My Addiction

And how it all started.

This is a photo of the bear that started it all.
It is not the exact bear but that is what he looked like many years ago.

Santa Claus brought the bear to our son on his first Christmas.
He was hugged and loved for many years and was joined by a few other bear friends.

But little boys grow older and get interested in other things and poor bear and his friends sat in the corner of the boy’s bedroom, forgotten.

And then the unkindest thing happened when the boy put bear and his friends on a shelf in the bedroom closet.

Then the year of my son’s thirteenth Christmas, I decided to rescue poor bear.
His tummy fur was worn down with love, his ears drooped, his paw pads were ripped and dirty, his nose and mouth were half off and he was BLIND!

Now if we had been a rich family, I would have been able to afford to send bear to a real bear hospital.

But we were a young family with a soon to be teenager and a little sister so I decided to try to fix bear myself.

I replaced his paw pads with new suede pads from an old jacket that my husband was no longer wearing.

I re-embroidered his nose and mouth and gave bear back his sight.

With his new eyes; bear could see his bare, worn-out with love, tummy so I decided, since this was going to be a Christmas present, I would make a Santa coat that would cover his worn-out love spot.

And if you have a Santa coat, of course you must have the matching hat.

So bear got a special Santa hat that had holes for his ears to make them stand up straight and tall again.

Christmas morning arrived and bear was sitting proudly in front of the tree with a gift tag attached that said:

“To boy and his Family---From Santa Claus.”

And the rest as they say is history.

Bear doesn’t live here with me and all his other bear friends anymore because he got a new boy when my first grandson was born.

He has a special place in grandson’s room surrounded by many new friends.

And he is very happy and proud to be living with grandson and *especially* boy (again.)

Bear((( )))