The Stockings were hung..........

And the sweaters repurposed!!!

The first year we were married, just 16 days before Christmas and just two weeks after my Husband returned from his two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. ( I know it seems soon but a girl can only wait so long and two years is soooooo long :) Needless to say we didn't have much time to prepair for Christmas. We went and bought some stockings, they were just the .99 cent type and a FEW other little things. The next year our twins were born, just 14 days before Christmas and we had been so consumed with anticipation of their birth that we again had not prepaired. To our surprise my sweet Sister-in-Law went out and bought us two matching stockings for the twins and I personalized them with a little monogram on the front. Well here we are these seven years later and we have since had another little girl and two little boys (no not twins again, one at a time....wheeewh) and we are expecting our sixth sweet spirit in February, and I have still not done anything more permanent or personal for our stockings, in fact I haven't even finished monograming the last three stockings, so this year I decided to change that and make stockings from recycled sweaters. I had seen this done on a few sites and loved the results and of course the idea of repurposing and recycling always appeal to me. So I thought I would post about our homemade stockings out of upcycled sweaters . Well here they are! I think they turned out beautifully and we couldn't have enjoyed them more.



Top Left to Bottom Right: Grant's, Jessica's, Daddy's, Michelle's,
Mommy's, Kayla's, Evan's and the Tree ( I needed another picture for the collage to work)

As we prepared for this Christmas we reminisced about our childhood Christmas's, I recalled how every year we went to a Christmas party at our church and the "Santa" there would give each child a brown bag of goodies, namely: candy canes, assorted seasonal candies, peanuts, an orange, and a tiny dim store toy....there were probably a few other things in there too but that is not important. What does matter is that my fondest and most vivid memories of Christmas are always accompanied, and dare I say, preceded by a memory of the smells of that brown goody bag. I know it sounds a little odd, but somehow that combination of smells became the scent of Christmas too me. So as we discussed what to put in the kids stockings, if anything, I remembered that Brown bag. My Husband is so quick, he suggested that we fill (I.E a hand full) their stockings with Christmas candies and......an Orange. Of course I LOVED the idea!!! They didn't smell just the same, I don't think they even make those assorted Christmas candies anymore., but it was so much fun that the smells that we're absent in reality we're there in my mind. I think this is a great start to a family tradition I will truly enjoy!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!

My Husband adds, "and the kids loved it"!



..by the chiminy with care.....



Evan's



Daddy's



Jessica's



Kayla's



Mommy's



Michelle's



Grant's