This Christmas, I put together one of the best gifts that I have ever given and I truly learned to appreciate the value of giving rather than receiving. I put together a Christmas surprise for my sister that I knew she would absolutely love.

A few weeks before Christmas, Taylor Swift announced she would be doing a world tour in support of her new album 1989. My sister Abby and I absolutely adore Taylor, she puts on such theatrical shows and her new album is incredible. So we decided we HAD to see her again in concert and since her 1989 World Tour was originally making two stops in MN, we thought we could easily get tickets. So we tried getting tickets during the presales and public sales yet both shows sold out so fast we were  not able to find any tickets. We were pretty disappointed because after seeing Taylor for the first time on her RED tour in 2012, we were really hoping and wanting to see her perform again in person.

Luckily, to our surprise, due to popular demand, after the two shows sold out so quickly, they announced a third show in Minnesota. Abby and I were committed to getting and finding tickets this time, even if they weren’t the best seats in the house, that’s how bad we wanted to go. Whenever the topic of Taylor would come up, we would both talk about how much we wanted to go and how we would do anything to get a pair of tickets. The tickets for the third show were set to go on sale a few weeks from when it was announced so all we had to do was wait before we tried looking again.

So the weeks went by and Abby assumed we wouldn’t be getting tickets because the last time we had absolutely no luck. However, despite this, I came up with a plan to try to get tickets to surprise Abby for Christmas. If I happened to be able to find tickets, I knew it would be the best surprise and Christmas gift ever.

The day finally came when the tickets for the third show went on sale and thankfully Abby was leaving the house to hangout with her cousins. While she was gone, I was on the hunt for tickets and ACTUALLY FOUND SOME that were pretty good seats. So I ordered them and wanted to call her so badly to tell her, I seriously could not contain my excitement.

It was so hard not to share the news with Abby. Every time we would be in the car listening to Taylor’s music or just talking I would seriously have to remind myself not to give away the surprise.  It was definitely hard, but so worth it when I saw her reaction on Christmas morning.

So come Christmas morning, I made Abby a poster full of pictures from when we saw Taylor on her RED Tour in 2012 along with a message full of Taylor’s song titles and lyrics telling Abby we were going to the concert. This is what the card said:

Abby,
I didn’t want no Tear Drops On My Guitar so I decided to give you a gift that is Sweeter Than Fiction. The Last Time we saw Red Sparks Fly in an Enchanted way was on The Best Day ever. It was a day full of Starlight and we thought we were in Wonderland. But the adventure is about to Begin Again, 22 days ago Everything Had Changed and we are going to take a trip Out Of The Woods and into the city to show you incredible things, You thought something like this would only happen in your Wildest Dreams but today you are the Lucky One. I Wish You Would see that I would never let you go out of Style so I hope you have a Blank Space on your calendar to get down to this SICK BEAT with the queen of music and Welcome Taylor to St. Paul on September 13th, 2015.

It was a fun creative gift that I loved putting together for her.

When we opened presents Christmas morning my family all opened their gifts and then lastly I brought out Abby’s gift and this is what went down…

The first time I read Abby the poster, she was a bit in shock and unsure of what was actually happening. When she held the tickets in her hands and then read the poster again for herself, reality started to settle in and so did the many emotions. She started to cry TEARS OF JOY. Which of course made me start to cry too because I was so happy that she loved it and because I was kind of in shock as well that we would be going :). I loved that she was genuinely surprised and I was so excited to finally be able to talk to her about the concert.  It actually now feels real that we get to see Taylor perform again.

This was personally one of the best gifts I have ever given because I loved seeing the reaction on Abby’s face and how much she loved it. People always say it’s better to give than receive but with this gift I definitely came to fully value and appreciate the truth of that statement.

I absolutely can’t wait to see Taylor Swift on her 1989 World Tour on September 13th 2015, but most importantly I can’t wait to experience another Taylor Swift concert with my favorite sister!