a somewhat long-winded story about a simple stocking for Ryan

Two winters ago was the winter of our partial discontent. I was pregnant and sick every day. We were remodeling our home. While our home was being remodeled, we were living in the unrented rental home of my ex-boyfriend (which is another post altogether, but one I probably won't be writing anytime soon. Let's just say it was a mistake and leave it at that).

In spite of the sickness and craziness, we were happy. Really happy. Good things were on the horizon....a new house....a new baby....a new life.

I needed to decorate for Christmas, but our decorations were stored in some unknown location amongst our furniture and furnishings. So I decided to make some Christmas stockings (which would also be our sole decoration that year). I searched and searched for the perfect Christmas stocking to make for our family. There were so many to choose from! In the end, I passed up the lace, the embroidery, the quilted, and the adorned and chose a simple, felt stocking with a single initial appliqued on the front.

In the midst of all the chaos, I not only needed to, but wanted to simplify my life. I made three stockings - one with a "t" for Tony, one with an "n" for Natalie and one with an "a" for Abby.

Last year, I exhibited my tremendous mothering skills and figured my five-month old Ryan wouldn't know whether he had a stocking or not, so we still had our three simple, felt stockings.

THIS year, I was determined to include Ryan in our Christmas Stocking Festivities, even though I'm pretty sure he still won't remember whether or not he had one this year. I thought about making new stockings. Maybe velvet with our names embroidered along the cuff? But when I pulled out our simple, felt stockings, I still loved the simplicity.

So, out came the felt and before long, Ryan had his own Christmas stocking with his appliqued "r" on the front (don't look too closely, I'm no seamstress!).

One of the fun things about these stockings, is making words with the letters. Last year, I arranged them in the words ANT, TAN and my favorite: NAT. This year, I was adding the letter "r" to the game.

I thought and thought about all the words I could create and in the end, decided that I would go the boring route and hang them in order of our age....which seems to fit our family culture just fine.