Christmas Past and Presents :-)

It may seem strange to be writing about Christmas stockings in March, but this will make sense at the end.  Every Christmas we would pack the car and drive seven and a half hours to Iowa to visit my grandparents.  (When we moved to Ohio the drive was over nine hours.)  Santa always seemed to know that we would not be home for Christmas and he came to our house early...but he saved our stocking gifts for Iowa.  What a smart man!

My sister and I could view our stockings from the stairs as we would rush to see what treasures Santa had left us.  With age I learned the truth that my grandparents and aunt were the ones who filled the stockings.  That made the stockings even more special because the items inside were chosen with love....sometimes homemade toys, paint sets, books and socks.

My sister (Linda) and I have continued this tradition (like most families) even though her children have grown and have families of their own.  So some years, there may only be four our five stockings...all belonging to adults...but the fun is finding treasures for them. 

One year while packing my car to head to Linda's for Christmas (a good five hour drive) I realized I had forgotten to get stocking stuffers!  Panic!  I did a quick search in my closets and found some fake eye balls,  slimy wormy things and big ugly bugs.  This was in a box of Halloween prizes I had had for creative writing.  It was that year that Raunchy Santa showed up at their house.  Raunchy Santa was Santa's cousin who tried to help Santa...but many of his gifts were on the edge of inappropriate.  One year Uncle Frank gave me Pooping Moose toys...where the moose would poop brown jelly beans.  The kids loved those.

Adults would get cheap tabloid newspapers...not The Enquirer or The Sun News...those were much too authentic.  No...the kinds of tabloids Raunchy Santa left were the ones with a picture of a giant ant poking its head through a kitchen window.  A woman would be backing away in fright.  Or it might have a man, rifle in his arms, with his foot atop a humongous bumble bee...posing for his trophy picture.  Christmas afternoon was spent sharing and laughing at the unbelievable articles. 

So...what does this have to do with the month of March?  Today may be the last day this winter that I will use my favorite stocking stuffer gift from this Christmas.  While we were putting treasures in the stockings, Linda pulled out some earmuffs.

"Who should get these, you or Ray?" she asked.  She started to put them into Ray's stocking, but changed her mind.  Thank goodness!  I have worn these every  morning as I feed and water the animals and birds.  Those earmuffs made it possible to stay outside longer.  As long as my ears stayed warm...I felt warm all over.  Thank you, Linda...um...I mean Santa.

Ray is glad Santa left the earmuffs for me.
He thinks he looks silly.