Hello Sweet Shoppers! Lydia here. I hope you’re all having a wonderful December so far and that you are all enjoying the holiday season stress-free, sickness-free, and calorie-free. 😀 Many of you know that we had a new baby in our family this year—our last. She came four weeks early, and I have to say that everything about her has been different from my other babies. It has been a different kind of adjustment than what I expected. But, she is SUCH a sweet, good-natured baby, and we love her to bits.

Having a new baby brings lots of “firsts.” But, since we won’t be having any more kids, I am also very aware of the “lasts” that are occurring in our lives. This is our last “first Christmas”—the last time that we’ll get to introduce the magic of the season to one of our kids. And, over the last week or so, I’ve been working on a little project that also marks a “last” for me: making a Christmas stocking.

Shortly after DH and I were married, I went to a local quilting store and found a pattern for some stockings. I made our stockings that year, and every year that we’ve had a new baby, I’ve added one stocking to the mix. Each of our stockings is unique in some ways and also incorporates fabrics from all the other stockings. I really love looking at all of them and seeing the pieces that they have in common but enjoying the ways that they are different as well.

As I put together baby Kaylin’s stocking this year, I was very careful to make sure that pieces of fabric from all of the other stockings made it into hers. I really wanted her stocking to be a symbolic “wrapping up” of the family—pulling us all together. I have to say it even made me a little emotional. I completed her stocking several days ago, but I decided that I hated the top portion, so I ripped it apart and redid that section of the stocking. I’m much happier with it now. And, here it is:

And, here is the whole family line-up. We’re complete now. 🙂

When, I was a kid, every time we added a baby to the family (and I come from a large family of seven kids), we sang this song at Christmas time. This song always makes me happy, so I’m sharing it with all of you:

Oh hang up the baby stocking
Be sure that you do not forget
For the dear little dimpled darling
Has never seen Christmas yet
We’ve told her all about it
She opened her big blue eyes
I’m sure she understood us
For she looked so cunning and wise.

Oh I know what we’ll do for the baby
I’ve thought of the very best plan
We’ll borrow a stocking from Granny
The very biggest we can
And hang it by her dear Mother’s
Right here in the corner so
And write a letter to Santa
And fasten it on the toe. Write:

This is the baby stocking
That hangs in the corner here
She hasn’t seen you yet, Santa
For she only came this year
But she’s just the blessedest baby
And, now before you go
Just cram her stocking with goodies
From the tip clear down to the toe.

Oh hang up the baby stocking
Be sure that you do not forget
For the dear little dimpled darling
Has never seen Christmas yet.

I’m off to cuddle my sweet little one before she’s grown and gone. But, I’m sending happy holiday wishes to each of you and your families. I hope this will be the happiest most peaceful season yet.