Stolen Lullaby

Blue Sky Turning to Rain

Taylor was still bothered by the appearance of the security blanket but she pushed it out out of her mind. Instead of letting Sophie keep it, she folded it up and put it at the bottom of her wardrobe. Sophie never indicated that she wanted the blanket back, nor did she appear to miss it. There was too much activity going on in the house anyway now that Christmas was coming up. Since this would be their first official Christmas with Sophie, everyone may have gone a bit over the top in making it extra special for her.

"Tay, does she really have to have her own Christmas tree in her bedroom?" Joe was huffing and puffing trying to drag a medium sized tree up the stairs.

"It's so that she can decorate it with all the kinds of stuff that kids are into like glitter and tinsel and the one downstairs can be the nice adult decorated one." She replied following behind him with a box of more garish mismatched decorations meant for Sophie's tree. Poor Joe dragged the tree into Sophie's room getting pine needles all over the carpet. After he set it up in the tree stand he lay down on the floor of Sophie's room in mock exhaustion.

"And the Oscar does not go to..." Taylor said gently nudging him with her foot.

"Ouch! you really know now to hurt a struggling actor." Joe said dramatically holding his hand over his heart.

"Well Mr. Struggling Actor I have to vacuum this mess up it looks like a forest died in here." She scoffed preparing to walk away.

"So you're just going to leave me here?" Joe said still laying on the floor. Taylor rolled her eyes. Sometimes she swore that Joe was like her second child.

"Come on, big boy mommy will help you." Taylor held her arms out to help him up. Smirking Joe grabbed her arms and pulled her down to the floor with him instead.

"Joesph!" She shrieked as Joe peppered her face with kisses and rolled on top of her. Their laughter quieted to soft moans as the kisses turned from joking ones to ones of deep intensity.

"Sophie's going to be at your mom's for another hour we have time to kill." Joe said moving his kisses down Taylor's neck.

"Mmm that sounds so good but can we not do it on our kid's bedroom floor?"

"You're right... let's get a move on, before we're on Santa's naughty list!" Both of them got up from the floor and ran to their bedroom falling into each other on their bed feeling like teenagers who couldn't get enough of each other.

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Being able to spend Christmas morning with Sophie was one of the days that Taylor and Joe dreamed of since she was born. Joe's family flew in from London to Nashville and stayed at Andrea's place and everyone was in the same place really since their wedding. Another trait of Taylor's that Sophie inherited was being the opposite of a morning person. While most children are pouncing on their parents at 5 am on Christmas morning to start opening presents. Sophie was still fast asleep at 9 am much to the anxiety of the other kids in the house.

"Sophie honey Merry Christmas Santa came." Joe gently prodded her awake.

Sophie grumbled sleepily with her eyes still closed but jumped out of bed once the fog of sleep disappeared. "Santa!" She exclaimed running down the hall. The expression of awe on her face when she saw the decorated Christmas tree with all of the presents under it was one they wanted to frame forever.

"Merry Christmas!" Everyone shouted as the various other family members filed into the room. Sophie and her various cousins tore into their gifts sending wrapping paper flying everywhere like a multicolored blizzard.