I'm an after-holiday bargain shopper. I keep a particular eye out for socks because the kids love the various holiday designs and I can usually pick them up for less than a dollar on sale. And it doesn't matter the holiday - Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter - the kids like them all.

I share this tidbit only to explain the reason G. has so many kinds of socks. She really likes them and in the past few months, she's developed her own special style in wearing them.

Now I may have perpetuated G.'s new fashion statement because I don't match socks from the laundry. Clean socks go in a basket for the kids to rummage through to match themselves. I think G. got tired of looking for a matched pair one day and it went from there.

She may have also gotten the notion from her genetic makeup. I went through quite a few years in junior high (and maybe even high school), wearing different socks, which my mother reminded me about recently after seeing G.'s feet.

There have been a couple of disadvantages with these socks though. Like the time she had an imprint of a Christmas tree on her leg from her downhill ski boots.

But that hasn't stopped her from wearing them with other sport equipment, like this past week when we went ice skating.

"My skates fit better with thin socks Mom. Plus, they do really match today. They both have snowmen."