Bleak December

It's days like this that make me understand the urge to fill the house with light and color and bright glittery things.

Stark tree branches are dramatic, even beautiful, but on a gray day with never a glimpse of the sun, they can be a tad depressing.

So we cook and decorate and string fairy lights against the dark -- and, like primitive man huddled around a fire in a drafty cave, we await the sun's return.