She handed me a mug of tea. “I made cardboard holders to wrap the lights around just so they wouldn’t end up like this. I found them in the bottom of the box. Maybe this year you might try using them.”

“Noted.”

She grinned. “Have a cookie. I baked these last night, trying out recipes for our holiday cookie exchange. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and made cookies.”

Frankie was an insomniac with OCD tendencies. If she wasn’t baking she’d be vacuuming her immaculate basement or alphabetizing her spices.

I bit into a cookie that tasted of tart lemon. “These are delicious. So’s the tea.”

“Cocoa nibs, clementine, and Christmas spices in the tea. Lemon curd in the cookies.”

A log popped and hissed and the fire collapsed slightly. Mosby rolled over, ignoring it. Frankie got up, took a log from a bundle of firewood that was stacked in a copper bucket, and put it on the fire.

“When do you want to put the decorations up?” I asked.

She had been planning our holiday events since Labor Day; we’d both agreed that with the ugly state of politics in Washington, the general malaise in the country, and the depressing headlines in the news, we wanted a simple, old-fashioned holiday and the theme would be “Home for Christmas.”

A cookie swap. A tree-decorating party where folks could string cranberries and popcorn to make garlands. A night of caroling. We would serve wassail and mulled wine, and since we were opening the first bottles of our Madeira for Christmas, Frankie wanted to make Madeira cakes and mince pies.

We were also collecting nonperishable items for the food pantry in Leesburg and toys and winter coats for the homeless shelter. Eli, Sasha, Quinn, and I had decided to forgo giving gifts to each other and spend the money instead on food, toys, and coats for the local charities.

“I thought I’d start decorating tomorrow. You and Quinn are still getting the tree and the pine garland on Tuesday, right?” Frankie asked. She licked lemon curd off her fingers. “I’ll take care of the wreaths. This year I’m using grapevines to make them.”

“I don’t know how you can outdo what you did last year. Those wreaths were gorgeous,” I said. “And yes, to the tree and garland on Tuesday. We’re also getting the tree for the house. Eli and Sasha are going by Seely’s tomorrow with the kids to pick out their tree—it’ll be their first one as a new family, plus they’re in the new house, so they’re making a big deal of it for Hope and Zach. Noah said he’ll send a truck by with all three trees on Wednesday.”

“A nursery that delivers. Nice.”