Working from home (which is what I'm calling unemployment now) has its advantages.  One of them is that you can enjoy the snow without reservation.  You don't have to be all adult about it and mention how awful it is for driving in, or any of the other obvious drawbacks of snow in the city.  Just sit back at your desk in your cozy third-floor parapet and enjoy the rooftop views.

I have even changed my desktop view to reflect the change of seasons, to one of my favorite winter scenes, Brueghel's The Hunters:


Gorgeous, innit?  In another life.

Yesterday turned out perfect.  Because it started snowing at nightfall, after the last of the autumn leaves had been raked, and we'd hung the wreathe, put our "holographic menorah" in the window, and strung up some tinkly lights...


It makes the old shanty sparkle and shine!  For a few short moments, staring into the twinkly lights, you can almost forget you're living in a Dickensian flop-house and looking forward to another O. Henry Christmas. 

Being a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multicultural household, we wanted to cover all the bases, as you can see.  But we didn't really know what to do for Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza, however you choose to spell it). Our resident expert told us the holographic menorah could double as a "Kwanzaa thingy." I was happy that she was happy. The tree can do triple duty—for the Christian in  the house, for our resident druid, and we can call it a Kwanzaa bush in a pinch.

The twinkly lights are for me.