Stalking the Stockings
Every year when we deck the halls at the Wirth household there is a mad search for the Holiday Stockings. I'm not sure why I seem to always misplace them as they really are an integral piece of our Wirth family holiday celebration. Sometimes we open them first and sometimes they come last, but they ALWAYS play an important role in our holiday traditions.
Before I became a Wirth I was a McGowan. My family consisted of my mom, dad and sister Tammy, we had amazing Christmases. The joy and excitement my parents created for us around the holidays and all those fun memories, well they are precious- especially all the tinsel on the trees. Bahahahaha.
When I was a kid, we didn't have special Christmas stockings. In fact before the age of 12 we didn't even have a real fireplace. We would just find the biggest socks we had in the house (think Pippi Long Stocking) and tack those to a cardboard cutout fireplace facade, hoping that the bigger the sock the more goodies we would receive. Santa could never just fill a stocking half-way, right?! HE was a "fill it to the brim" kind of guy if there ever was one. Funny side note, I saw one of those cardboard fireplace facades for sale at Michael's or Meijer and it made me smile taking me back to a McGowan family Christmas reminiscing with joy I contemplated buying one because of how happy it made me feel! Do not ever underestimate all those little touches you do at Christmas for your children, they create fond and cozy memories to last a lifetime and to be handed down generationally.
Looking back at holiday decor in the 60's, 70's and 80's I don't really remember there being such an emphasis on stockings as holiday decor. You wouldn't see them for sale in magazines with initials and names embroidered on them or in such a huge array of colors, sizes and textures. Am I right?!
Once I was married into the Wirth family and had my first Christmas with them, I was utterly dumbfounded. For REAL! My mother-in-law (Skippy) didn't just decorate the room the tree was in, but she decorated EVERY nook and cranny in her home. She even decorated the powder room! Walking into the Wirth household was like wandering into a magical winter wonderland. This kind of Christmas would forever be know as "A VERY Skippy" Christmas. It is just the only phrase for it, and each year we strive to meet the excellence of the very high bar she set for all 5 of her kids. NOOOO KIDDDING.
So now you know what I am up against and why finding the Christmas stockings is so important.
The Skippy Christmas is at stake!
I may not have had a special stocking that was designated as THE stocking and would be pulled out every year, but my husband Jim did/does. Several Christmas' ago Skippy gave away all the holiday stockings to each kid with their name on them. Chris' (the oldest sibling) had the very first stocking...It was the original that all others would be based upon. It was never to be cloned again. As the years passed, another kid would come around (Lou) and he would then get his own stocking, but as much as we try somehow you cannot find the exact color match of fabric or even the right accouterment to add that would match the other one, but a name was always somehow in some kind of medium attached to the top of that stocking. Years would go by and Heather would arrive, then Tim and finally my husband Jim (the baby) would be the caboose to the long line of babies. Each stocking different from the other, made by the same hands with the each child's name adorned at the top.
5 stockings for the kids and 1 for mom and 1 for dad. 7 stockings would hang over that fireplace until Chris got married to Jane and a new stocking was added for her. Her very own stocking with all the accouterments and her name at the top. more of the original Wirth's would marry and before long Heather would have her first kid, Jake. THE FIRST GRANDCHILD, and he would get his own very, very special stocking as well as every new spouse added to the line-up.The fireplace mantle would be so jammed of beautiful and colorful stockings... So many on display they were pretty much a fire hazzard. Each of them had a story and a beautiful beginning.
When all the Wirth kids got their stockings back from Skippy, she couldn't find Jim's stocking. All 4 of his siblings were gifted their stockings, but Jim's was no where to be found. His older sister Heather feeling terrible for him created a new one for him and soon after Jim's original stocking was located.
Currently in our family's household, I found our stockings- they are always the last place you look and my intentions are always good. Put them in a place that would make sense so I can easily find them. I mean it isn't rocket science, right? We have 5 stockings, one for Kenny with his name and one for Will with his name and an additional stocking for our new daughter-in-law Anna. Just like the prior generation, as one kid gets married another stocking is added. Kenny and Anna tied the knot on November 1st. We are so thrilled, we have a daughter. And a good one at that!
So as I close this post, I wonder...Do you have this issue at your house as well? Maybe this is just a by product of my ADHD working over time. I don't know? Our SKIPPY CHRISTMAS has been saved though, all the stockings have been found!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Tracey