Holiday update and Taylor the player

Tonight I am so grateful. I think I've mentioned how much I love the holidays. We have had so much fun the past few weeks - lots of holiday festivities, Christmas shows at the kid's schools, and general excitement about the upcoming week. The kids are very spoiled in that they have so much to look forward to - Christmas Eve with David's family, Christmas morning at home, and then off to Missouri for 10 days with my family. It's my favorite time of year and I love that the kids are equally excited.

Seattle is so fun for the holidays - we've ridden the holiday carousel, toured a Teddy Bear suite at the Four Seasons, seen a tremendous Gingerbread house display, met Santa, and had lots of fun preparing. The kids love the decorations at our house - my mom sent us a huge box of elves that we've had fun arranging around the house. The Elf on the Shelf continues to delight and the kids have had a blast wrapping presents and keeping secrets. They get so excited they can hardly stand it.

We celebrated David's birthday this week too - the kids made sure he had a great day and then he and I got away for the night while David's mom watched the kids. It was lovely to have a night away and so fun to come home to the kids - they really miss us and it's such a treat to see their delight when we come home.

Tonight I am also very, very grateful for Alison. She has been such a gift to us this year and we said good-bye to her today for the holiday break. The kids love her so much and she is special in so many ways to each of them. Taylor, in particular, just beams at her and it is so comforting to us to know that she loves Alison so much. Lauren today said "mom, Alison is the best babysitter - all of the other kids should have an Alison in their lives." Priceless, I tell ya...

Amidst the craziness, Taylor has trucked on, working hard. She is fighting a cold and still struggling with teething, but she is such a dear. David says I should describe how well Taylor has learned to "play us." Here is an example - last Friday I took Taylor to therapy. She has gotten funny about me coming to therapy - she is totally fine if Alison takes her and if I stay out of her line-of-sight. If she sees me at therapy, she whines and cries - like, "mom, can't you help me?" So, I've started to hide behind the door so I can watch her and she's happy as a clam. It's the same dynamic that I had with Lauren - for awhile I had to stop taking her to birthday parties when she was younger because she would cling to me for so long. She literally had more fun if someone else took her. Anyway, last Friday, Taylor had a bit of a cold and seemed tired. She was very fussy at therapy, so finally I told Susan I thought we should cut the day short. I load Taylor in the car and she immediately starts cracking up. She laughed the whole way home. When we got home, I said, "Taylor - did you trick mama?" She grinned so big and laughed every time I asked her. She has done a similar trick on David at her school - she will be sad at school and then the minute David picked her up, she started laughing. She loves us, which is precious, and while we don't like her to be sad, it is such a joy to know she loves us so much. We are blessed, blessed, blessed.