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My Mom made our Christmas stockings. The only picture I have of them is in my mind, but many years later I tried to make something similar. I think my mother’s were much more artfully done, much more attractive, and I don’t remember them getting all dirty, the way ours did. The similarities are the white cuff with our names hand embroidered, a variety of small-print calico fabrics, and a simple type of piecing/quilting.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, when my sisters and I awoke well before the crack of dawn on Christmas morning, we were allowed to go downstairs and open our stockings. Nothing else until our parents got up. So the the stockings were a real treat!
 Like many people I’ve spoken to about it, our Christmas stockings contained some items that could be counted on, and others that were complete surprises. Always in the toe was a navel orange. Although we did have oranges other times, fresh fruit wasn’t always on hand (Mom was big on canned fruit, in heavy syrup, of course), and the Christmas oranges were always big and yummy.
  There would also be a few little boxes of torrone, an Italian nougat candy. I think Mom took care to see that we all got one of each of the flavors (vanilla, lemon, and orange, if I recall). The candy was delicious, and Christmas was the only time we had it, so I did love it. I also thought those little boxes were adorable, and sometimes kept them for a while, although I don’t remember finding a use of them.
 There was only one more thing that was always in our stockings – a toothbrush. Ever practical, Mom thought it made great sense to give us a new toothbrush each year, and it fit so well in a stocking — why not?
In addition to those givens, there was always other little things, depending on our ages and interests, but always small, low-cost items. Some were wrapped, but most were not. It was likely we’d get a cute pencil or two, maybe a Christmas eraser, and surely something to read or do – a comic book, a puzzle, a coloring book, you name it. If there was a “real” gift that was small (like a bracelet), it wasn’t put in the stocking, but was wrapped under the tree. That way Mom & Dad were sure to see us open it.
When I started filling Christmas stockings for my children, I retained the orange tradition, and the toothbrush. Living in a rural area, I couldn’t find torrone, so hubby and I decided to make substitutions for our own traditions. There’s always wrapped chocolates (they’ve gotten fewer in number and better in quality as the years have passed), usually nuts (in the shell), and always a comic book, magazine, or book. Always little, junky toys of some sort. My stocking has always included some kind of dried fruit, usually apricots ‘cuz my family knows I really love them.
My kids never had the same rule as me about being able to open their stockings before I was up. Why? They couldn’t get up without me hearing them and getting up, too. I was always at least as eager for Christmas morning to arrive as they were. Russell took a few minutes longer to roll around, and I always got his coffee started as soon as I got out of bed, but he was quickly right behind us. So we both usually saw the kids get their stocking down and open, too.
Your turn – what’s in your Christmas stocking, or what do you wish you’d find there?
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Congrats to Margaret, who won the December contest with her stories about her brother’s much loved Erector set and her own toothy Christmas doll. She’ll get the Victorian ornament in the next day or two.
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Other posts you might also like…
 Christmas Music Box
THANKS SO MUCH to Jeena Papaadi, of Navy Blue Jeans, for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger award!!! Jeena is a real sweetheart, and has been following me for a while now, but I was still very pleasantly surprised by this award.
 Here’s the lovely suitable-for-framing visual announcing to all the world that I have been so honored.
And now for my obligations as an awardee:
post the jpg of the notice,
thank the nominator and link to her,
write 7 things my blog readers don’t know about me,
choose 7 other blogs to award, and link to them, and
notify those other bloggers.
Seven things about me — I, of course, think I’m endlessly fascinating, but what’s of any interest to anyone else?
My husband and I built our home. From scratch. Without any contractors or builders. We used rough cut lumber milled locally, and built a timber frame home. I love it, despite the fact that 30 years later it’s still not really finished, and it never will be. I don’t even see those unfinished things anymore.
I am the baby in birth order in my family (youngest of three girls). I married the baby in his family (youngest of three boys). Lots of people told us this was the recipe for disaster, that babies shouldn’t marry babies ‘cuz they’re too self-centered, but they were completely wrong. Marriages don’t get better than ours.
