Hung with Care, pt 4

 Here's our final installment of the Younce Christmas stockings.  I mentioned earlier that my parent's socks were hand-knit by my Mom's grandmother.  And that they are large and very stretchy and hard to fill!  

Carol

Geary

 Here is my oldest brother Jeffy's stocking.  He passed away before I was born so I'd actually never seen his stocking until my Mom brought it over with theirs for me to photograph.  It's so sweet, isn't it?  I love how the bell goes along the heel.

And on Christmas Eve I got pictures of my brother Dave's family's stockings.

Dave's childhood stocking had Rudolph on it.  My Mom made him this grown-up one later, and it's covered with Celtic knots and celestial bodies.  She also made Michelle's; Michelle is from Seattle so Mom gave it a Mount Ranier theme.  She also loves soccer, hence the button that dots her "i".  

 I believe these three were store-bought, with the names added later.  We were having so much fun I actually forgot to ask about them!

But this one I know about.  Their fourth child, Freya, was born just this month, on December 1.   I think we are all touched by this because she is (probably) the last cousin/grandchild in the Younce clan, and she shares a birthday with the first, Tona's son Thompson (see this post.)

Hazel holding Freya when she was about a week old.

My Mom created her stocking, a yellow and gold sock with appliqued nativity fabric.  And the best part is, Mom happened to make a trip recently to see Maren's and Tona's families before Christmas.  She took Freya's stocking with her and had each granddaughter (girl cousin) do a part, so they each contributed to it.  My girls also helped when she got back.  So that's a little special aspect of her stocking that represents how much we welcome her and love her.

So that's it!  Another generation of stockings.  Thanks, Grandma.  Love you.

Hung with Care, pt 3

 Isn't this fun?  Here are my sister Tona's family's stockings.  I have to say, I feel especially blessed by this tradition and glad to be writing about it this year.  Because between my last stocking post and this one, my dear Grandma Younce, who started it all by making our own felt stockings in the 1970's, passed away peacefully on December 19.   Which makes it almost exactly 41 years since she made this: 

See, Tona's birthday is December 21 (happy birthday!).  Grandma went ahead and made a gender-neutral stocking, not knowing if the baby would be a boy or a girl.  As soon as she was born, Grandma added the pink and the name at the top, and sent it along for Christmas.  I love that it's a mobile, indicating just how young Tona was when she first received it.

It's a bit of a joke to us, that just as Tona is the smallest Younce, her stocking is also the smallest.  You maybe can't tell in the picture, but it's really quite tiny.  A single clementine takes up the whole toe!

The rest are descriptions in Tona's own words.

Don: This stocking was made by Carol Younce in 1989 for Don, who didn't have one of his own. His family didn’t have our same traditions, of course! It featured Don (with the sequins carefully matched to his actual eye color), skiing downhill into an unsuspecting Santa Claus. The trees are covered with batting snow, and there are jingles on the points of the red top. Front and back are medium-blue felt.

Thompson: Made in 1992 by Mom and myself, this stocking is dark blue front and back (actually darker than this picture suggests, almost navy blue). It features a Hoffman celestial fabric, adorned with extra beading and sequins. The name is gold cording, done by Mom.

Forrest: Made in 1994 of dark green felt front and back, this stocking features folk-art quilted pine trees (obviously a pun on his name) made by my Mom. The top has a plaid fabric, with jingles on the points. The name and hanger are both silk ribbon. Jingle on the toe. Lots of interesting sequins, including several sequin kangaroos.

Jacob: Peace/ Lion and lamb themed stocking rendered in red felt front and back. The lamb is made of shag fake fur and has sequined eyes. They are seated together under a palm tree with gold leaves. Name is written in narrow silk ribbon. Made in 1997 by Tona.

Halle: Made in 2000 by Tona, of dark green felt backing and white felt front. Sequined "ornaments" adorn a polar fleece and corduroy collage of pine boughs. Jingle and tassel toe. Name in burgundy cording.

Hung (and Made) with Care, pt 1

 Some Christmas traditions are so ingrained in families that you don't even think about them.  It's not exactly that you assume other families do them, too.  It's that you don't even think about whether they do or not.

In my family, hand-made stockings are such a tradition.

My parents' stockings are long and skinny knit ones - like actually knitted by my mother's grandmother.  They're red, green and ivory, with their names knit around the top.  Great-grandmother Marie made them for everyone in the family, including my Dad when he married in.  And those stockings are maddeningly stretchy, making them tough to fill to the top year after year.

My Grandma Younce, my dad's mom, made the stockings for my brothers and sisters and me.  And most or all of my cousins on the Younce side.  They're all sweet beaded things, each different but along the same lines.  My mom told me they were made from kits - she guesses Bucilla - which were very popular at the time. 

