Picking out the Christmas tree...it wouldn't have been the same without her ("Next year, let's test that theory," said Savannah)

Not normally a big fan of getting the tree up so early, I wanted to make sure Savannah was home so I scheduled a trip to our local Christmas tree farm for around Thanksgiving. "My feelings won't be hurt if you get the tree without me," Savannah assured me but...nevertheless...there we were. Our tree-picking strategies vary from family-member-to-family-member. The girls tend to like a tree that is within VERY close proximity of our parked truck. Brad likes a tree that will actually fit in our living room while I favor a tree with personality. Sydney's plea to re-purpose a tree that had already had its top lopped off went unheard. "But look," she argued, "rather than a peak, we'd have a tree with a top shelf." Nope. On our second lap around the farm, Savannah began to get desperate. "You really could have done this without me," she kept muttering, "I wouldn't have minded."

After years of being stabbed, I have become passionately anti-blue spruce. For some reason, perhaps because of her tolerant and accepting nature, Sydney is tree-blind. For Sydney Lynn, all trees are equal in the eyes of God and man. After I had vetoed her third blue spruce, Brad snapped...initiating a now-and-forever-more rule to picking out the Mosiman Christmas tree. "Stick your face in the tree," he told her, "if you are in danger of losing an eye...then it's a blue spruce."

I was finally happy with a tree with kinked-up, curly branches. Brad sawed it down with remarkable speed and the girls headed off to pay for our selection. "I'm not all that emotionally-invested in this tradition," I heard Savannah remark to her sister as they disappeared into the Christmas tree forest, "I would have been fine if you'd gone without me."

And thus concludes another precious holiday memory, treasured by all...(most)...(some)...(me).