrenched way of life. The cold has returned, although with just a light scattering of snow added so far. The sun is smiling down on us and it is only -7c, but Loudon Wainwright III's words still come back to me:
Some day this weary winter will be gone.
Don't be fooled it won't be gone for good.
It will be back to freeze next year's moustache,
Blowing snow as every winter should.
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