Family Folktales: Socks!

In the second installment of the Family Folktales series, this one takes us back to before you were born...

When your cousin Eleanore was about your age right now (4 or 5-ish), that Christmas we spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Stockings are a big deal in our family -- Grandma has knitted one for EVERY member of the family (and a lot of friends too!). She and I always have lots of fun shopping for stocking stuffers. And every year, we always would buy everyone at least a pair or two of new socks.

Well, that year at Grandma and Grandpa's, I'd been squirrling away gifts and stocking stuffers all year... and so had Grandma. And that must have been the year of the Great Sock Sale. Because Christmas morning went a little something like this:

Family gathered in Grandma's living room... everyone opening stockings...

Uncle Paul: "Oh, look what I got!"

Grandma, Mommy, Eleanore: "Socks!"

Daddy: "And look at what I got..."

Grandma, Mommy, Eleanore: "Socks!!"

Grandpa: "Well now, what do I have in my stocking?"

Grandma, Mommy, Eleanore: "Socks!!!"

As you can imagine, we got sillier and siller every time someone pulled out another pair of socks - until we were screaming and laughing it when Daddy pulled out his 12th pair of socks.

So now, Grandma and I definitely make sure everyone has socks... and we still laugh about it. Silly, I know... but it's just one of the little things we do that makes Christmas special for us.

(If you think this is weird, wait until I tell you about the Silly String Fights we'd have in Aunt Lois's garage every Thanksgiving...)