Ten days until Christmas. Corey and I are lying on the couch, admiring the tree in our darkened living room. He just went over and pet one of the cat ornaments dangling in front of the tv, which I’m pretty sure means he approves of its placement.

Last night, Rudi and I put another strand of lights on the tree, since a third of our long strand decided to conk out a couple days back. People mostly fall into two camps — put lights on from the top or put them on from the bottom. My dad falls into the latter, which means when I decorate their tree — still lit with clippable C7 bulbs, I start from the top. It takes a whole day to get all their lights on.

Rudi’s and mine are lit with little LEDs, and we start from the bottom, because I like to see where more lights are needed as I go along. But a few years back, I decided we needed more lights, so now in addition to the long single strand that goes up, there are three shorter strands that come back down. The best of both worlds.

But this last strand is now wound amongst ornaments and in knotty twists and turns to replicate the section that went out. Dedecorating the tree is going to be fun… But that is decidedly a January problem and not a December problem, and I’m glad the tree no longer has clear dark patch. Better to have a problem for just one day than to be bothered by something so solvable for the next month.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. NCAA volleyball championships are going on, which means whole nights of getting to watch my favorite sport. (The finals will be on ABC at 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, should you want to watch some top-notch athletes.)

2. We get a video chat with John, Nicole, and Juliet to hear about how their holidays are going and to see their menorah and their tree. And Rebs and I have a late-night talk, where we share darkened living room pictures of our trees.

3. When we need to start our game Wednesday evening, only three of us are in attendance. But Jasen, Chris, and I have played a lot of pickup together and take an early lead, which gives Katie time to get there to help us win the first set and then Sergio to help us take the third, beating the last undefeated team in our league.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

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.