Today we were home from school AGAIN.
Tomorrow we are off school AGAIN.
No leaving the house. No driving. No nothing. We are homebound.
Two words...
Ice storm.
Our streets are coated in ice!
Since I have time on my hands I am tackling a project that I've been putting off for a month. Our family has a tradition. My Mom has made each member of our family a Christmas stocking. It started with my Mom and Dad. Then she added the kids, the sons and daughter in law, grandkids and finally the great grandkids. But there's more! For every year you are part of our family my Mom has added a charm/token/ornament to your stocking. So, my parents have 50 charms, my sister has 49, my brother 47, myself 41, my brother in law, 20 something, etc. Here is a picture of all our stockings on my parents fireplace the last time they were all hung together. A Nd yes, my parent's fireplace was HUGE. Some of the stockings are so full of charms that it became impossible for items to be placed inside the stockings (or to see the names), so note in the picture the bags on the floor beneath each stocking for the stocking stuffers:
When we were home for Christmas this year I swiped our four. It seems all the stockings were water damaged during their last year long storage. The felt molded. The charms rusted or deteriorated. All 16 need to be remade.
The before for our four:
(Not sure why Bubba's is backward!)
Dismantling:
Some of the charms from my stocking. Some homemade, some were from trips my parents took, some were made by grandkids...I wish we would have dated each one!
Here is my progress from today. I have remade the stockings and now I will start to reattach each charm. I contemplated remaking them a little different, using reverse applique or changing the design up, but decided that I would stick to my Mom's original design. I know it sounds boring, but I'm sentimental. My plan is to hang out stockings on the mantle as a Christmas decoration and put our useable stockings up on Christmas Eve.
Hopefully you'll hear from me tomorrow. Our power is flickering and 45,000 people are without power so far in our area. Stay warm!
1 comment:
You are to be commended, restoration work is tedious and not glamorous. I am the Grandmother that made the stockings in my house. Each are custom designed and hand made. The grandkids get Stockings which are kept with the child. But when the families visit our house I have custom made oversized (giant) Mittens with the family name, that hold the goodies. We had 5 kids (all married now) so our mantel holds 2 stockings (hubby and me) and 5 Mittens. I know your kids will appreciate your efforts AND the journaling of the restoration work. Good luck.
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