Sorry for the delay in posting. I had to wait until after Christmas to share this one since the stocking I made this year was a surprise…

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Adam and I were enjoying our Christmas room (the only one that is really decorated for the season) and I asked him what his favorite Christmas thing was. He said “lights.” I am not sure if that really counts (Adam is outraged by this and told me my opinion isn’t Christmasy), but I know mine is our stockings. In fact, I love them so much they are up there in my favorite things category, not just favorite Christmas things.

My Grandma Ellie made my stocking for my first Christmas in 1982. It is knit and it is perfect. It spends most of the year in a little coffee can wrapped in Christmas paper.

When Adam and I got married Grandma Ellie sent Adam a Christmas stocking. More than saying vows in front of 200 people, or having a very grown up kitchen aid mixer (the quintessential wedding gift in my mind) the stocking made us official. It was the thing that truly made me feel like Adam was my family.

Seven years ago Grandma Ellie and I both went to Colorado for a little stocking retreat. She taught me how to make the stockings and I carefully jotted down the pattern as we went. I didn’t know how to knit anything with color and I think I had only made one pair of socks at that point, so I had a lot to learn.

Since everyone in my family has a grandma Ellie stocking (she has made hundreds), I had to test out my skills with stockings for the animals. Tess the dog, Ollie the cat, and Daisy the cat each got a stocking in their image—and I adjusted my gauge since they came out rather large.

Each of the boys has their own Grandma Ellie stocking; even though I know how to make them now there is nothing like an original.

But my brother and his girlfriend spent their first Christmas together away from home this year, so I had my mom send out my brother’s stocking and I made a matching one for Aunt Brenda. I enjoyed the challenge of replicating my grandmother’s work from 30 years ago.

I love that with a little bit of colored yarn we can all hang together in the most beautiful (and in my mind, official) way.