Welcome back to Day 22 of the Virtual Advent Tour.

Because Rudi has traveled recently, we are supposed to quarantine until he receives the results of the COVID test he took today, which means minimizing our human contact. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we live in a relatively small apartment and that getting outside of it is imperative to our mental health. So tonight, we revived a tradition that my parents had when we were kids — driving around to look at Christmas lights.

We headed across the bridge to Arlington and found an older neighborhood where there were plenty of houses lit up in one way or another — lasers, inflatables, lights. We oohed and we ahhed, each pointing out the houses we liked best or found inadvertently funniest (there was one house with one of those car dealership wiggly air things shaped like Santa that seemed to be assaulting a Grinch who’d fallen over beneath it).

And then we hit 1713 North Quebec Street, which just demanded we get out of the car to get a better look:

According to this website, they change their theme every year, and this year it seemed to be Celebrate the Coming Year and the New President.

Garfield and Odie were there with a bagful of Stouffers lasagnas.

Thomas the Tank Engine was being responsible and wearing a mask:

Nestor, the Long-Eared Donkey, made an appearance in the manger:

Dinosaurs were keeping warm by a fire pit:

The South Pole seems to have shown up, too:

There was a whole display shed built for a model town (home to two doughnut shops), dolls, toys, and indoor animated figures:

And, finally, there was a motion-activated outhouse:

I definitely think we’ll visit again next year to see how it changes.

And, in keeping with today’s theme, here’s a new song from Jamie Cullum off his The Pianoman at Christmas album:

See you back here tomorrow. We’re in the home stretch!