Heart Stockings

This week, I received my Deseret Book catalog in the mail. Thumbing through, I noticed that they are selling something called "heart stockings" for $9.99 each along with a little book that shares how families can start a new tradition of leaving notes and candy in each others' heart stockings. This is supposedly a great way to cheer up in the winter months.

"Hmm," I thought. "I could make those out of paper for nothing."

It took me about fifteen minutes to make eight of them and hang them up. I've made woven hearts like these before, but if you haven't, you can find simple instructions for making heart baskets, which are the same thing, on this website or this one.

Our heart stockings didn't stay empty for long. My kindergartener got right on it, filling them up with notes that he had the rest of us help him write.

The notes were pretty hilarious too.

Mine read, "To mom, I hope you have a nice Valentine's Day. And that you have a great year. And that you help me play wii on Fridays."

My oldest son's read, "Happy Valentine's Day. If you're reading this, of course you're going to think about Valentine's Day, but don't forget about the death. People die on Valentine's day."

There was also one about how disgusting real hearts would look hanging around the house.

With a bunch of boys in the house, nothing stays serious for too long. The boys responded with heart-shaped skull valentines and similarly macabre notes. It definitely kept us from feeling the winter blues today.