I’m pretty obsessive-compulsive. Not diagnosable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Just one tiny example: I count things (how many steps on my walk, how many cookies in the batch, etc.). The good news is as soon as I’m done counting, I forget the numbers. They don’t matter; it’s the act of counting that’s important. Another example: the amount of time I spent on this post!
I have been the director of a large department of county government. After spending most of my professional life in the not-for-profit sector, I found I wasn’t well suited to government work, and left to return to not-for-profits and start my business. Left the big paycheck and great benefits, but also the daily grind and life disenchantment; well worth it.
Although I’ve learned some patience over the years, I’m still basically an impatient person, at least with myself. I am bad at delay of gratification, whether it’s buying new socks, cooking dinner, or learning a new weaving pattern. I want it NOW. I think I’m much more patient with other people, but I guess you’d have to ask family, friends, and co-workers to get their opinions on that.
I’m a Gemini. My birthday is on the cusp, but I have what I consider to be a Gemini nature, typical of those twins. I can always see both sides of everything. This is both a blessing and a curse. It makes it easy to empathize with others, tough to make a decision and stick to it.
Living in the sticks as I do, I encounter all sorts of animals, some of whom try to move into my home (refer to the bees of a few months ago as an example). It wasn’t until this year that I was able to not just set the mouse trap, but also empty it. Previously I either got someone else to empty it or just threw it away, mouse, trap, and all.
Ok, now for my 7 blogs. I have to say that this was quite difficult for me. Why? I still have a slow, old dialup connection. That, combined with the fact that I’m piecing together a living with several part-time jobs, means I don’t have a lot of time to spend online. And three of the blogs I do read were knocked out, because 1 is Jeena and two others were her awardees. Plus, thanks to the dialup, it takes forever to load some sites that are picture heavy (without being optimized for web), so I can’t go to those places often. I’ll start with four that I have visited regularly for some time.
Daily Baxter. Mentioned frequently here, Baxter is my grandson. His human mother, my daughter, is Baxter’s scribe, and she often makes me chuckle. Thanks for the laughs, sweetie!
Written, Inc. I take on Carmi Levy’s weekly photographic challenges as often as I can, but there’s way more to his website than that. Carmi’s a great writer, as well as photographer. In one short post he can make me chuckle and make my eyes well with tears. He opens his heart while he opens his shutter. And through his comments, I’ve seen lots of other great photos, too.
Scarf A Day. Being a weaver, I love to see what other people are doing, and I like both Janet’s work and her writing.
Wild About Nature. Kenton & Rebecca are fun-loving outdoors types who are good reads. And they take some really swell nature photos, too.
Jean Bezek writes a blog about her son, Dexter. Although not related to me, it’s fun to keep up with with Dexter’s young life. Plus the pictures load quickly!
These next few are recent discoveries of mine. Very recent. As in I did a lot of looking for/at dozens of blogs to have a total list of 7. Having found them, I do plan to visit them regularly from now on.
The Bloggess. Jenny is a woman with attitude. And style. I find her posts funny and unique enough that I’m willing to deal with her slow-loading photos. I also like her posts on Good Mom/Bad Mom.
Peggy Payne writes the Boldness Blog. I’ll be perfectly honest here — I went here because of her name. Us Pegs should stick together. But once I was there, I liked what I read, so stuck around and read more. Positive, interesting stuff in here.
Now I have to go notify those folks. And update the links on my blog. And get some Christmas weaving done!
 A handful of years ago we trucked off to the Pacific Northwest. One of the must-see sights for me was a rain forest. I’ll freely admit that my only vision of a rain forest was something from the Amazon, and those in the northwest are quite different from that. Still, it was really beautiful there, the size of the trees was astounding, and the entire atmosphere was odd – almost surreal.
This photo is in response to Carmi’s current challenge of elsewhere. Go play the game yourself. Try it, you’ll like it.
