Monkey

For some reason it has always been hard for me to buy gifts for people. I must spend too much time thinking if the person will like it or not. My Grandmother's birthday was July 6th, my parents have always picked out her gifts but this year I thought it would be nice if I picked something for her. I went to Hobby Lobby to get some shrinky dinks and I found an American flag throw. My Grandmother LOVES red, white and blue so I thought this would be a great gift for her. AND it was 40% off! I didn't have a box to put it in and the only wrapping paper I have is Christmas. The day of her birthday our family went to her house to eat. I snuck the present in the back door and went to her "crafty" room to find a box for the throw. Guess what I found in her "crafty" room...An American flag throw. It wasn't identical to mine but still, I was a little upset that I got her something she already had. I know she liked it even though she already had one but I felt as if I had failed.

My sister came home to visit today so of course mom, sis and I went shopping. I live in a small town and there isn't many places to shop, however, some of the stores we do have carry cute things. One of my favorite stores is Sweet Tangerine. As we were looking around in Sweet Tangerine I came across the perfect gift for my grandmother. I know it's not her birthday anymore but I couldn't pass it up. It was a children's book called I love Monkey.

I know you're thinking how is this the perfect gift for your grandmother? Well, first my grandmother likes cute things like this (she was a school teacher). Second, I don't call my grandmother Nana, granny, grandma, gma, etc. I have always called her Monkey!

They say I was just learning to talk and Monkey had a book with different animals in it. She was asking me "where is the cow" or "where is the dog", I would point to the animal and say the name of the animal I was pointing to. When she asked where is the monkey I pointed at her and said monkey. From then on that's what I have called her. My sister, parents, friends and family all call her Monkey. Even when she taught at school all my friends knew her as Monkey. People think it's strange to call her "monkey" but I think it's strange to call her grandma or nana.

I gave Monkey her late birthday present today, I must say I was nervous to see if she liked it or not...She LOVED it. She gave me a huge hug and we stood there reading the book just like we would've when I was a little girl. Then she showed everyone around her and even read the book to some of her friends. She never put the book down, you would've thought we were 5 years old again.

So today I realized I'm not a crappy gift buyer...sometimes the perfect gift comes a little later than you had hoped for.