The day I have been low-key dreading since since 2011 is finally here…I have completed my Hallmark “12 Days of Christmas” ornament collection.

Back then, I wrote:

“What I wasn’t expecting, however, was to realize just how old my children will be by the time I get to the drummers drumming! Turkey will be 19–almost 20! And that means Bunny will be 18, Moose 17, and Ladybug 15. And I’m not even going to think about how old the unborn Chickadee will be–I refuse to think of her as anything other than a tiny baby!”

And yet, here we are. Turkey will indeed be 20 in a couple of months. Bunny is 18, Moose is 17, and Ladybug is 15. And even if I didn’t want to think about it then, the fact of the matter is, the baby with whom I was pregnant in 2011 is now 10, almost 11 years old.

Time marches on. And while I hoped then that my children would slow down growing up a bit, as we all know, it doesn’t really work that way. And so, one short year at a time, I finished my collection, all while my children grew up right before my eyes.