Italian yule log cakes, at least in these parts, are generally landscaped with lightweight folds of marzipan mountains and little marzipan cottages, with molded sugar pine trees. My parents, with my dissertation topic in mind, commissioned our local pasticceria to make a Christmas cake with a windmill on it. The shop rose to the challenge, created a towering windmill out of chocolate, its sturdy foundations running deep into the boozy, fluffy bedrock of cake. It was lovely.

We don't have a menorah here, but we've set out candles on the balcony again, burning out their waxy tenures in the tranquil darkness of the first night of Hannukah and Christmas Day Eve.