When I was a bit older than a toddler I woke up Christmas morning and was thrilled to find a turtle in my stocking.
It wasn’t a toy turtle. It was a squirming live turtle, very happy that I had rescued it that morning. I’m pretty sure that Santa put Mr. Turtle in there in the morning right before I woke.
Mr. Turtle would not be alone in his new world. My older brother had one in his stocking too. Another year we got little lizards in our stockings! Our family was big on pets. We were the family who got to take home the guinea pigs at the end of my year of preschool.
Find out what's happening in Saratogawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
This was back in the early 1970s. I’m sure that now there’s probably a law against putting reptiles in socks.
During that time frame we also had Snowball the white rabbit with the pink eyes, and Bootsie, the half German Shepard, half Beagle who had an adorable bear-like face and squatty legs. A few years later we brought a kitten home and my mom named him John-boy after the “Walton’s “character.
Find out what's happening in Saratogawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The next cat we had was Melanie, named after mom’s favorite character in “Gone with the Wind. “
Now that I’m all grown up, we have new traditions. Instead of reptiles, I usually get an orange in my stocking. And more often than not, Santa would give each of us a San Jose Sharks ticket. The tickets were always for the same game and the seats were always right next to each other.
I look forward to seeing what’s in my stocking Christmas morning.
What was your favorite stocking surprise?
Blogger Michelle McIntyre grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and now lives in Saratoga, California, a quaint village nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, also in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
