Minnesota Love Monkey -- For Patsy

My MN Love Monkey was the first of my 2007 Christmas Sock Monkey Gifts to be completed. I might add that she was completed under duress while my husband tapped his fingers waiting to finish up the gift package for the entire family, so he could ship it off to California. Here she is.

I love my sister-in-law Patsy. She comes from Minnesota, and looks it. She is tall, slim, blonde and understated. She has a quiet grace. Years ago, she drifted down to Colorado and California and did the free-spirt thing, kicking off her shoes and vowing to keep things that way. But, she somehow ended up pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen, as does happen from time to time with free spirits.

Anyway, four wonderful, beautiful boy-children later, she is married to my husband's brother, still out in California, and presumably barefoot, and still tall and blonde and Scandinavian. So, I miss her and wanted to send her some monkey love for Christmas, and thus the origin of the Minnesota Love Monkey.

A couple of details about this monkey. Patsy is very creative and kind of all-american, core Christian values, etc. So, I wanted to go with the traditional monkey, with a cap made from socks and button eyes. I made the button eyes hearts and ironed-on a USA heart to reinforce the LOVE. I made the cap longer than traditional to look more like what we Minnesotans wear to stay warm in the winter, and embroidered (poorly, still!) MN, for Minnesota, on the cap.

Finally, with the MN Love Monkey, I started a new "thing" which I am doing with all my sock monkeys now. I wrote a prayer for Patsy, and printed it up on vellum and used scrap-booking scissors to make the edges all fancy. And then, I folded it up tiny and pushed it up through the stuffing into the heart-area of the monkey, where it will sit quietly and prayerfully for the life of the monkey, emanating my love, thoughts and prayers for Patsy. I think these prayers are pretty private, but I don't think Patsy would mind me sharing hers, just to give you the idea of the kind of thing you could do for your loved ones, with your sock monkeys:

Dear Patsy,
My prayer for you is that God will grant you even more strength and love than he has already generously endowed you with. I have always admired your grace. You deserve great joy.
Love, Janeen

Finally, I'll close with a picture of the MN Love Monkey cavorting about with the other Christmas monkeys. She kind of lorded it over them, as they are all still sightless (and many of them naked) at this point. Well, and she was leaving for California, so, can you blame her?