I'm so relieved that we're getting closer to the solstice. It will be so nice when the days start getting longer again. It's so dismal lately, how dark it is for so long in the morning. I'm generally up around 5 a.m. and the sun doesn't usually show it's face until after 7 a.m. and by the time I'm leaving work at 4:30 p.m., it's already well past "sun glass" time.

It seems this week that everyone in our neighbourhood who was going to go nuts with Christmas lights, has. We decided against it this year. Ordinarily, we decorate our front yard with a lot of lights but given the cost of hydro and the fact that we're all supposed to be cutting back on our electricity consumption, we thought that we'd do our bit and try to keep that kind of thing to a minimum. I must say though, it is pretty, particularly given how gloomy it is right now.