Girry got lost and...

That nasty little Elf was up to no good again. Hiding gifts in hollow trees.

However, the little Christmas Bears were on to him. They are Christmas Ninja Bears. More stealthy than the Elf on the Shelf.

They caught up to the Elf and shoved him into the hollow tree to teach him a lesson.

One simply does not mess with these little bears. 

And what happened to Girry? He had been told by the big bears to meet up at the Mossy Rock. 
Girry went to the forest and discovered that there were so many rocks with moss on them. He climbed the highest one and waited.

and ... 

waited...

He waited through the night and listened to the spooky forest sounds.
And he waited because he wasn't sure how to get back to the house where all the other bears were.

It started to snow. Girry figured he was lost or the big Christmas Bear had tricked him and he wasn't really wanted.

What Girry didn't know is that the Big Bears had asked some of the other bears to search for the funny Giraffe. After all, Giraffes were not native to the woods and they figured Girry had gotten lost. 

A search ensued.

And Girry listened to the wild forest noises. He figured he was a goner. Some wild creature would come by and carry him off...chew him

to bits...

pull out his stuffing...

or worse???

However the Christmas Bears tracked him. As I said, they are like tiny Ninjas. Nothing escapes their attention.

They may have only buttons for joints, but they sure can get around!

Girry was found with a huge sigh of relief.

They warned Girry not to wander off by himself anymore and to definitely not trust the Elf on the Shelf ever!

That's my toy story and I'm stickin' to it.

If the weather service is correct, we could have a dozer of a snow storm coming.
That makes me happy.

What was he doing???

So everyone was wondering what the Elf on the Shelf was up to. 

Was he stuck in a rock?

Was Christmas Bear looking for him?

NO...

He was sneaking around in the woods and hiding presents!

There is a hole in this rock and he was hiding from the Bears of course.

The Bears were just hanging out in Christmas Attire waiting for Girry to arrive.

Girry got the rocks mixed up and sat waiting....

and...

waiting... and waiting....

Meanwhile at the Ice Wall in the deep forest...

The trolls sat down for a nice meal....

and in the house....

Charlie began to dream of bones....

Hey its my imagination...

I can go anywhere I want with it!

You all have a great day. Today we should get some nasty weather.

I can't wait!

Girry Adventures ... part two...

This is the second part of the fun I am having. Actually I am collaborating with BJ who is now acting as my 'editor'. She is a master of literature and many other things. She still needs to review this section!

Part one....

I got up the next day and wandered out the door. I mean She had gone outside with Charlie so I wanted to get a peek at the wild forest that surrounded me.

There was a large brown bear sitting in the grass not too far from the porch. 

“Hello there,” I said, “I’m Girry, and I am rather new here. I’d love to go explore the wild woods. Would you like to go with me?”

The brown bear shook his head and gave me a funny look. “I’m Moose, I can’t go on any adventures into the woods. There are hunters out there!”

He motioned upwards and pointed to his antlers.

“See? I have antlers! I have Moose Antlers. I’m Brown and I have Antlers. It is not a good idea to run around in the woods when you look like this!”

Moose seemed grouchy and rather put off. He continued to just sit in the grass and stare out over the yard. 

“I was sent here to be loved,” I told Moose. I wasn’t sure what to say to this grouchy Teddy Bear. “Why are you here? Do you live here? How did you get here? Is this a good place? Has the Charlie Dog chewed on you yet?”

Moose stared out at the yard in silence. What a grouch. Then it hit me.

I looked Moose over, he looked miserable.
“Hey,” I said, I have an idea! I can help you get out into the woods safely.”

He looked at me. 

“How can you help?”

“Well. Let’s talk about your Moose clothes. What if you took the suit off?” I leaned in and unzipped the jumpsuit. 

Moose looked at me in surprise. 

“I hadn’t thought of that,” he replied. He shrugged out of his Moose Suit. “By the way,” he replied, “You ask too many questions.”

