Chatter

I'm devoting this entire blog post to one very special present. A present I love and adore and will hopefully have with me all my days. But first let me give you some background.

Stephanie, my sister, is wonderfully crafty and pretty much a creative genius. She's also AMAZING at making something where nothing existed before. And this year for Christmas she decided to make presents for all of her nieces and nephews. Some of these wonderful presents included books, a snake, a whale, a kitten, a tutu, a pig, a giraffe (an army giraffe no less) and a rag doll. Do you see what I mean? She made all of these from scratch, she was being simply amazing. For one of my nieces Steph decided to make a monkey. Now I would like to clarify that I loved ALL of her presents! She did an amazing job on all of them and I wanted one of everything for me after I saw how it looked. All of them were some adorable and beautiful, but man, I LOVED this Monkey. (I loved it so much I just capitalized it, and I hardly ever do that....) The Monkey was intended for Kassel and there was a slight delay from when it was finished to when it was shipped out and for that time I kept it in my room. I loved this monkey!! A lot! When at last I finally had to let it go I did so grudgingly, not at all acting my age.

Well, unbeknownst to me Steph began secretly making me a monkey all my very own for Christmas! She worked morning when I was sleeping (because she got up astronomically earlier than I did most, well all, mornings. It's amazing what having kids does to your sleeping in abilities...anways....) and I never had a clue.

Unfortunately I did spoil the surprise early (and I do mean early) Christmas morning. I had gone to bed after stuffing the stockings and Steph thought it would be safe to go ahead and finish up the last touches before putting it cutely stuffed right at the top of my stocking. I however was feeling very sick and couldn't fall asleep so, hearing that Steph was still awake, I went out to the living room to chat with her and moan about my general upset stomach. I saw the Monkey then, and I was so happy! I let her finish it and put it in my stocking when I finally fell asleep, but when I woke up and happily rummaged through the rest of my stocking I had her safely in my hand and she hasn't left it very long since then.

She is SO adorable! She's beautiful and I love her!! Later Christmas morning I was staring at her and contemplating what exactly I wanted to call her, when it just hit me. Chatter. Chatter the Monkey. Chatter and I are now best friends. I love her!!

So I would like to post a special thank you to Steph, my gifts to you pale in comparison to this handmade work of art and superb craftmanship. I love you and I love my Monkey!

This is Chatter. Isn't she wonderful?! She's telling me a secret :-D A secret I'm obviously enjoying. (You'll have to excuse my appearance of general dishevel...it was Christmas....you're allowed to look not put together)