container/site/content/posts/2025-christmas/index.md

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+categories = ["christmas"]
+date = 2025-10-28T16:00:00Z
+description = ""
+draft = false
+slug = "2025-christmas"
+title = "🎄 Christmas 2025"
+author = "nicholas"
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+
+We need Christmas decorations. The most important holiday. Late October is not too soon. How many Christmases do we get in a life? I do not want to think of it.
+
+
+## ✨ Lights
+I attached standard Christmas string lights to the plant cart, a little haphazardly. It will do. I am not sure I will ever take these down. I used maybe 50 cable ties and it will a little tedious to remove them all. Also, it looks not explicitly Christmasy in the mean time, and the room could use more light, although they seem to exhibit a kind of flickering which I read is due to cheap half-wave rectified LED drivers. 60 Hz flickering.
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/plant-cart-christmas-lights.JPG"
+    caption="Plant cart Christmas lights" >}}
+
+## 🌲 Tree
+The tree is 3 ft tall unlit tree, ($15 at Hobby Lobby). I cannot trust that built-in LEDs on such disposable trees will survive long, so I outfit the tree with removable fairy lights.
+
+A tree skirt covers the private parts of the tree. Also, battery-powered mini Christmas lights.
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/christmas-tree-night.JPG"
+    caption="Christmas tree glowing at night" >}}
+
+## 🍃 Wreath
+Bailey made a wreath a very long time ago and it continues to decay each year. It will be a shame when it is no longer with us because it is beautiful. We hang this on the front door.
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/wreath-day.JPG"
+    caption="Wreath" >}}
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/wreath-night.JPG"
+    caption="Wreath glowing at night" >}}
+
+## 🎁 Gifts for Me
+Increasing dietary fiber could be a good thing for us, but the process of preparing digestible beans is annoying so I bought us a pressure cooker (**Instant Pot® Pro™ 6QT**). I made rice and it took 5 minutes. Incredible. Apparently legumes can be finished in something like 30 minutes. Wow. 
+
+I can play audio through the monitor, but of course they remind me of being on public transportation. Even these very cheap, small bookshelf speakers (**Micca MB42X G2**) are way overpowered for PC speakers, but I had a 50 W stereo amplifier (**SMSL-SA50**) from a very long time ago which can drive them, so I put it to good use. 
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/amazon-orders.png"
+    caption="Christmas gifts on the way" >}}
+
+## 🎁 Gifts for Thee
+Christmas ended up getting CANCELED. Too many illnesses. Now there is a pile of largely empty gift-wrapped boxes arranged merrily in the spare storage bedroom.
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/gift-stack.JPG"
+    caption="Gifts" >}}
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/baileys-sourdough.JPG"
+    caption="mini sourdough loaves" >}}
+
+{{< image 
+    src="images/baileys-cookies.JPG"
+    caption="pistachio shortbread cookies, ginger molasses cookies, earl grey macarons" >}}