50 Days: Stockings

Christmas Stockings are always fun right? I remember when younger getting up super early on Christmas and running down the long corridor of our house on 9th Street to find the presents under the tree and our stockings filled with candy and tiny toys.

Of course, I was the first one up and I was not allowed to open presents for what seemed like months and months (even though it was just until everyone got up, we ate breakfast, read the story, and then got ready for presents). But, the one thing I was allowed to open up was my stocking.

One thing that I get a kick out of each year is the fight between stockings. My sisters and I had homemade stockings that we use each year. Well, Kelli and Kristin being twins, they got stockings that are very similar and it seems each year there is always discussion whose is whose.  We grew up in a house with a fireplace which always makes Christmas fun, but sadly there was no Mantle to put the stockings on, so our Christmas stockings always went on either side of the fireplace.

I remember one year, I got up WAY too early -big surprise- and dad came out all sleepy and said I had to go back to bed until 6:30 (or something like that). That was torture, because I had already seen my stocking stuff and I had to go back to bed. It's not like I got any sleep after that. But, anyway, on a regular Christmas morning, I  would get up (too early) and get my stocking, go into the family, turn on the TV and dump out all my stocking stuff and go through it all. Mostly the toys I got were Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars. They were small enough to fit into my stocking. And then there was candy- canes, oranges, mints, and all sorts of wonderful things that we would eat while we watched the Christmas Parade on TV. It seems that we always ate so much candy that we were too full for breakfast. That is what mom always thought when we didn't eat the traditional Christmas Tearing. She was wrong. I'll get to that later on in postings.