Welcome to the third week of the Virtual Advent Tour!

Today, the tour returns to the other bipedal member of my household, Rudi at Random Duck. He’s got some Christmas-related trivia for you so that you can wow your friends and loved ones at parties and holiday meals.

See you back here tomorrow!

This was a week chock full of beautiful things, so I’m cheating by sharing three things and three photos. Hey, my blog, my rules!

1. It snowed on Saturday pretty much all day long, but never really stuck to roadways or sidewalks, which meant we got to enjoy it without having to do any shoveling, which is really the most you can ask for from snow. There have also been some conversational snow flurries during the work week.

2. Our friends Susan and Phillip invited us to join them for the free tuba Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center. Since this is now a ticketed event, it was really nice of them to offer to pick up the tickets while Rudi and I were still at our respective offices. Plus, while Rudi (who missed last year’s concert when the change was first made) questioned the moving of the concert out of the great hall and into one of the theaters, his face when he saw tuba players (tubaists? tubers?) not only on the stage but also ringing the room on the balconies was full of joy.

3. Lin-Manuel Miranda announced today he’s giving us a year of “Hamildrops,” new Hamilton-themed content to come out once a month! December’s, which has provided the theme music for tonight’s blog writing, is “Ben Franklin’s Song,” performed by The Decemberists (whose lead singer, Colin Meloy, penned the melody). Should swearing be outside your comfort zone (in which case I might imagine Hamilton to be so as well, but your mileage may vary), there is also apparently a clean version, but I can’t imagine a better, more cathartic chorus than “Do you know who the fuck I am? I am Poor Richard’s Almanack-writing Benjamin fucking Franklin!?”

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?