12.29.11 - From one Mantle to Another

My very first post of this month was about Marcy's Christmas Mantle, but there is another mantle in our family that is as much a Christmas tradition as Marcy's.  It isn't so much the decorations above it that make it special, but what hangs beneath and around it.

The mantle at my parent's house is something that I have seen grow from three stockings to four and then to five as I grew up with my siblings.  Adding Marcy to the family made six, then Makela at seven, my sister-in-law at eight, and the stockings kept coming to total EIGHTEEN this year!  Each stocking is different and decorated with symbols and items associated with our personalities or special moments from the past.

This picture of all the stockings above and around the fireplace, beneath the mantle, is a sign that Christmas has come to my parent's home and we all smile the first time we see it each holiday season.