Other posts you might also like…
 Different  Orange
I think I was 5 or 6 (but maybe as old as 7 or 8). It was Christmas morning — very early Christmas morning. My sisters and I got up at our usual wee hours time. In hindsight I’m guessing it was around 5:00 AM. We’d get up and go downstairs as quietly as possible, which probably wasn’t all that quiet.
We knew well and respected the Christmas morning rules. We were allowed to open our stockings, and our stockings only, until both of my parents were up. And for Dad, that included having at least one cup of coffee in him. Perked coffee. Coffee that took a lifetime to make, or at least 15 minutes, which was close enough to a lifetime for little kids on Christmas morning.
So on this particular Christmas morning my sisters and I were downstairs enjoying the thrill of the stockings. (Watch for more on my family’s stockings in a new post.) But my parents were sleeping. And sleeping. We knew we couldn’t wake them too early (was the rule 6:00 AM?), but we were getting anxious. So my oldest sister had the brilliant idea of organizing the presents under the tree, piling up a stack for each of us so we could at least see the size, shape, and number of boxes. I’m sure I didn’t argue with the idea.
We crawled under the tree, gathered and sorted, piled and stacked.
Then…..oh, no! The box on top of my stack fell over! When it did, music started playing. I was scared, ashamed, and guilty. I knew we were wrong and shouldn’t have been messing with the packages. I ran upstairs to my parents’ room crying. Mom woke up pretty quickly.
I don’t remember what happened next, but I vividly remember the amazing music box I got for Christmas that year. This picture is the closest thing I could find.
The base was an inexpensive metal, but it was embossed with a design that I thought beautiful. You could lift off the lid and put a few little things inside, but that wasn’t important to me. I don’t remember what song the music box played, but I might recognize it if I heard it. Or I might not.
The top part of the music box was AMAZING!! It was made of a heavy duty plastic, but it was as good as glass for me. And inside the glass? Inside was a beautiful ballerina, complete with a starched cloth tutu. Her arms were raised in perpetually graceful motions, but her legs — they were the most amazing part of all. Her legs were hinged at the knees. When you wound up the music box, she twirled around, and as she twirled she also went up and down on a little stick that kept her centered on her tiny stage. When she was at the lowest point of her dance, her knees were bent. At the highest point, she was dancing on the tips of her toe shoes. The ballerina would plie and jump, twist and turn, plie and jump. I loved it.
I’ve seen jewelry box/music box combos that have a ballerina that pops up and twirls when you open the lid, but they were all stilted and ugly compared to mine. I’ve never seen another one anything like it, only this picture to confirm my remembrances.
I believe that music box stayed in a place of honor on top of my dresser for at least a decade (two lifetimes to a child), and worked perfectly that entire time. My ballerina music box was the first really important Christmas present I remember.
Your turn – what’s one of your early Christmas present memories?
Other posts you might also like:
 December Contest  More Free Stuff
A few months ago some young friends had their first baby. A sweet little girl named Grace. In preparation for this very welcome addition to their family, my son ordered a custom baby blanket as a gift.
The mother-to-be’s requested colors were pink, brown, and green. To be honest, it was a bit of a challenge to me to come up with values of these colors that looked good together, and appropriate for a baby. Fortunately, my friend Tammy at Yarntopia Treasures came through in a handpainted blend using pink and brown in a soft and comfy cotton flannel. I added some stripes of plush green cotton chenille as I wove. Like my other baby blankets, I made this one in doubleweave on my counterbalance loom.
Dad just emailed me photos of Grace going for a ride, wrapped in her blanket for a bit of warmth. I am amazed as how well the colors in the blanket match the other colors she’s wearing — it’s as if I’d seen her little hat in advance!
I love making handwoven baby blankets, and am happy to take orders for custom weaving for a blanket for your special baby. Just give me a few months advance notice and you can wrap your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, or other favorite little one in handwoven warmth.
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