“We should go get our tree”, Karen said to me a few days ago. I don’t really have much X-mas spirit this year, mostly because I never do. So I kind of harrumphed, looked sour, and maybe even “bah, humbugged” when Karen announced that it was time to acquire our annual piney decoration. But I agreed that the time had indeed arrived, especially since this is Zoe’s first Christmas evah.

So we all jumped up (if one can be said to jump when packing an infant around is involved) and headed on over to Bonnie’s. This is a little local place on the other side of the park from our house. They’re basically open from some time in the spring until they sell their last Christmas tree. It’s a quick drive, so I didn’t have enough time to get into much of a “I hate tree-shopping” mode.

It turns out we could have walked over there. Karen decided at some point that even though she wanted a tree, it wasn’t going to be a very big one. And thus we ended up with a little fir that barely breaks the four foot mark. I swear that it weighs less than Zoe.

It was something of an adventure getting this sapling into our industrial-strength tree stand. In years past, we have taken advantage of our 20’+ ceiling when it came to trees; a couple of years ago, we had an eleven-footer.

I think this qualifies as the second shortest tree we’ve ever had; I seem to recall a rather portly little shrub we acquired for our minuscule apartment back in New York.

Zoe, as you can see, appears to be very interested.