George.

You’ll hear me say it a lot this season: there’s something so special about the holiday season with a new(ish) baby. At 9 months old, Oden won’t remember his first Christmas season, but it adds to the magic for us to start sharing our traditions with him! A fun one is finding the perfect Christmas tree. It’s nostalgic and romantic and makes it feel like the holidays are truly here. John and I have loved the annual tree hunt and subsequent tree-naming (don’t YOU name your tree?). This year, we bundled up on a chilly weekend day and headed to Park City Nursery to get Christmas going!

Events like this are not as easy as they used to be. The between-nap window for Oden is about 3 hours. That sounds like plenty of time, but within that pocket he also needs to be fed- not a quick activity for a baby learning to use his fingers. Throw in travel time to and from the nursery, plus time to get the tree off of the car and into the house, and suddenly that 3-hour window feels surprisingly short. But we managed to stroll around the tree lot, ogle at the tallest trees and giggle at the tiny ones, take a peek into Santa’s Workshop, and greet the resident dog.

Like last year, our perfect tree had to be tall enough to look right in our living room with 22-foot ceilings but still be light enough for John to do 95% of the heavy lifting on his own. It took a few laps around the lot, but when we found the right tree, it was obvious. He was tall with beautifully full branches, a flat spot to tuck into a corner, and crooked. Perfectly imperfect. We named him George.

The lot guys trimmed him up and tied him to my car while we picked out a couple of wreaths for the house. Oden cooperated with our needs by playing happily in his Pack N’ Play (a new development) while we got George up the stairs and settled in for the season. He looks right at home in that corner, doesn’t he?

As I look back over the photos of the day, I have to giggle. It looks like a perfect family day, extending a cherished tradition to Oden. In truth, Oden was rubbing his eyes and probably too close to a nap to be interested. The tree, while beautiful, was silly-expensive. Cholula was trying to attack the guys who tied George to my car through the window and I was yelling at John to calm her down. As much as I want everything to be sparkly and complete right now, George has been standing naked in the corner without so much as a twinkle light for 5 or 6 days now. And my big goal to get a family photo at the Christmas tree lot failed miserably!

We are certainly a bit of a circus all the time, but I try to remember that one day, these will be the memories we laugh at together. Like George, life itself is perfectly imperfect… and I wouldn’t change it.

Except for the lights. I really want lights on the dang tree. Soon enough!

See our past trees: Stewart, Big Bertha, Boris, and Doris.

One year ago: Fusilli with Pancetta, Kale, and Cranberries