My Favorite Things: The Stocking

Christmas is different now that my kids are mostly grown up and purchase their own fun things. I have attempted to simplify gift-giving, and stay away from the commercial side of the holidays as much as I can. There is one person, however, that loves getting gifts all year 'round and who finds joy in the smallest things, and that is my younger daughter, Cecilie.

Cec is having difficulty with a couple of her siblings and doesn't come to our house much at this point. I have gotten in the habit of visiting her on her turf in Lake City (Seattle), and that has been a great way of developing our one-on-one relationship. But as Christmas was coming, I hoped she would put hard feelings aside and come over anyway. Well, as it turned out, she visited a friend in Poulsbo for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and asked if I would pick her up Christmas night. I think she would have come to our house, but she didn't want to spend the night, and it was getting late, and I had real concerns about her marching up her street super-late at night, carrying a bunch of money and loot. So, I picked her up from Poulsbo and brought her to the Bainbridge Island ferry in the pouring rain at 8:55 PM.

I did, however, bring her gifts and stocking. She opened the gifts , which she had known about ahead of time, in the car. Then she started on the stocking. “I just love stockings! We should have Birthday Stockings, too.” The envelopes were the first things out. Each envelope was carefully opened and each card read and commented on. And the money was verbally appreciated. She was happily surprised by the generosity of the relatives who gave cash. Then she opened the gifts in the stocking and enjoyed each and every thing that came out, one by one. She was especially pleased with the pen and pocket calendar (which I had gotten free from a pharmacy), index cards for her recipe box, a useful Hari Krishna cookbook (vegetarian, of course), gourmet black licorice, and pistachios.

She made her ferry in plenty of time, and was home by 11, with all the things she needed to carry with her.

What a joy it was to see and be with Cecilie as she savored a little bit of Christmas with me. This was perhaps the highlight of my holiday-time in 2010.