We had some bad news yesterday here in the Burrow.

This song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” from Meet Me in St. Louis expresses the mood here:

By tomorrow, I’ll have processed things and be better able to write something holidayish. See you then.

Welcome to the back half of the Virtual Advent Tour.

Behind today’s door, we find a post from Rudi at Random Duck in tribute to national comedic treasure, Dick Van Dyke, who celebrates his 98th birthday today.

To keep with the theme, here is Dick with Jane Lynch, performing, “We’re Going Caroling”:

Today marks the end of the first half of our Virtual Advent Tour, so I’m offering you a glimpse into another of our favorite annual traditions — the Merry TubaChristmas.

This year marks the 50th TubaChristmas, which was created by Harvey Phillips in memory of his tuba instructor, William Bell, born at Christmas in 1902. The very first “caroling” tuba concert was held in New York City in 1974, and they have been held annually ever since, in a growing number of cities around the country. This year there were 212 concerts.

In D.C., it’s held at the Kennedy Center, and 250 tuba and euphonium players from around the region were in attendance. The two youngest performers were 10 and the oldest was 82. The newest player had started playing within the last year. This fellow with the green book had the oldest tuba, which was more than 100 years old:

Many people come in festive outfits and bedeck their instruments.

My favorite of their songs is always “Joy to the World,” which sounds very impressive when played by that many deep brass instruments:

If you can find a TubaChristmas near you, I highly recommend checking it out!

Happy Monday! I hope today finds you well, rested, and jolly. No? One of the three? Maybe?

Wherever you are in the holiday process this Monday morning, know you are not alone. There are plenty of people who finished everything up weeks ago and there are a bunch of folks who haven’t started yet. And there are a whole slew of us slogging through the middle somewhere, trying to find balance and time and a few deals on gifts.

Today is the 11th day of Advent, and I’m sending you off to An Adventure in Reading. Raidergirl3, who is the only one of us to have taken part in every single Virtual Advent Tour, has a post that I think will likely bring you tears and smiles in equal measure. At least it did for me.

Friday afternoon, Rudi, my friend Sarah, and I went to Yards Park here in D.C. to eat seasonal ice cream flavors at Ice Cream Jubilee and to check out Light Yards, the annual light installation they erect. This year’s is “Swinging Bells,” five 13′ kinetic sculptures you can “ring”:

You sit (or stand) on the bell clapper, but take a friend because it’s really hard to get swinging on your own.

Rudi had to give both Sarah and me pushes.

You can see the Yards’ official Instagram video here, which better demonstrates what a cute concept it is.

See you back tomorrow.

Welcome to the ninth door of the Virtual Advent Tour, behind which we find tour cofounder, Marg, who popped into my comments last night to generously offer a post for today. Please head over to The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader for her contribution on holiday food books and tasty seasonal treats.

It’s not about lebkuchen, but I can offer you a holiday sweets song of sorts, “Marshmallow World,” performed here by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra: