Dominoes

Day 265: Dominoes
Finished shopping for stocking stuffers and oh what fun. The perfect stocking stuffer:

• Smaller than a breadbox (although I've been known to bend this rule for stacks of used books from the Friends of the Library sale)
• Costs less than $15, or (better still) less than $5, or (superlative) less than $2. The higher the original retail price, the better
• To reduce its environmental impact, is either (1) consumable (food or toiletries) (2) used or (3) made from repurposed materials (like felt mittens of old sweaters or handbags made of old neckties)
• Makes the recipient laugh, or smell it and say "Mmm," or taste it and say "Mmm," or stroke it and say "Mmm"

There should be no fewer than eight and no more than twelve. Sam and Emma Jane should have the exact same number.

I don't clearly remember our stocking rituals in the house I grew up in, but I know I still use the stocking my Auntie Mo made for me when she was 17 years old and I was only six months. It is tiny - only large enough to fit a clementine, a pack of gum and a pair of socks - and my brother's was twice the size. This was always a sore subject for my sister and me with our tiny Christmas stockings, as was the fact that we believed Karl never had to help with the dishes. For this reason, I borrowed Karl's stockings when I made a felt stocking for Rich and another for Jane, years later.

My mother knit large, stretchy Christmas stockings for each of her grandchildren. Emma Jane had the dubious distinction of being the first grandchild, with the result that her Christmas stocking has a very strange and twisted heel, which I wouldn't trade for a million perfectly turned ones.

This box of dominoes was a stocking stuffer for one of the kids many years ago. I don't really know how to play dominoes. We used it as a sort of matching game, where you built a snaking path by taking turns pairing an orphaned end with a matching block from your hand. If you had doubles, you could branch out, creating more options and complexities. We also used them to line up long phalanxes in order to watch the chain reaction when you pushed the first one down. They've been shoved to the back of the bookshelf for a long time.

They are ripe for a white elephant exchange.