Wednesday Banjo Man, daughter Nancy and I headed off to the Farmer’s Daughter garden center to find the perfect Christmas tree.

We each had different definitions of “perfect”, so I declared, “It’s too big” many, many times as we trudged through mud, battled wind, wrapped our scarves tighter around our necks, and examined trees.

Sometimes they didn’t believe me, so I whipped out my tape measures (I brought two, one fabric and one metal) to prove that the tree was indeed too wide for the corner space in our living room.

The tree would have to be skinny. SKINNY, I repeated often. And finally…success!

Yes, this looks too skinny. But check this out:

Our first live tree in decades is now tucked in the corner of the living room. What looked a bit scrawny in the tree lot now looks perfect.

Presents are tucked underneath it now. More ornaments have been placed. Banjo Man is cheerfully watering it twice a day. No needles have dropped.

Our Christmas-at-home joy continues.

Son Will flies in tonight. The Funny Grandson and his parents fly in tomorrow. Amber and the FG battled the flu last week, but are okay now. Will had “something” for a day. And so far Ben is fine. Texas has been hit hard with the flu bug, so I worried our family Christmas together wasn’t going to happen.

So far so good.