Um...Merry Christmas?

Okay, I know it is only September (and it's officially AUTUMN!!!! Goodbye summer!), but I received a package in the mail recently that made me so excited for Christmas already. :) A little background: As many of you know, I am the least artsy, crafty person alive. I cannot seem to make anything look nice. A couple of years after I was married, my mom helped me make stockings for my young fam. I believe that set had just Joe, Ammon and I. They were so cute, but a ton of work and so I never made more as I had more babies.

Fast forward about four years. I was pregnant with Emma and Emily was in town. She and I decided to tackle the stocking project again. We bought basic stockings and then ordered supplies from Oriental Trading Company to make the figures on each stocking. They were pretty easy and my kids loved them. I didn't know if Emma was a boy or a girl at the time, so I went safe and didn't put her name on the stocking. I also purchased one additional stocking because I KNEW I was going to have five, and only five, kids (sigh).

Since that time, I have done nothing to update the stockings. I searched and searched last year, but I could not find another "basic" stocking to match the ones I already had for Bekah. I finally just gave up. In the end, last year Emma had no name on her stocking, Caleb just had a plain stocking with nothing on it, and Bekah didn't even have a stocking, lol. The older kids' stockings have lost some of their pieces (how are yours doing, Em?).

I knew that there was no way I would have time to make new ones this year, so I just bit the bullet and bought some "pre-made" stockings online. I really, really, really wanted them to look homemade. I wanted that same "feel" I had as a kid. It was tough to find some that looked homemade AND had a different version of the same basic type of stocking for eight people, but I did it! They finally came and I love them so much! They look homemade and they are probably much more durable than the ones I've made in the past.

There. I hope you don't all think badly of me now that you know I didn't make our own stockings. :)

Merry Christmas, lol!

This is the best picture I could get of all of them. Sorry...

A closer image of Lizzie and Emma's (they each picked the one they wanted on the website...the older kids stuck with the same image they had on their "old" stockings)
Fun detail (this is my stocking)
I hope you're now in the holiday spirit. :)