Christmas Stockings

Lil' sis and I looked forward to Christmas each year. Who wouldn't? We had our own tradition of sleeping in the same room on Christmas Eve. We would get our sleeping bags out and all of our stuffed animals would join us for this grand "sleep over". Then, we would wake up early and go into mom and dad's room excited for the day. Egg nog, opening presents, giving presents, getting together with family and eating yummy food. These were things we looked forward to. Now, looking back, one of my most treasured memories was sitting on mom and dad's bed (their eyes half open) in our pajamas, waiting for Dad to talk to us about what we were really celebrating. He didn't read to us from Luke or one of the gospels, he just paraphrased it. At the time, however, I think that my appreciation for it was overshadowed by my desire to receive permission to exit their room and open the stocking presents.

As mentioned in this post, Lil' sis and I have stockings that were knit by my Aunt. I have a snowman (maybe that's why I like snowman) and she has trees with pretty sequins on them. It was fun to see what gifts/treasures we would find. There were certain "rules" that we made up and followed. We first would take all of the gifts out (every single one was wrapped - even tiny candy bars!!!) until we reached the orange or grapefruit that was in the bottom. Then we would find the shapes that matched so that we opened the same type of gift at the same time. What did we find? There was always a pencil or two, some candy, a toothbrush, and maybe toothpaste (sample size). Sometimes there would be a small ornament or trinket or something special from clinique. Each item, we knew, was wrapped with love.

And yes, if you were wondering, Simms, Jeter and Barber all get toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a trinket or two in their stockings...each one wrapped with love by me.