ODDITIES At 1,600 pounds, stocking weighs in as world’s largest

ODDITIES

At 1,600 pounds, stocking weighs in as world’s largest

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Santa may need more reindeer to haul the gifts required to fill what’s been designated as the world’s largest Christmas stocking.

The Fayetteville Observer reports that the 1,600-pound, 7,700-square-foot stocking will be unveiled at Arnette Park in Fayetteville on Saturday.

It was crafted by knitters from all 50 states, four Canadian provinces and Ireland who donated 3-foot-by-3-foot swatches of knitted yarn.

Kimberly Patrick, an adjudicator for Guinness World Records, says the stocking was measured by a local land surveying company and qualifies as the largest.

The stocking was created with yarn from Caron United. The Washington, North Carolina- based company donated part of the proceeds from yarn sales to provide more than $100,000 for scholarships for the children of U.S. military members who have died.

Sewer plant helps create snow

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — A sewer plant helped create a winter wonderland for a 3-square-mile area in central Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service in State College says a layer of dense fog mixed with condensation from a local sewer plant overnight Monday, creating a dusting of light snow in a small section east of State College.

The weather service calls the process a “microscale event” — too isolated to be captured by local weather reporting stations.

The dusting was a rare, if brief, winterscape for a region in the midst of an unseasonably warm and snowless fall.

Brothers’ babies arrive hours apart at same hospital

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — When two Wisconsin brothers found out their babies were due a week apart, the newborns’ arrivals turned into a bit of a family competition that ended in a relative tie.

Both babies were born at the same hospital in Kenosha on the same day, delivered by the same doctor.

Chris and Courtney Hicks arrived for a scheduled cesarean section Friday at Aurora Medical Center and found out Chris’ younger brother Matt and his fiancee, Allie Osheim, were already at the hospital, awaiting their newborn’s arrival.

Chris and Courtney’s daughter, Kadence, arrived first and was followed just hours later by Matt and Allie’s baby, James.