The Search for Stockings

When Megan asked me yesterday if we were going to have stockings this year, it did beg the question, "Where are the stockings?" After a quick check with the Stateside fam and another perusal of the closet, we had to decide they've gone AWOL. Possibly they hopped a boat back to the tropics. If so, good riddance. We can hardly celebrate Christmas with stockings who can't take the cold.

So as we are now accustomed to doing, I am searching Tao Bao for new stockings. In searching, I have discovered a few things. First, a number of the items are displayed on the legs of thin women actually wearing the stockings like socks. I avoid these not only because a) someone has been wearing something I planned to put candy in, but b) if the stockings are small enough for a tiny Chinese woman to wear as socks, they aren't anywhere close to the size we need.

I say this because I now realize the kids in our family grew up with what might be termed oversized stockings. (I prefer to call them "generous" or even, "the RIGHT size"). My brother's stocking was long and thin, something I could easily now pull up to my mid-thigh. I secretly thought mine was better - though shorter, it was significantly wider, allowing for bigger items inside. Our sister's was about the size of mine as well. To us, they were normal.

So how do I find equal size stockings to replace our lost ones? I would feel like Scrooge to give them any less (although I admit our previous stockings were not up to par - another reason I'm not too sad to see them leave). I thought I'd found a winner, but upon closer examination, it is proclaiming, "Let it sonw!" so we're bypassing that.

I've got my eye on a "Pottery Barn" (or so it says) reindeer stocking, but they only have two. Maybe Erik and I will just get those for the kids and use garbage bags instead. Sure, we lose on aesthetics, but you can't get everything you want, even at Christmas.