Christmas stockings hung by the fireplace and ready to fill.

Not headed back to Joshua Tree National Park this year?  Tuck a stuffed California quail from Wild Birds Unlimited on Harrison Street in the stocking as a memory and squeeze it to remember the song. Or include a peregrine falcon to remember that trip to watch the hawk migration at Rockfish Gap where you saw the one peregrine falcon spotted on Nov. 30 on fall migration. Add a Virginia Bird book for $16.95, and you’ve already made a dent in filling the stocking.

Send along a message for $6 with a notepad from Company Flowers on N. Pollard.
Messages range from “Being Fabulous is the Best Revenge” to “I’m Not Bossy; I Just Have Better Ideas.” And add to your grandchildren’s collection of little things by tucking in a miniature pig, mermaid, frog or apple for the teacher. Each is accompanied by a small card with a positive message.

Pick up a wine stopper from Total Wine to accompany a favorite Beaujolais.

Cover your fisherman’s bases at District Angling on N. Pollard Street with a variety 

 of flies — a Letort grasshopper fly for smallmouth bass on the Potomac River above Great Falls. Or a parachute Adams with bright yellow captain wings, more for the angler than the trout on the shady banks of the Shenandoah River. Or the Mr. Rapidan which is good anywhere there are trout.