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.