 We loved them and I was always so excited to see mine again each December.  I also thought it was so cool that it looked like my name was spelled with an "X."  Love you, Grandma.

Then when my oldest sister was 19, she got married.  Suddenly we had a new family member.  And he needed a stocking.  So my mom, queen of clever applique, took the fact that he was a competitive skier, and whipped out a cool skiing stocking.  And a multi-generational tradition was born.

As in-laws, and then children, started to join the clan, each got a stocking made for them.  By my mid-twenties, though still single, I decided I wanted a "grown-up" stocking, so I asked my mom to make me one.  I wanted black velvet and Chinese silk.  And this is what I got:

 So freaking cool, I love it.  I added a little beading to the black and gold nativity fabric she worked in.

 Then when I did marry, it was time for Ed to get a "Younce" stocking.  We all know he lives for elk hunting, so I wanted a mountain scene, and my mom and I together came up with a red-headed shepherd boy sleeping in the mountains (Ed can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.)  We even found an elk button to sew on, at the base of the mountains.  My amazingly meticulous friend Kat sewed the name on, bless her, because I just didn't have the skills or patience.

 A few years later, Hazel was born. I remember wanting something simple, elegant, and above-all, something I could make myself!  Which meant not a lot of sewing.  But beading, I could do.  We were living in New York, and since Ed was always at work, I had nothing but time on my hands after Hazel went to bed.  My sister Tona helped me with the icicle-like beading off the bottom. 

 When it was Ginger's turn, I was ready for a little more work (and some more help from my mom.)  I wrestled with a few ideas, and, because of her name, settled on a plate of cookies and milk by the chimney.  My mom made the entire chimney, fire and stockings.  I made the milk and cookies.  I'm not proud of the iron-on letters, but I've gotten used to them. 

 Truth be told, I've had an idea for a different stocking for Ginger nagging at me for several years.  I even bought some of the stuff for it once.  One of these days I'll actually make it, then she can pick one or alternate, whatever she wants.

Last year was Poppy's first Christmas.  And I just wasn't up to the weighty creative task of designing or executing a stocking.  So she just used my old childhood one.  This year, I was more ready.  I had a few ideas, and started to hone in on the idea of a bauble ornament.  First, I sought inspiration.

2011 US Christmas stamps

Window decals at World Market

A DVD gift box that was tucked in my Christmas wrapping box - this was the final spark I needed!

 Getting started was the hardest part, but once I did, I worked really hard for a couple of weeks, and voila!

I traced Ed's for the basic shape (all of ours are slightly different shapes and sizes and I like it that way.)  The sock is of heathered green felt and the top is white minky.  I shaped the name out of pink tinsel wire, then tacked it on every 1/4 to 1/2 inch or so.

 By sheer luck I found these red-and-silver flat bauble ornaments at Michael's - that place is a treasure trove for projects like this!  They were the perfect accent to fill in the negative space.  I also love the loopy wired mesh ribbon at the top - I wouldn't have thought of that except for the stamps.

 The DVD case gave me the idea for an offset center, and I invested in a rotary cutter and self-healing board for cutting it out.  I wasn't sure what to put in the center until I found some spray-painted ferns at Michael's and thought they would do the trick.

 Mirror sequins hanging off the bottom finished it off.

 But I just couldn't stop there and had to bead my heart out on the back.  One big pack of mixed sequins makes for serious colorful fun.

 So there are our family's stockings.  I've solicited a few other family members to photograph and/or write about their stockings...seriously, I'm proud of mine but you've got to see theirs.  Individually and collectively, they are amazing works of art.  It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

Surprise Bags

When we were little, my parents ran a home business.  Geary Associates was a mail-order quilt pattern company.  They made and mailed quilt pattern template kits, and also sold their wares at quilt shows around the country.  One of the biggest shows was in Houston, TX around the end of October.  Every year around that time they would load up the van with all their booth gear and inventory and drive to Texas for the big show, being gone about 7 to 10 days in total.

We had several babysitters for this gig.  Sometimes it was a neighborhood teenager, or a college student from church.  I don't remember much about who watched us.  What I do remember was the beginning of a family tradition called Surprise Bags.

You can probably guess what Surprise Bags is all about.  Mom would line up a row of numbered brown paper grocery bags along the top of the piano, with tops stapled shut.  Each night they were gone we got to open one bag.  It was a way of counting down the days as well as getting something for our trouble - something to look forward to and distract us from the strangeness of having our parents gone.  Since they were always gone over Halloween, one bag always contained glow sticks for each of us to hang around our necks while trick-or-treating.  It is not surprising that I also remember one bag always contained a box of Twinkies, a treat we never had any other time of year.

