The Stocking Was Hung

My mom is in the process of making Zuzu a stocking to have a Grammy's house, but we wanted her to have one here as well.  The stocking I always had growing up is still at my mom's (it was handmade... I think by one of my great-aunts?  It has a little mouse on it) and David has a stocking there (No idea where it came from), too, but we also have a matching pair of stockings here at our house that I bought at Target for our first Christmas together (awwww).  They are fair isle sweater-like stockings and only kind of cute.  But now I feel sort of sentimental about them, so I don't know if I'll replace them some day or not.  Mac and Cooper also have stockings that look like paws.  Because why would a dog have a human-foot shaped stocking?  Makes no sense, right?

Anyway, I considered making a stocking for Zuzu to have at our house (I've actually sewn stockings in the past for some of my friends' kids).  But then I saw this one at Pottery Barn Kids and I decided to go ahead and order it.

I think it's absolutely darling.  I love the ice skater's tulle skirt and her little scarf.  I love the way it looks hanging in our living room (perhaps some day we'll have a house with an actual fireplace).  It's pretty much as perfect as it could be.

The only thing that would be better is if there were an Eliza stocking next to it.

David and I talked about that--should we order one?  There's an angel one that is so sweet.   I considered it.  But I didn't add it to my shopping bag.  I feel really sad that Eliza doesn't have a stocking, but the truth is, I don't want her stocking.  I just want her.   Honestly, I think it might make me even even sadder to see her stocking there, empty.  Sometimes it's hard to know where to draw the line between incorporating Eliza into our family traditions and just making myself even more miserable about missing her.  I know we could probably come up with something special that involved an Eliza-stocking, but that just feels too hard for us on a holiday that is already hard.

I'm telling myself that we have lots of other ways that Eliza is represented at Christmastime--angels and ornaments and something new that's in the works (I'll keep you posted)--so it's not like we're trying to pretend she never existed.  I love all those reminders of her, but none of them changes the fact that she's not here.

So we're sticking with the one stocking.  I hate that it doesn't have a sister stocking, but as far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much the best stocking ever.

Yeah, we can call that a metaphor for this:

Her shirt reads, "I'm the Perfect Present."  Naturally.