Stocking stuffers and the little things that count.

It's a quarter til' six and I am already up and rifiling through my stocking looking for the walnut!

As a child, I could hardly ever sleep on Christmas Eve knowing that Santa was bringing me goodies. I liked how all the tiny hand wrapped trinkets fit into the stocking. I loved that we were allowed to open them before mom and dad got outta bed. I remember one Christmas morning my younger brother, Daniel, opened his stocking pulling out all the goodies and then his hand revealed an orange and a few walnuts. Holding the orange and nuts, he very seriously whispered, 'Why does mom put these in here, it's not like we're gonna eat these.' Being younger than me, I didn't know that he knew that mom and Santa were close! Slightly stunned I started to giggle. With that, we both giggled. We tried to hold back our giggles but once we get started, it's always hard to stop! What made our giggles turn into a full roll of laughter was when our oldest brother, Mark, inquired from the back bedroom, 'What are you guys dooooing?'

Every year Santa brought us oranges and nuts. Every year after that we got oranges, nuts and giggles.

We didn't have a lot of money growing up and I feel blessed looking back knowing that other poor families may not have even had stockings. I am so thankful that we had stockings filled with trinkets and candy every Christmas. I am most thankful for the walnuts though.....thank you Santa for making each Christmas morning with my brothers the little things in life that count. Thank you for the nuts. :o)