Christmas Stockings

Christmas in Canada is largely about the preparations.  

It started with a couple of poinsettias.   The last lady in this house, Jutta, left a couple of her plants as transporting them would have been cumbersome and expensive, so what was a couple more. I bought two small, red poinsettias at the grocery store and put them on the steps leading to the loft that I seldom used.  That looked festive and elegant.  

Next (still November mind you), came the wreath workshop.  It was local, just a few kilometers up the highway, and in the art studio, so I figured I might meet some like minded people and end an evening with a lovely wreath.  It sort of worked out.  Sure, I was an hour early, and it was already bloody dark so I went to the liquor store and bought tequila, but it happened.  The process was more crafty than creative, and the people were, well, not the artist clan I had been hoping for, but lovely.  We glued blue and gold balls on, pre-made wreaths, and then added a string of battery operated lights.  Not exactly what I was expecting, but what is.

'My' creation sits outside my door, and should I ever have guests,  and remember, I shall turn it on. 

A visit to Costco had me buying a package of fake candles.  They are brilliant for us old folks.  If you forget it on, the worst that can happen is the six batteries you spent a fortune on wear out. 

The early evenings lend themselves to lights and so the next thing I did was dig out a bag of Jutta's lights and artificial green boughs.  I wrapped them around a bit of the outdoor decking, and those I light in the evening.  Looks great.  But, the lights brought attention to the large plant pots about the front entrance way so the next day, coming up the end of November, I put on my lined gum boots and lumbered about my own property, which was very cool, slashing a few cedar boughs off and sticking them in the pots.  Then when Rae invited me to Vernon with her to do a bit of shopping, I bought some golden pine cones on a stick, and a couple of fake poinsettia flowers on wire sticks and stuck them in as well.  Looks great. 

The came December one and the tree.  I settled on a fake one from Canadian Tire.  The price was right and really, the 'real' trees make a bit of a mess, and I caught a FB blurb on how fast they burn, and decided that living in wooden house, and with my new memory, or lack there of, it probably wasn't a plan.  The pandemic has meant that a person gets few guests anyway, so, the tree went up in a matter of minutes.  

A string of poinsettias cost me a dollar at Value Village and Jutta had left lots of lights.. so Voila.  Christmas.  Easy Peasy. 

But then, Val, Gabe's gal, suggested that they may be able to visit during the holidays.  If they can come, if pandemic rules allow it, I may have family here on Christmas Day after all!  

But now, well, I need stockings for Santa to fill.  I was out and about with Rea while she was on the phone with her son, and somehow we both decided we would make Christmas stockings. 

Well.. it has been years since I attempted such a thing.  I did sew a bit when the kids were small, for something to do.. but I am not made for sewing - or much of anything besides wandering about and seeing what the world is up to before heading to the next place.  And Rea, well she can build anything, and do anything.  She stands for hours in a white suit covered in bees, looking for a single one among thousands with a little bit of a longer bum and a spot on her back.  But, she hasn't spent much more time with a sewing machine than me.  But, at least she had one. 

We shopped for the material.  We got the furry stuff for the top.  Rea dug out her sewing machine, her mom's old sewing kit and we sat down at her kitchen table on Salmon River Road and proceeded to make the most wonderful Christmas stockings.  

Now, it certainly wasn't a scene out of Little House on the Prairie, although, Rea had made a wonderful Keto cinnamon cake and we had tea, but it was a bit of Christmas fun.  There was no liquor as these days I have to be in before dark, or the 1/2 hour drive is a nightmare.  Can't see much at night anymore.  We are not as young as we once were. 

We are the grandma's.  These stockings were for our grand children, which made me think of my grandmother and the one I had imagined myself to be one day.  It didn't look at all like us.  

For one thing, I kept poking myself with the needle when I tried to hand sew.  I swore, words I can't really, or don't want to print here, rather loudly and for longer than it actually hurt, more out of humiliation.. The blood spilled on the stocking in the form of a little red dot, which Rea pointed out I could just tuck in.  

The foot on the older model, sturdy metal sewing machine, was cheap plastic from the dollar store, and would not stay in place.  We both swore at that sucker.  Thread got tangled, the spool ran out, the fuzzy stuff at the top got sewn in the wrong place and had to be torn out.  I had to borrow Rea's glasses as there was no way I could see the thread.  It was F this and F that.  Dean Martin and Elton John belted out Christmas Carols, and Google was told to 'shut up' a few times as threading a needle, even with the little machine with the little light on it, required more concentration than the effort it took not to get the cake crumbs on the fabric.  

We are grandma's. No longer young grandmas, just, grandmas.  We have taken the old and the new, the real and the fake, and evolved into our own sort grandmas.  Sure, we look old, with our wrinkled skin and grey hair, but inside, we are still, well, who we always were. A great mixture of all that life has given us.

I thought for sure by this age I could sew a Christmas stocking without all the drama.  But, how boring would that be, It is gratifying to know that some things stay the same.  I am still me.  Sure, I forget most of the proper nouns I even knew and never did learn a lot of things I was planning to at some point, like how to sew.  But I get by. 

I still love to travel, adventure and laughter.  I am grateful for all that I have, and I have so much.  I have friends who have traveled this same road and although we have all done it a little differently, the result is the much the same, we are who we are.

This pandemic has done its best to keep us apart, but really, it hasn't changed much of anything.  I am in Canada and that means Christmas preparations.  Guests or no guests,  real or fake, it is what we do in December in this country, and it does brighten things up a whole lot. 

Oh.. and the Christmas stockings are beautiful!