There may still be bats on our wall (DECORATIVE BATS FROM HALLOWEEN, DON’T FREAK OUT), but we have managed to pull out the Christmas decor and our tree is up!

If you know me, you know that naming Christmas trees has been my thing since 2011 when I brought Mezzer home to the LA apartment I shared with Hema.

I took this job very seriously.

Putting extreme thought into each name for each tree in each home as if I were naming human children.

But now. My actual human child has taken over my job and I’m kinda loving it.

He loves naming things. He’s great. Creative. AND QUICK. He looks at a tree and immediately knows what he wants it to be called.

Last year, he named our tree Suma.

And this year?

RALKALI.

Rally for short.

Ishu and I picked out Rally together from Whole Foods and he named her before we had even left the parking garage. I asked him if he wanted to wait ’til she was all dressed up before giving her a name, but he already knew.

So we brought her home and cleared out a spot for her and here she sits proudly.

And, since she’s been decorated and then decorated again and then decorated once more (because Riyu thinks it’s fun to pull all the ornaments off), we’ve decided to barricade Rally with all our bulky living room items so a certain 1-yo keeps his hands to himself. Ha.

Anyway, here is Rally behind all her bodyguards.

We love her.

And she’ll be with our family ’til probably February because that’s just how we do this thing.

Long live Christmas. Long live Ralkali.