and the stockings were hung

Here are our stockings, I purchased them because they look possibly homemade- they are not. I did however make the board that they are hanging on. I didn't really have a good place in our last house to hang it- I had a spot- but not a good one. That's no longer a problem here, I have the perfect spot- which makes me happy.

The other night Ashley asked what stockings had to do with Christmas- I scrambled- I didn't really know. I told her about how a long time ago in the winter when people would come in from the snow they would hang their wet socks by the fire and on Christmas eve then they would get filled with candy. I also told her about wooden shoes and those being filled with candy as well. She then asked- yeah, but what do stockings have to do with Jesus? Um, good question. I told her I wasn't really sure- maybe they were to remind us of swaddling clothes? Just to satisfy my couriousity I looked it up. For the answer go to: www.grandtimes.com/customs.html

The tradition at my house growing up is that anything in your stocking was fair game. You could get up as early as you wanted (usually 4am or so) and open your stocking, but you couldn't open any other presents under the tree until mom and dad were awake and everyone was in the living room. The first time we woke up in anticipation of Christmas morning (because Christmas Eve is a long, restless night) we'd go upstairs- open our stocking and then go back to bed. There was always an orange or tangerine in the toe, some candy, maybe some chapstick or jewelery. My favorites were the Andes mints that my mom would put in (because they were her favorites too).

Now that I'm the mom and I get to do the stockings I like to put some fun things in there. I've done oranges but no one seems to care- so last year I started putting juice boxes and individual cereals in the stockings- that seemed to be a big hit, so I'm doing that again this year. I'm also giving them fun toothbrushes, princess/Barbie bubblebath, candy (of course), and Ashley's getting a CTR ring. I usually pick up other random things as well.

Last year we started the 'three gift' tradition. Rather then have gift overload between what we give them and grandparents and aunts and uncles we just give them three gifts. Three because that's how many gifts Jesus got (and it's a good number). So they get one gift from Santa and two from mom and dad and then get tons more from family.

Now I've got to figure out what to do with all the extra toys we already have...