'Tis the Season

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Today was our annual trip to the mall to see Santa and to get our Christmas tree! It really feels like the holiday season has arrived once we put that Christmas tree up in the living room.

First of all, everyone in our area must have decided to go see Santa today. Can I just tell you all that we were in the mall for about two hours today? Yeah, standing on line with two overly excited, yet whiny and cranky, five-year-olds, plus an eleven-year-old who is just as whiny about the wait can certainly make the experience less than wonderful. But the moment you get to the front of the line, and all of the little (and not quite so little) faces see Santa up close, all of the waiting is totally worth it. Especially when he’s super sweet and takes the time to speak directly to each member of the family and put everyone in the Christmas spirit.

Picking out the Christmas tree is always fun. As I learned today, my parents always choose a tree that looks good and will fit in our house, but they let all of the kids run around and look through each of the trees, and make them feel as though they were the ones who picked it out. Although this year, I finally beat the system, and I was the one who picked the tree. Yeah, that’s right, this girl is finally old enough to make a big decision on her own! Yay me!

Anyway, when got the tree home, everyone was excited to decorate it. My mom had ordered special personalized ornaments for everyone, including a nice “25″ ornament for her and my dad since they celebrated their 25th anniversary this past April. It’s so sweet to see how excited my littlest sisters get for each ornament, even the ones that aren’t their own. When we start putting up all of the ornaments from previous years, I take them all out of the boxes and pass them around to the younger kids. Each year, in addition to the individual ornaments, we also get a family ornament with everyone’s names on it. It’s amazing to see how different our family is year after year. Even this year, it was bittersweet, because our family ornament has our little foster sister’s name on it, because she was still living with us when we picked it out. It’s not about who is living with us on Christmas day. It’s about who has been with us all year long. And we can look back at each year’s family ornament and see which foster kids were with us, and how many family members we had that year. It’s incredible how much our lives change from one Christmas to the next.

I hope that everyone else has as much fun with this holiday season as we have… although, for your sake, I hope you don’t have five-year-olds who destroy garland by pulling it apart all over the floor. I vacuumed (a Christmas miracle!) two hours ago and I’m still stepping in ripped up pieces of garland.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor

Previous Post

Next Post