The lights go out

This morning we looked out our back windows and discovered that the Christmas tree lights on the crane have been extinguished. The Christmas tree crane was our beacon morning and evening that signaled the magic of the season. And now it's over. I guess the compensation is that the days are slowly getting longer, with sunset not arriving until after 5:00 PM. With the slightly longer days comes the promise of spring - and the completion of our first year in Belgium. Wow - we're only a month away from a full year here. Hard to believe...