Do you see that exclamation point firmly planted in that post title? The weekend after Thanksgiving is perhaps my favorite time of the whole year and my transformation into a sugar plum fairy is complete. We put up wreaths on the exterior windows again, and of course the grand tanenbaum (heart emoji). We are still young home owners and in the process of building up our decor stash. One of this year’s big additions was getting our unified set of family stockings in order.
Painting the living room white only made me even more excited to deck these halls because I knew I would love how some stockings would look on the mantel. I considered several directions for how to do our family set. When you are weird like me there are lots of things to consider and form strong opinions on of what our family needs.
First, homemade or store bought? We have a dear family friend who is a knitting wonder and she was willing to make some for all of us, so we got to have homemade ones. David’s grandma also made some needle point ones for the kids that they hang in their bedrooms. We love special things like this and heirlooms in general, so we were extremely happy to get to be the cool-handmade-knitted-stocking-types.
Second, (and easiest), all matching or variety? We decided on variety, but still with cohesion. The biggest questions come now in how there will be variety. All the same colors with different images? Or all same pattern with different colors?
We at first loved the idea of each stocking having a unique image because I think it is so sweet when little kids get to be proud about the picture on their stocking and all “mine’s a gingerbread man!” But, if you are going with handmade it is a lot more leg work to find a unique picture for each person and make sure they all look similar in amount of detail or proportions and such. We hope to have a big family so we really would need a large picture arsenal. (This is easier of course, if you go the store bought route). Plus, grand kids. (YES I AM THINKING THIS FAR.)
So we landed on same pattern with different colors. That still makes room for the fun personalization of “mine’s red and gold!” or “mine has blue like dad’s!” and all that. I completely adore them and they really will be family treasures for life. I can’t wait to pick out more colors for more people as our family grows.
And for an amazing PSA, I got these adorable brush trees in the little Target $3 bins at the front of the store. $3 for all of them!
MERRY CHRISTMAS. 2016 NEEDED THIS. YES IT IS REALLY HERE. CHRISTMAS STILL CAME.
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