After dinner, I help Lenny, Joe, and Monie’s uncles, Lou and Alan, drag out the Christmas decorations from the basement. There are at least thirty boxes and tubs full of ornaments, garland, and lights along with miniatures for the Tuscan village diorama. But with twenty of us, sans Monie’s cousin Phil, who’s stepped out to get his girlfriend, I think it’ll come together quickly. Everyone has an appointed job. The kids hang the ornaments on the tree, the teens do the garland and tinsel, my cousins string the tree and interior lights, and the women deal with setting up the diorama. I’ll be working with Lenny and Alan outside, which entails stringing up a hedgerow of bushy yews around the looping drive along with the pergola out back. The house, as well as the trees flanking it, are already s
