Holiday Traditions - Pt. 1

Stockings



Do you do stockings? We didn't really do them when I was young. (Mom tells me we did for a short while, but I don't remember.) But I always thought it was neat that my cousins did it. They got "extra" little gifts in addition to the other things Santa sent them.



Now, in my parents' new house with fireplaces, they have stockings for all of us. And my mom fills them with candy, chap stick, and other small things for us. It's a fun thing to do.



Matt's family did not have a fireplace growing up either. But they did do stockings every year. In fact those we the only gifts that were hidden. (His mom didn't wrap gifts. They each had a pile of presents on the living room floor when they got up Christmas morning. We enjoyed the fun of sorting through all the presents under the tree and handing them to the person who's name was on them. We still do that. My sisters and I end up passing out all the gifts at Christmas. It's fun. I digress.)



Matt's family always had these awesome customized stockings. An old family friend had knitted these stockings when the kids were young. They met this lady on a group tour trip to Israel. Matt's mom was pregnant for him at the time, but they didn't know that yet. They've kept in touch with her over the years. At some point she knitted stockings for them (I guess she has made them for other families she knows too). I always loved seeing these green and while stockings with Santa on them. They hung them on the wall in order with dad, mom, then the three kids.



When Matt and I were about to spend our first Christmas as a married couple, Matt's mom took down his stocking and gave it to him to hang at our house. The problem was that I didn't have a stocking to match his...or even one at all. We hung onto Matt's stocking for several years. Then out of the blue one year, Matt's mom gave us a surprise. This sweet, old lady had made a stocking for me too. I was beyond thrilled and couldn't wait until Christmas to put both of our stockings up.



Last year I put both of our matching stockings up, then I bought Zachariah a "Baby's First Christmas" stocking. I hadn't heard whether or not this family friend was going to make one for him, and I didn't want to ask for one. This year I wasn't sure what I was going to do about a stocking for Zachariah. A few weeks before Thanksgiving while we were at Matt's parents' house, his mom told me she had something for us. I peeked inside the bag and squealed. Their friend had knitted a stocking for Zachariah with his whole long name on it. The color is a bit different on each one, because it's hard to get the same yarn after so many years. But I could care less about that. I love that we can continue this tradition that Matt's parents started. We don't have a fireplace to display our lovely stockings on, but they look just fine hanging on the wall (I like how they look on our one wood wall in the living room). I just hope that the family friend will be around long enough to make the rest of our kids stockings to keep our collection complete. If not, that will be OK, but it would be awesome.

**Matt's stocking actually says "Matthew" but I like that you can just see "Matt" on this side. It's what he goes by anyway. Zachariah's has his full name on it too.

***I understand that you will probably be able to figure out my name now. I'm OK with that. Just please only use my screen name. (And if you'd like to know if you're right about my name or just want to ask, please feel free to e-mail me. I especially don't mind discussing it with you if you're a long time reader/commenter and I read your blog. I don't want to talk about it in the comments or here. I will probably delete this photo after a few weeks/months. Thanks for understanding.)