Tag: traditions

My beautiful daughter and I were visiting on the phone earlier this week about our impending family Christmas rendezvous in Nashville🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄.

My level of excitement is over the moon!!! In less than a week Studly and I will have our two kids, our in-loves, and our five grand babies all in one house to celebrate the holidays.

Because we are all traveling by car from our respective homes, luggage space is at a premium, so we’ve all agreed to buy gifts only for the kids. Of course I have bought stocking stuffers for the grown ups–and have told everyone to BYOS (bring your own stocking).

No one demands that stocking stuffers be bought, but you see, my Mom was the Queen of Stockings. Anyone who spent the night under her roof on Christmas Eve awoke to find a beautiful stocking filled to overflowing with carefully shopped for goodies–things that one would never think to buy for oneself, but that immediately became something one had always wanted.

My grandmother (Nannie Grace) was so enamored of the whole stocking thing that she engineered being at Mom and Dad’s house for Christmas Eve many Christmases in a row.

I’ve tried to continue Mom’s tradition; although, she left some awfully big stockings to fill. My son-in-love thinks I do a pretty good job of it, though, since he’s pretty sure whatever I buy for my daughter’s stocking will trump anything he buys for her. Hey, it’s not a competition….

What I really wish is that I could give a stocking to my Mom. I’m not certain that anyone ever created one for her. And that makes me incredibly sad. So, I’m going to get a little sentimental and “fill” a stocking for my Mom:

Pictures of her grandchildren
She’d be so very proud of the
Amazing people they’ve become
And the lives they’ve made.

Photos and audio of her great grands
She never had the chance to know
These precious reminders that
Life and love carry on.

Love letters from her children
We’d each have much to say
Things we left unspoken;
We always thought we had more time.

Other things I’d place inside:
Licorice jelly beans
Crossword puzzles
A cellphone (she’d be amazed!)

My never ending gratitude,
For teaching me and mine
The importance of filling
Stockings for those we love.

Miss you and love you Mom.

Below is my very first stocking along with the Santa Claus Mom bought when I was five.

And if a stocking-less traveler spends the night in our home on Christmas Eve, we’ve got him/her covered:

Peace, people!