O Christmas Tree

We took Lorelei with us to find a Christmas tree on perhaps the coldest day in the history of Minnesota. Ordinarily, sitting here with the air condition humming, it would be hard to even remember that kind of knock-the-wind-out-of-you-freeze-your-boogers kind of cold. As it turns out, recall is good. It was that cold. Epic, really. Even though L was snug as a bug under her carseat cover, we shopped inside at our favorite Christmas tree farm this year. We may have scapegoated the baby though. (That's one of the hidden benefits of parenthood, it turns out.)

Anyway, I was on strict orders to be more conservative in my pick this year due to the debacle that was last year's selection. (see below)

Right away, it was clear Herman (we always name our Christmas trees- don't ask, it's a thing) was going to need a trim.

This is Sean's "I told you so" look. (The thing he told me is that we do not have twelve foot ceilings. Touche.)

And a little off the top...

After several labor intensive rounds of sawing, the star was wedged between the ceiling and the tree.

Ok, so I thought the whole ordeal was pretty funny. But, you'll note, I'm not in any of the photos teetering on a kitchen chair and sawing away at this stubborn, sappy, mess of a tree. More importantly, though, it actually fell down two or three times, dumping water everywhere and breaking several ornaments. Apart from being a terrible mess, it really was a hazard. So, Sean made me promise this year would not be a repeat. In retrospect, that was a pretty fair request.

The thing is, Christmas is the best. And traditions. I adore traditions. No, here's what it is. I'm an anticipation junkie. And more traditions mean more delicious anticipation. So, every year we put on the same Christmas Crooner's CD and drink hot chocolate with Baileys and bicker over light placement. (Actually we bicker over the degree to which it matters...) Then the more type-A one of us apologizes for being crazy Christmas lady and we dance to Dean and Frankie in the living room with the lights twinkling in all their evenly-distributed symmetrical glory. It's a great night. So, being all dreamy about Ella and chocolate, I can get carried away.

Not this year, though. This year was perfect.