Here's the Why...

After Christmas last year, as I was packing up the ornaments and collecting more at the various clearance sales, I realized my love of sock monkeys had consumed my Christmas decorations...and furthermore, that this was a good thing.

You see, I had just received a box with over 50 sock monkey ornaments. They would join my existing stash, the other new ones I had picked up at Macy's the day before, and party down along with the various full-size sock monkeys in holiday regalia.

That's when it hit me: 2013 would be the year of

the sock monkey Christmas. We would only have sock monkeys on the tree. We would irritate our neighbors and attract the ire of the HOA by installing an inflatable sock monkey "lawn" ("rock" in the Old Pueblo) decoration. I would make a sock monkey garland and tree topper, and source a sock monkey tree skirt. We would drink cocoa out of our sock monkey mugs and turn on the holiday sock monkey nightlight when out for the evening.

Extreme? Perhaps. Fun? Yes. In years past we have approached the Christmas season with trepidation, as just another holiday to get through, with at times strained cheer and the inevitable family issues. This year, we are excited about it. We can't wait to put up the tree. We want to have people gaze at its magnificence and marvel at our ingenuity and strong devotion to the power of the sock monkey.

The little guys and gals make me smile, and I can hardly wait to see them again.