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In my part of the US they seem to be rare in houses but common in churches, at least Methodist churches.

Four candles for the Sundays before Christmas. Most have purple candles for three Sundays but one pink one typically lit on the third Sunday. Most also have a more prominent, central, white. christ candle that is lit for Christmas eve services and Christmas day. Some churches then remove the wreath but continue lighting that candle until later in the church year.

Typically a family will be asked to light the candles for each service and recite a reading.

The candles/days are usually themed: Hope, peace, joy, then love. Sometimes they are associated with characters from the story. E.g. pink being Mary’s candle.

Quick reviews of what I watched before the season starts to close. Not that I have much to say about any of them. A few were great, most were forgettable.

Great:

• This Monster Wants to Eat Me - Easily my favorite this season. The show is very well made, especially how the characters are portrayed. It did have a slow start but that’s just the kind of show it is. Very character and situation driven. Each episode enhances the situation, characters, inherent conflict, etc.
• Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! - Second favorite of the season. The characters have good chemistry, the concept is fun. I enjoyed every episode.

Good:

• Lvl 9999 gatcha… - I did not expect much from this, but it has been surprisingly enjoyable. It has its issues, but the characters are fun and varied, the pacing is not too bad, and there seems to be real world building… alright, I actually picked up the LN for this, and it does have good world building and the plot progression has remained consistent so far.
• A Gatherer’s Adventure in Isekai - I thought this would be a boring, slice of life, travel anime, but something about it works for me. The characters and sub plots are nothing spectacular, but interesting enough and work well together.
• Isekai Quartet3 - Carries on from the others. Always fun to see these different characters interact.

Just Ok: -My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s - I’m not sure why I am still watching this. The current arc is dragging on way to long, the previous elf arc was terrible, there has been little story progression, just hints of a bigger plot.

• May I Ask For One Final Thing? - This just never clicked for me. The concept is fun, and I generally enjoy the whole dumped otome heroine/villaness sub genera, but nothing about the story or the characters works for me.
• The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest - Another over played concept, but it avoids some of the worse tropes. The former party leader does grow up and recognize his mistakes. The MC actually knows he is strong. It’s above average for this sort of anime.
• Dad is a hero, Mom is a spirit, I’m a reincarnator - Dropped, then picked back up and binged through quickly one afternoon when bored… probably should have left it dropped.
• Mechanical Marie - The concept is fun, its just a bit too plain. The romance is barely more than a crush. The humor does not hit often enough.
• The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess - There are a lot of these reincarnated in an otome game with a twist sort of shows. The twist is different enough in this one that it carries the show. I’d have dropped it early on if I did not enjoy seeing the main character constantly flustered trying to deal with the consequences of becoming the villainess in the world of her own childhood dark fantasies.

Same. We have it on several hundred computers, and I can’t really say it is any more trouble than 10. It has its annoyances to be sure, but no more than any other OS I’ve worked with. Maybe the work versions are just better, but I’ve not seen any issues with family PCs either.

I think maybe the root of the conflict is that it only works if you are fine with Microsoft’s “design” choices… cloud accounts, one drive integration, taskbar on bottom, etc., and many people on this platform prefer a much higher degree of control over the OS.

I’ve considered installing the equivalent of a spike club behind my vehicle to ward off tailgaters

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That or “I don’t like candy”

Yes. Ever since he started getting media attention, I’ve seen him as the real world, version of the comedic character Colbert portrayed.

Well, my immediate problem is the general lack of memory and personality change (can’t really rely on a 10 year old’s diary.) So… I’m probably going to need some sort of convincing injury to blame.

After that is the hard choice. I could toss the USB and just live. But the nature of the situation suggests I’m supposed to do something. At minimum I’d want the means to investigate the scenario. Running away has merits, but this sounds like a safe, stable situation, and it seems wrong to abandon the family this kid belonged to.

I’ll need a side hustle that works for a 10 year old… maybe trading cards or something along those lines. The money does not matter as much as the hustle and laying the ground work for an early interest in business and money making schemes. After that, retail arbitrage, then a bigger payout. Cashing in a big prize for a discovery or winning the lottery would draw too much attention, but sports betting could work. Then use that to move into financial markets. Moving slowly but setting things up to ramp gains by 18. I know that misses the goal, but doing it earlier depends entirely on the family situation. 20 is probably more doable.

While there are several I may go back and binge now the season is over, for some reason I only really ended up watching four seasonal shows to completion. (Kind of fell out of the anime habit for a bit, least I’ve watched in years. To the extent I’m even late commenting here…)

My Dress-Up Darling - Picked up right where the last season left off and continued strong. I know some people are disappointed the relationship did not move quickly, but there is still some character development needed for both to get there. Hopefully this leads into a satisfying third season.