As with so many things, I only understand now that I'm THE MOM how much work these were for my Mom to put together, while raising four children and getting ready for a major trip.  But they were worth it - we loved them so much, and I have loved carrying on the tradition the few times I have been away from my kids.  In 2006 Ed and I went on a cruise and my parents watched Hazel.  In 2007 I left surprise bags for Hazel when I went into the hospital with Ginger.  And last year when Ed took me away for a weekend for our anniversary, I put a few little things together as well.

Planning Surprise Bags for this upcoming birth has been pretty fun.  Without going overboard, I wanted to get them things that would not only be fun the day they opened it, but also offer a little entertainment mileage in the months to come.  So while I'm in the hospital this weekend, and the girls are enjoying an extended sleepover stay at Grandma's, I thought I'd just make a note of this round of Surprise Bags.

Day #1
New pajamas and a box of doughnuts - what's not to like?

Day #2
Melissa & Doug Happy Handles stamps and pads of paper















Day #3

Tinkertoys - I never would have thought to get them this, but a few months ago Ginger's Peewee group learned about construction.  When I picked her up the kids were playing with Tinkertoys and she was having a blast building.  And I don't think Hazel has ever even seen Tinkertoys before, they are so classic.  I cringe slightly at the multiple-pieces factor, but it's not as bad as Legos!  The creativity factor seems worth it; we'll see if I regret it.

Day #4
Sleepy Princess and the Pea Game by HABA 


(And stay tuned - whenever I get home and get around to downloading photos and sitting at the computer, Spanky Bum Bum will be revealed!)

The Party Pots Box

Most families have holiday traditions. Things like caroling to the neighbors, making goody plates, playing Secret Santa, or helping at a soup kitchen. Last year I introduced you to one Younce Christmas tradition, the Horsehead Dirk. Now it's time to tell about the Party Pots.

I'll do my best to explain. The crawl space under the stairs in my parents' house is called The Box Place because that's where empty boxes of all sizes are tossed. Then at Christmas time we would all rummage around in there for boxes to wrap our gifts in. One year, maybe around the late 80's, someone found The Party Pots Box. My mom had gotten the Party Pots at a white elephant party once and promptly left the box - with the pots inside - in the Box Place.

The Party Pots was a set of clear glass dishes shaped to look like flower pots. One was large and had a metal ring that went around the top. A smaller pot hung on that ring, to create a chip-and-dip scenario for all your party needs. The box had pictures on all four sides, in 70's colors and film quality, of different ways you could use the pots. For example, potato chips and onion dip. Shrimp and cocktail sauce. Triscuits and some freaky dip with red dots in it. And of course you could always put flowers in them.

The box was super colorful, the pictures and really the whole idea ridiculous. But it was a great size and shape for wrapping all kinds of things in. So it got used over and over and over, year after year, and became a running joke and eventually a tradition. It was like winning a prize if you unwrapped a gift in it -

"Yay! The Party Pots!" everyone would exclaim. And that's how traditions get started.

After awhile the poor box - it was kind of flimsy - had been taped nearly to death and when we all moved away from home it fell out if circulation. As I wrote this post it was just killing me that I didn't have a picture, or closure, so I called my mom to see if she still had the box. Not only did she, but she knew exactly where it was. The next time I was over there, I took a picture.

I give you...the Party Pots box!

The Horsehead Dirk

Sometime in the mid-80's, on a road trip, my parents stopped in at Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Seviervill, TN. My Dad is a knife & gun guy and he found a cool 18th Century style dirk with a horsehead handle. They bought it and saved it for Christmas that year. When Dad opened it there were many ooh's and aah's at the shiny new dagger...but the real appreciation came the next time someone had to open a gift wrapped tightly with ribbon.

"Scissors!" someone called. "We need scissors over here!" In a flash the dirk was wielded, the ribbon sliced, the knife re-sheathed. Mouths agape, our eyes were opened to just what a horsehead dirk could do.

Since then the horsehead dirk has been a constant, though unlikely, Younce Christmas tradition. It was the only thing we used to cut ribbon or other stubborn packaging, year after year. The call became, "Dirk! We need the horsehead dirk over here!"Dad looked down the road to when we would grow older and move away. He went back to Knife Works and bought four more dirks and kept them for years, giving one to each of us on the Christmas after we were married.2008 was the first year we have not traveled to someone else's house for Christmas. We spent it in our own home, with our own family and my parents. My own horsehead dirk was finally put to good use, slicing and dicing ribbons and tags so we could all access our gifts and goodies. Then it was quietly placed back in its sheath, and back in its box, to wait until next year.Or maybe just until my birthday.