Herbert the Tree

Yes, we named our Christmas tree. Yes, he is part of our family. Yes, I am already dreading his imminent death and removal from our apartment. But for a moment, let's celebrate his life, shall we?

The school I work at has a Christmas Tree sale every year. One Friday morning, Christmas pulled up disguised as a truck of trees from Maine. ^^^ The view from my office window.

It looked like Christmas. It smelled like Christmas. It felt like Christmas.

And so, the next morning, Tim and I bundled up, braved the rain and went back to school to pick out our tree. It's not the same as chopping down your own tree but we were okay with it because we won't actually be here for Christmas, we don't live in a rural area, and I wanted to support the sale. We found the largest and fullest tree of the least costly price range and adopted him on the spot. Driving Herbert home was frightening and we were saying memorare's like it was our job because we don't have a rack above our car so he was tied with twine to the handles that you hold onto when getting in and out of the car.

Introducing Herbert to his new home. Tim would like to note that not only was I not helping him carry the tree, I also made him pause, more than once, so I could get a picture... And somehow he still loves me.

We moved him in and let him settle for a few hours and realized that he is a lot more plump than anticipated!

We will call this set, "Rylee attempts to take artsy pictures while Tim complains that she still isn't helping."

Here he is #herbiefullyloaded. Simple lights shining at oddly different tones and a set of all red ornaments from Target for cheap because we are newlyweds and all of our childhood ornaments are with our parents.

And Tim claims his role as patriarch to put the angel on top. It feels and smells like Christmas around here, it will be a little bit sad to leave the comfort of the apartment and this city which is starting to really feel like home, for the holidays.

Note: Some people (Steve) thought it was strange and laughable that we named our tree and refer to it as a he, but I've been known to name my plants in the past, a Christmas Tree is no exception and #HerberttheTree was already taken on Instagram. Many times. And that should prove my point except it's unclear what and to whom I am proving.