“Oh?” Uh oh. That was a question. I sat down and was quiet. I too stared at the yard. 

“Wait until you meet Bear!” Moose said finally. “You will like him.”

“Wait,” I said, “there are more teddy bears like you that live here?”

Moose said, “Absolutely. There are a lot of us. Most of us bears came from second hand shops. She found most of them tossed in dirty old bins. The Wild Teddy’s live in the Forest from what I understand. Bear and Pink live in the house. I’m like you, I came from that place in Vermont.”

I sat quietly and thought about all of this. 

“Am I the only Giraffe?”

Moose shrugged, “Yup, seems so. Don’t worry, you aren’t the only odd one. There are two Rabbits also.”

A picture is worth a thousand....

 words?

Isn't that how the saying goes? Well I thought about that yesterday as I was doing my boring things. I was thinking about how it related to how I write my fun little stories.

I'd gone out and taken quite a few photos when I got Girry the Giraffe. I took the critters and walked around the woods taking shots of them in different scenarios.

I hadn't made anything up in my head yet, but just wanted to have fun using the light and the warm November weather to my advantage. In my mind, the story would start in November, but really get going in the winter months.

Somehow I don't plan. I admit, that is backwards. I write a bit, take some photos, and then the characters seem to find their way and write the story for me.

I had updated the adventure, but got stuck for a bit.

How would these photos fit? I don't have any clue. 

But at least the story went forward and now I have an idea of where the critters may go. I just need to follow them.

After the hunters are done in the woods I can safely follow the Teddy Bears and others as they create their stories.

I just need to follow them.

Girry's Adventures begin...

I stopped tumbling around and suddenly it was terribly quiet. I could just barely see out the little air hole in the box. All movement had stopped and I was in a plastic bag of some sort, swinging from a mailbox door.

I wondered what would happen next. I had been told that I was being sent to somewhere where I would be loved. I was a bit curious. The night sounds came to me as dusk settled in. Something  walked past me and I heard a snuffling sound. Off in the distance coyotes called.

I wasn’t afraid. I would be loved and I felt safe inside the box even if it was scary outside the box.

Slowly the night turned into the morning. Just after the sun rose I heard footsteps and the jingle of a little bell. I heard a human exclaim something and then the plastic bag was pulled off.

The box was quickly opened as the voice outside the box read the following:

If you can read this,

then you are under the box

or the box is upside down

and the bear inside is

getting a headache.

I heard laughter that sounded very pleasant as the box was opened. “Oh hello there!” the voice said as I was pulled from the box and set on the ground.

The human person scooped me up and we headed towards the forest.

She set me down and stepped back to look at me.

“Well, well,” she said, “Aren’t you a surprise! And you are not a Bear!”

Behind me a huge black dog approached. I froze in place. I mean what could I do? Was the dog going to rip me apart?

The dog spoke. “Hey, I’m Charlie, who are you?”

“I am Girry. Are you the one that is going to love me?”

Charlie winked and said, “Oh heck no! I chew up toys like you!” He looked towards the human and nodded.
“I think She is the one that will love you.”

I looked up at the human with interest. 

“But She is a grown woman!”

Charlie wagged his tail and replied, “Oh that. Well, you will get used to her. At least you will have a lot of friends. And, she will keep me from chewing you to bits and pieces.”

Should I be afraid or happy? I didn’t know. As She picked me up and stuffed me back inside the box I was curious. What had I gotten into?

A dog that would chew me to bits, a human that wasn't a child, and a huge foresty type place that looked amazing and very wild.

Note: I had a very long dry spell after the Morris Stories. When I opened this box and saw this Giraffe from Vermont Teddy Bear Company, I was sideswiped by a story idea in my head. We will see if it pans out or not.

Anyone who knows me well also knows that I love the act of imaginative playing along with combining a story line.

Who knows where this will lead?

Here is Charlie supervising my play time: