I'll have a mauve Christmas without you...

As we enter the holidays, we thought we'd share a few earth-toned sights of the season.

• The Reston Town Center Hyatt's awesome gingerbread house village is back after last year's absence. Yay!

The kitchen and engineering staffs share the effort, Messina reported. And a demanding task it is. In addition to performing their ordinary duties, four or five people work 45 days to assemble the houses, and then another five to seven days to erect the village.

Sounds like a lot of extra work for Santa's ununionized elves, doesn't it?

• Reston-based Eastern Motors, home of the ever-sophisticated rappin' Redskins commercials, donated a car to a Fredericksburg woman who runs a shelter for abused women. Yay! But who knew they were based in Reston? If they tried to put up one of their mustard-yellow dealerships anywhere in Reston, the DRB would throw the mauve-colored book at them before they could say "Your job's your credit."

And finally, in the spirit of the season, we'll share this comment posted on our favorite message board:

With a footnote reminder -

*The Reston(r) Association specifies that residents may have a "Holiday Tree" (Tree) provided that such Tree is Forest Green and decorated with fruits and nuts for the birds and squirrels.

Report any violators using "The Complaint Form" available at [www.reston.org]. And, as always, use recycled paper.

We're assuming this is a joke. But the fact that we wondered for a moment or two says it all, doesn't it?