Sock Monkeys Hanging Out Around the House

You've likely figured out by now we have a bit of a sock monkey obsession. It's okay if you think I (we) am a tad bit on the crazy side. I get it. But it's like those folks who collect Precious Moments figurines or souvenir spoons from various locales: once you start, it's hard to stop. Hence the idea to have Our Epic Sock Monkey Christmas. I mean, all these monkeys need to have some other purpose besides just hanging around our house.

On that note, I thought I'd share some of the various monkeys we have hanging around. I'd show you a picture of our dog's sock monkey toy (it's fabric! it squeaks!) but it's a bit slobbery and really not fit for publishing on the interwebs. The ones you see pictured below will be incorporated into our decorative theme this holiday season; they wil be put to work rather than allowed to just lounger around the house.

These monkeys live on our Poang. The one with the white head came from Kohl's for $5. I couldn't say no. The rainbow one came from Old Navy. I was doing a return when Jake spotted it, noted the appearance if thumbs on its hands and feet, and said we had to get it, using the excuse of it only being $5. The mini one came from World Market.

These two Valentine-themed monkeys live on the couch, My mom got them for little miss and myself for Valentine's Day this year.

This is Maxx. He is a giant sock monkey, over three feet in height. My husband spotted him at Fry's grocery store of all places almost three holiday seasons ago and came home with him. He has his own You Tube video, believe it or not. I started a whole Where's Maxx Been? Series on my other blog but didn't get too far on it as my daughter commandeered him for herself and ever since then he has lived at the foot of her bed.

Sally Sock Hop Sock Monkey (the actual name on her tag) and the traditional sock monkey live in my closet, below the hangers and by my scarves. My mom got Sally for me one Christmas several years ago. You may think it's weird they hang out in the closet, but I get to see them every day and it makes me smile.






Back when I was working this sock monkey lived on my desk in ye olde cubicle farm. I'd be on the phone with some cranky engineer and look to my sock monkey to put that "smile" back in my voice---you know what I'm talking about. Now that I'm a domestic engineer the monkey lives in my receipt box by the location I have in our home office where I pay bills. Now I use him to put a smile on my face as I ponder the nature of why the cable bill is so insanely high and why the water bill is more than the gas bill, despite the fact that we do water harvesting.

What you have here are the misfits. They used to live in my daughter's room but she boxed them up to make way for other stuffed animals. It never ceases to amaze me how many stuffed animals are given to little people. Anyway. I have pulled them out as they need to see the light of day prior to Christmas, and get acclimated back to the real world and not the inside of a cardboard box. The small monkey at the top is a flying monkey that also howls at a most obnoxious tone and pitch; as I recall this may be the reason we boxed him up---I seem to remember I was getting tired of my daughter slingshotting it around everywhere. The pink monkey on the left is a Paul Frank print. The camouflage monkey has a gold chain around his neck ( I kid you not) and came from Gap of all places, probably about ten years ago, as did the blue monkey with the bow tie on the far right. The striped monkey came from my parents as a gift to our daughter one Easter, holding a bag of candy.

Yeah, so looking at this perhaps I am just as crazy as you now know I am. It is slightly (well, more than slightly) strange to have all these sock monkeys. Still, I console myself with the knowledge that there are people out there who have more than we do. Looking at how often I have posted about sock monkeys on my other blog tells me that perhaps I need a new hobby. Oh wait. That new hobby is planning and executing Our Epic Sock Monkey Christmas.