Any time a new baby was born into the family, Mom had a blanket ready to wrap around the wee one. At Christmas time, she made stockings for any new members of the family (new adult members as well as babies). These were not just any stockings; they were a replica of the ones she made for me and my brother when we were born. She also baked cookies and sweetbreads to hand out at Christmas, along with her special Russell Stover fudge (and sometimes other homemade candy as well).
When she passed away in 2008, I planned to step up. I would make the baby blankets. The stockings. The fudge. The… wait, that’s probably about all I could handle. The first Christmas I actually did it. Mom had left no pattern or instructions for the stockings, but I found her box of “stuff”. Looking at my stocking, I was able to recreate reasonable imitations, and three new family members got a stocking that year. I stayed up till 4 a.m. making several batches of fudge. When a new grandbaby was born the following March, he got a blanket. I even started a blanket for my great granddaughter, who was due in August of 2009. That half-finished blanket that I messed up on is still sitting in the little cabinet of my coffee table. I have never made any more fudge, or much of anything else. I do keep up with the stockings, because, well, that’s a necessity. That includes re-making stockings for a few of the more transient family members who don’t have their old one any longer. I do have to admit, however, the ones I make don’t compare to my mom’s tiny, even stitching.
In my defense, I work. Hmmm, well, so did she for many years. Okay, she didn’t have facebook, and all the other vices that make me wonder where the last three hours went. But I guess what I’m really trying to say is Mom might have had tiny shoes, but they sure are hard to fill.
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| Six stockings for Christmas 2014 |
