Everything Has Changed

Deck The Halls

December 24th 2025
Kansas City, Missouri

Christmas Eve had long been one of Taylor's favourite days of the year. She would sometimes go as far as to say that she preferred it to Christmas Day. The evening before Christmas was always filled with so much excitement and happiness that it was hard not to be overjoyed. The Christmas cheer, the good old family fun and the general buzz there was around that only the Christmas season could bring. This year would mark Taylor and Travis' first Christmas as parents and would be Luna's first Christmas too, minus the one she had spent cooking in the womb. Last year Travis had a game on the 23rd of the month, allowing them to be able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning in Philadelphia with Jason, Kylie and their three girls alongside Ed and Donna. This year the couple had decided it would be their turn to host Christmas. It made more sense for them to stay put seeing as Travis had a game on Christmas Eve that the whole family's planning on flying in for and plus they had Luna now, and it was much harder to travel with an eight month old baby in comparison to just themselves. It would be a blending of all of their families: Ed, Donna, Jason, Kylie and the girls from Travis' side and Andrea, Scott, Austin and Sydney from Taylor's side. All of them were flying in that morning and would be arriving at Taylor and Travis' house later that morning to get ready to go and watch Travis' game and as Taylor was stood there in their kitchen, she felt a wave of gratitude.

Gratitude for the hell of a time that the universe has put her through over the past year. Sure it had been probably one of the lowest points in her life, but it had taught Taylor so many different things. Things that she couldn't have possibly known until the disaster itself had happened. Now she knew how precious her time was on this planet, with her family and with her friends. And that no matter how dark things can become, the light is always only just around the corner. Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, as long as someone remembers to turn on the light. And it had been Travis, her light and her purpose. The reason she knew she had to keep going. 

It was just her and Luna at home that morning. Travis had a lunch time game, meaning that he wasn't going to be able to see any of them before the game or have the time to come home for their usual family game day breakfasts together. Now that Luna was finally able to properly start eating solid foods, their morning breakfasts together had become even more wholesome, as well as entertaining. The rest of the Kelce and Swift gang would be arriving shortly but for now, Taylor was alone. Luna was happily playing with her colourful; wooden blocks and stuffed animals in her playpen in the living room. Taylor could still see her over the kitchen island as she put the last minute touches on some cookie dough for that day. They would cook it up later after Travis' game when everyone else was over and would be celebrating the Christmas festivities. She bang prepping everything they would need for breakfast. It would be a big breakfast consisting of all of Travis' close family members, with Taylor's family meeting them from Nashville at the stadium later on. But as she plated up the last piece of her and Travis' signature French toast that had been slowly cooking away on the stove, she heard a piercing cry coming from just around the corner. Dropping everything onto the counter, Taylor came rushing around the kitchen island to see what had happened. It was clear that Luna, quite obviously being Travis' daughter, had already at eight months old started to pull herself up and stand up. Only this time she had tried to walk and had stumbled back,  hitting herself on one of the small little blocks that she had been playing with. As Taylor scooped the crying baby up into her arms she checked her over for any apparent injuries. There were none that she could see or particularly feel as she ran her hands across each of her arms and legs and Taylor came to the conclusion that she had quite simply just given herself a little bit of a shock. Taylor attempted to plate up the rest of the breakfast but gave up after a while as she felt Luna pull more and more at the top of her t-shirt, signalling that she wanted comfort. Taylor had pretty much given up breastfeeding, with Luna largely favouring food over milk nowadays. When she did have milk it was normally expressed milk in a bottle meaning that either Travis or Taylor could feed her. But Taylor gave into Luna's demands and so perched herself down on the sofa and pulled down her bra so that Luna could feed. She latched on easily as she had always done and got a head start on breakfast. Taylor knew that this would mean that Luna wouldn't eat as much breakfast but she would just have to bring some extra baby and kid friendly snacks with them to the game and hope that she wouldn't become too cranky by the end of it.