11 a.m. — I take the streetcar to pick up my bike, and D. heads home to get a head start on Christmas decorating. When I get home, we toss together a quick salad for lunch (mixed greens, smoked salmon, grapefruit wedges, slivered almonds, red onion, and balsamic vinaigrette). We spend the afternoon decking the halls of our little one-bedroom unit. We put Christmas sheets on our bed, trade out our regular dishes for Christmas ones, and add little touches of Christmas decor here and there. The only thing we're missing is a tree. We had a real one last year, but it came tied up, so we had no idea how big it was until we unbound it, and it took over half our living room. Our roommate was understandably annoyed. We look at fake trees online, but they're all so expensive. D. and I are both discouraged, since we love Christmas and were looking forward to putting up a tree today. We decide to hold off and check again on Black Friday.