Christmas stockings

My family all had handmade stockings growing up. My great grandmother made them for each of us. I don't remember her at all, but my mom tells me she was one fiesty, grumpy lady. So the fact that she made us each a stocking is pretty cool. They were hand stitched with some sort of wintry scene. Each had our name stitched in sequins across the top. Not one of them was the same. Each year, the stockings came out and were hung around the opening to our staircase in the living room. Each year, we looked forward to what surprised they would contain.

Each Christmas Eve, we would take our stocking and place it where we wanted Santa to leave our gifts in the family room. I was always on one end of the couch with my older brother on the other end. My two younger brothers were the two arm chairs and my sister was in the middle of the chairs. Mom and Dad were on the floor near the tree. The way Christmas morning works in our house, we could open our stocking stuffers before the rest of the family joined us, but presents had to wait until the whole family was awake. The stocking gave us that little taste of Christmas present fun while we waited for the rest of the family to get up.

Over time, more special than the gifts became the stocking itself to me. As I became more of an adult and moved away from home, I still came home for Christmas (because I was a Mormon old maid until the ripe age of 24). And I knew that stocking would be waiting for me. It made me feel like a kid again, to place that stocking in its old familiar place. It shows some wear now, but it also shows so much love. It holds special memories for me and I treasure it to this day. It doesn't come out at Christmas anymore now that I am married and have a family of my own. In fact, I think my mom still has it at her house. But I treasure that stocking.

Now I have a family of my own. During the infertility years, Christmas had little meaning and cheer for me. So we just bought quick stockings at Walmart. Now that we have Cam, I want to make some. But I am not quite sure what I want in a stocking yet. I did some looking this year, but haven't decided on anything. I hope that next year finds me creating special stockings for my family. I want them to have some of the cherished memories I have of Christmas and our stockings.