How it got to be Thursday is beyond me, but since it’s here, let’s celebrate three beautiful things from the last week:

1. There were no Christmas lights lit save for the Delaware Highway Patrol Barracks in the middle of 295 when Rudi and I drove north Wednesday night. On Friday evening, a few houses had their lights on. By the time we began our drive south Sunday night, there were lights everywhere, and Rudi and I were able to exclaim, “Look! Christmas!” over and over. It was very exciting.

2. Last Christmas my folks loaned us an audio book to listen to on the drive home. Unfortunately, I forgot we didn’t have a cd player in the car. But I wisely ripped it to my iPod before we left for Thanksgiving, so we were entertained by a Christmas-themed Stephanie Plum mystery from New York to Maryland, making the drive seem substantially shorter and earlier than it was.

3. Last night someone in our neighborhood lit a fire. I’m not sure where exactly the fire was (although my guess would be the house kitty-corner to ours because they always get a supply of wood delivered every fall), but the smell of a wood fire wafted through my open window and curled around me as I sat at my desk.