Christmas: More found stuff!

Yesterday was Christmas, and our we enjoyed a small family celebration at home in Boston. We started the day by opening our stockings to see what little things Santa Claus had brought to us, and then we moved on to a waffle breakfast with bacon, berries and maple syrup. After all the waffles, we headed off for our traditional walk through the neighborhood.

Alla and Nika noticed a tree that somebody had put out for the trash collectors without removing two strings of lights. Alla was annoyed that the city would be unable to compost the tree with the lights still attached, so we took off the lights and Alla wound them onto her hand like a high-tech muff. Amused by this, Nika decorated the "muff" with bits of ribbon and decorations she found along the way. Finally, Nika found a big golden star ornament hanging from a red ribbon on a tree in the Public Garden. She appropriated the star for herself. Meanwhile, I was already decorated because Nika didn't want me to go out dressed all in black and she draped me with a garland of white sheep that she took from our home decorations. I think that pretty much explains the photograph above.

When we got home, we unrolled the string of lights and discovered that it was long enough to wind around the banister of the staircase on three floors of our house. Basically, then, the lights illuminate three-quarters of our little house because there's only one room on each level. Here's a picture of Alla showing off her new dress near the staircase.

The rest of the day involved roast chicken and a few presents, but no more found stuff. Well, we're still enjoying the lights, and I am about to "find" more of the roast chicken inside the refrigerator.