-ma for Zen's not-quite-BiL, and brenda's dad.

My grandmother used to tell me stories about their Christmases as kids, and it fascinated me they got oranges in their stockings, and were thrilled about it. They seemed so ordinary to me. But not in 1920! It was total Little House to me, which I loooooved.

I vividly remember asking my mother about what her childhood xmas was like in Georgia during the Depression (after her mother died). There was no tree. There were stockings. And in the stockings would be apples, and sun ripened raisins on the vine. (Because when you're dirt poor, sweet is the ultimate luxury.) And if it was a very good year, they would get oranges.

So when my Dad's Air Force assignment took us from Goose Bay, Labrador to Homestead, Florida we drove down from New Jersey and as we passed the orange groves my mom was freaking out like she'd seen Santa's Workshop. Because Oranges = Xmas.

We also always got oranges and nuts in our stockings!

...and everybody in my family gets a little orange in their stocking. The kind with stems and leaves on it.

Yikes all the bad health! Thankfully my creepy vision issues from last night were not recurring today, so they were either not serious or a brand new form of migraine or something, but not what I feared. Fingers crossed it does not reoccur.

I would like a cheese stocking. That sounds great. Or a charcuterie chalet.

The doctor who fucked up the stent has also managed to "disappear" Sam's X-rays. Lil's on the phone with his office 'boutta go full Karen. How does a doctor's office lose X-rays?

Oh HELL no. It's 2020; those x-rays DAMN well still exist. Go after the radiology practice (or center, or whatever) where the x-rays were done, or go above that, to whatever conglomerate health system the radiology group is a part of. Digital copies of those x-rays still exist.

I would like a cheese stocking. That sounds great. Or a charcuterie chalet.

NGL, I would love a cheese and charcuterie stocking.

Oh, raisins were always in our stockings, too. Mom was the stuffer of stockings (I don’t think that was a thing my dad’s family ever did - he’s an enthusiastic gift giver but he didn’t have a tradition to guide him) and her parents were teens to young adults in the Depression, so they probably passed those ideas of What Goes in Stockings to her. And she was a kid during WWII so with rationing and whatnot, similar treats would make sense.

Zen, holy shit, that's terrible! All good thoughts to Sam, and I hope those x-rays show up soon. Unbelievable.

I love opening stockings on Christmas morning, and would be delighted to have only a stocking of gifts and nothing else (you can fit at least a couple books in there, and everything else I like to get as presents is small stuff like earrings, magnets, fancy chocolates, etc.), but that is definitely not how my mother rolls. However, I have fully embraced the idea of stuffing my own stocking (M isn't big on stockings, so I'd have basically nothing in mine if I left it up to him, though he's good with non-stocking gifts) and am quite happy with the treats I've bought for myself!

Zen, that’s wild. And totally not okay.

We always got a clementine in our stockings. Every so often one would accidentally be left in a toe to roast over the fireplace for several days, so that was always special We still go overboard on those - if I could convince my family to go to all stockings I’d be happy. Small, fun, and easy.

They’re all over-invested in big presents though (the giving more than the getting) so we get to stress and overspend every year.

Porto’s offerings are so much, you could get several days from them alone, msbelle.

I hope everyone heals up.

Stockings for random things like tools, flashlights, kitchen implements, weird finds,nuts, clementines (when they were rare finds,) candy.

I’m gonna miss the stocking.

Mild funk from all *this* and realized today being in discomfort from being turned into human barometer is not helping.

The kittens are thumping upstairs, I should go let them make me laugh.

Our favorite dumb toys-for-grown-ups store went out of business this fall, so I might have gone overboard on stocking stuffers. But there are things we will need from that store! Like these little monster finger puppets we put on the Tabasco bottle?