With two new babies on the way, we will soon have, Lord willing, fifteen grandchildren: ten girls and five boys. I have thirteen stockings to fill this year (unless a little someone makes an unexpectedly early arrival….then it will be a quick trip to find stocking #14). The 2010 Christmas celebration will involve a full fifteen. Hard to imagine! A few years back I decided that I could not manage to keep filling stockings for the grandkids. Afterall, I reasoned, they were coming so fast that it was just too much to keep up with. And with their parents also giving them stockings, it was really unnecessary. So I was planning to quietly phase them out. But then, out of the blue, Knox asked me one day, “Nana, are you doing stockings for us this year?” So without even pausing for air, I said, “Of course I am, Knox.” And I have never looked back. It is quite delightful. And, yes, lots of the stuff I put in them is entirely unnecessary. But God gives us “unnecessaries” all the time. Like the flickers (woodpeckers) out on my fence. And the pink winter sunsets. And the red berries hanging so colorfully from the bare branches of the Mountain Ash. And the powdery snow falling quietly on the trees. Who needs all that stuff? Totally redundant and perfectly wonderful. God stuffs our stockings full of unnecessary pleasures and over-our-quota goodness day after day. Oh, to be like Him.
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Thanks for posting this. Great encouragement to go ahead and mess up the kitchen making those unnecessary Christmas cookies. 🙂
Hon, I think this may be my favorite post of yours evah! Thanks for the wonderful way of looking at stockings and woodpeckers and bright red berries♥
Your posts on Advent and Christmas are what are keeping me going -well that and the coffee, but after getting too little sleep last night I think I’m swearing off the coffee for a few days 😀
We have a marvelous God!
And it is so true what you just wrote…unnecessary…so much more.
I pray that my heart will overflow of gratitude this season!
Thank you, as always!
I love this! I keep coming back here for a good fill up of my Christmas-celebration-gas-tank – I’m still horribly new at this part and keep thinking “why is this NECESSARY?” and need to keep reminding myself that unnecessary abundance is a tremendous reflection of God. THANK YOU!
I’m not sure why, but this post brought tears to my eyes 🙂 Since this is the first year that my oldest is really getting Christmas (Infact, she just calls it Jesus’ Birthday), I’m having so much fun getting little odd’s and ends to fill her stocking with. Thanks so much!
Amen!
We have our first grandbaby this year and I’m stealing all kinds of Wilson ideas. We instituted Advent gifts and I’m working on making a stocking to match the one her daddy had growing up. When I first got married, I felt my husband’s idea of Christmas gifts was extravagant and over the top. Now I’m so glad he insisted and I have full license to shower the kids and now the grandbabies with things to make them smile and giggle Christmas morning. Thanks for inspiring us with great Christmas tradition ideas!
God bless Christmas stockings filled with unnecessary objects, and God bless you, Nancy, for keeping up the tradition for your grandkids. It is so gratifying to walk into my in-laws’ home on Christmas and see all the stockings in a row, lovingly hand-crafted and filled by my sweet mother-in-law. What a comfort to the children who expect this gift of love each year. On a practical note, she does her collecting for the stockings all year long in thrift shops, at yard sales, on discount, etc., so it does not become a stressful event or a financial burden. We are so blessed!
Oh, what a GREAT POST!
“God stuffs our stockings full of unnecessary pleasures and over-our-quota goodness day after day. Oh, to be like Him.”
Now you’ve done it, I’m crying…. thank you… really needed to refocus this afternoon.
Love,
Luma
One of the things that came to mind in reading this post is how can you be sure that you’ll have 15 grandkids next Christmas?=) With it being more than 12 months away, there may be one already on the way you don’t yet know about and there’s still 3 more months for one ore more to be conceived in order to make an appearance by Christmas 2010:)
Speaking of grandkids….
I had a road trip today and re-listened to your “Grandmothers and Mothers-in-law” CD set. So excellent! My grandgirl is only 3 months old and I’ve already listened to it twice and found a wealth of helpful wisdom. I find as the first grand-baby holidays approach, I needed the attitude adjustment that comes from hearing again the right, good things I know to do and think, but still need repeated so often! Thank you for the work you’ve done in making a good word in due season available to those of us who find need of it.
Have a lovely Christmas season with your little buddies!