Secrets of the Silent Witch - My favorite new show of the season. The first volume was adapted pretty much perfectly. There was a clear attention to detail and care for the story and characters. Sadly, the second part felt very rushed as if they were fast forwarding through scenes with characters barely introduced then sidelined with no room to breath or really be recognized. But it slowed back down on the moments that mattered, and it ended very strong.

Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra - The show was enjoyable enough to finish, but there is just something dull about it… The dark elves as characters, palette, maybe the lower production values… not sure. But it just seemed “muted” at times like it was almost but not quite what it should be.

Call of the Night - probably my anime of the season. The whole show is just a “vibe” carried by the music, setting, and characters. Like Dress-Up, this picked right up where it left off. We got character development, more background story, a great new character, and well executed plot that seamlessly wove all this together.

Found an Etsy listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1592716281/vintage-ceramic-pixie-figurines-zebra

Possibly made/imported by Norcrest https://www.worthpoint.com/dictionary/p/ceramics/na--united-states/norcrest-china-company

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“1st Chapter” concerns me. Is this a complete, stand alone game with a satisfying conclusion or does it’s story ultimately rely on playing later games as well.

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U.S. Corporate Capitalism is a cult. Adherents worship the Market as god and believe it is the sole arbitrator of wealth and worth. They believe that if you give your time, money, labor, and life to the Holy Market and follow it properly it will reward you with wealth and importance, but if you do wrong by it, it will punish you with poverty. If you are rich, you must be a good person who should be listened to and emulated. If you are poor, you must have done something wrong and need to do right by the Holy Market by giving it more of you time and labor. The poor must be lazy because if they worked properly the Holy Market would surely reward them.

Thus, welfare, which separates the poor from the consequence of their economic sins, is evil.

Stock brokers are the priests. They commune with the Holy Market on behalf of people in exchange for a tithe (commission.) Billionaires are the saints. They have been greatly blessed by the Holy Market and thus are the best of all people and should be followed and emulated. The U.S. Federal Reserve chair is the Pope and the rest of that board are the cardinals. They represent the Capitalist orthodoxy and are often at odds with the more radical believers.

Donald Trump… is the messiah. The faithful believe he is here to bring in a second coming of U.S. financial greatness. They bring him offerings of gold. He travels the world in a (soon to be golden) flying chariot, wielding vast financial powers in order to extract tribute from other nations.

Watching:

• My Dress-Up Darling - I forgot how much I enjoyed this show. Second season continues right along with no noticeable drop off. 4/5+
• Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra - I like the dark fantasy aspect and how the world/game aspects are based on a strategy game instead of the usual RPG. But, there is not much of a plot yet, the characters have not been that interesting, and the world building is slowing down. 3/5 for now.
• Call of the Night - Another returning series that picked back up with the same energy as before. This season has a good plot driving some character and world building. 4/5
• Secrets of the Silent Witch - The first four episodes were nearly perfect, and I could tell the adoption was being handled with care, but the next four felt very rushed. The quality was still there and nothing specifically was wrong just it did not seem like enough time was allowed for one event or character to be established before it jumped to the next. 4/5
• Reborn as a Vending Machine - I enjoyed the original three light novels and the first season. But this season should never have been made. The pacing, plot, etc. are all really poor. My guess is they are now adopting the web novel and that lacks the polish and fleshing out a light novel would typically add. 2/5
• Cultural Exchange with a Game Center Girl - Its always weird to be a native English speaker watching a subtitled anime from Japan featuring an English speaking character. Sort of doubles the titular cultural exchange. So far its been interesting and fun enough. I worry a bit about the potential age gap relationship, but so far that’s not developed into a real problem. 4/5

Soft Dropped:

• Clevatess - The dark fantasy, high stakes, implied world building depth are all great. I just got really tired of the cliff hangers and constant amping up of drama. Seems like it would be better watched one arc at a time. So I may pick it back up later. 3/5

Dropped:

• Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! - I know better than to have expected much from this. It was OK at first, but then I found myself “hate watching” it. I’m generally fine with and often enjoy the unaware, overpowered main character trope. But this one doubles down and makes the entire rest of the cast seem utterly stupid as well just so the MC seems smart in comparison. 2/5
• The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses - Eh, it seemed okish, just not of interest to me.

To pick up:

• Dan da dan - I enjoyed the first part of the first season, then sort of fell out of watching it. Not sure why. Still intend to pick it back up.
• Kaiju No. 8 - I enjoyed binging this one when the first season aired so plan to do the same here.
• City the animation - Amazon’s video service is trash. Other options… have their own complications, so I hope to catch it all at once later.