When Irene was one, Christmas was just about getting presents in front of the fireplace. She wasn'told enough to remember anything, anyways, so Taeyeon didn't need to try that hard..

When Irene was two, Christmas was about getting presents in front of the fireplace. Taeyeon told her that it was from Santa. Taeyeon spent Christmas that year worrying less about Irene and the festivities and more about her wife, who was seven months pregnant with their next baby. They put up a little tree, short enough that Irene could reach the very top, and together, Taeyeon and Irene put up a little ornament with a black picture with some fuzzy white lines in it. Taeyeon told Irene that that was her baby sister. Irene just thought her baby sister would be ugly

When Irene was three and Wendy was one, Irene learned that the picture did not mean that her little sister would be ugly, because Wendy was adorable and Irene loved her. This year, they baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa and wrote him a letter. Irene was excited, because she'd been a good girl all year, Santa was sure to give her a present. And as far as she remembered, Wendy had not been a good girl, crying all the time and making Mommy and Umma tired, but Santa gave her a present anyways. Taeyeon made sure to take a bite out of the cookies and drink half of the milk. Little kids were easy to convince, anyways.

When Irene was five and Wendy was three, Taeyeon had to start being more convincing, because Irene was much too smart for her own good. So she took some gloves and rubbed her hands in the black ash of the fireplace, leaving soot handprints on the mantle and in the fireplace itself. She took some boots and made black footprints across the floor. And of course, she couldn't forget to take a bite of the cookies and drink the milk.

The soot prints were hell to clean up and Tiffany had made her do it all, but it was worth it because Irene and Wendy had screamed in excitement and amazement when they saw the "evidence" of Santa having been there.

When Irene was six and Wendy was four, the two had suggested leaving some baby carrots out for the reindeer. Which was fine, except that the two wanted to leave out two whole bowls for the reindeer. And then to make it fair, they wanted to leave out extra cookies and extra milk for Santa, too.