I woke up miserably cold today and I have cramps but literally NOTHING matters because my Charlie Bears preorder that had been sitting for MONTHS and I had completely given up on… shipped!! 😭✨💕

Everything Charlie Bears got delayed this year –still, I’d been able to get my hands on nearly everything, other than Dreamer (which I could live without) and Tootles, which was a much, much bigger bummer. Tootles was my dream bear of 2020, second only to the incredible beauty I got from Christopher as my birthday present (Wilfy).

A hedgehog, and decently sized, I’d been dreaming of Tootles since January or February or whenever he was announced. Placed my preorder right away. But already because of COVID other bears didn’t make it to the USA this year (just Australia and UK) so I figured it was a lost cause until maybe sometime next year IF at all. I’m aware enough of CB trends now to know that this bear would become scarce very quickly, and get scalped all to heck. 😥 But I got lucky. That makes Tootles my Christmas present to myself, I suppose.

And, while it’s always possible my mind will change… with long-desired Tootles, I think maybe I’m done buying bears? I have so many now… They make me so happy. But I don’t think there can be any more bears that are uniquely different enough from my current ones. 🤔 Already this year there were bears that made me go “Wow, that is gorgeous” but I just didn’t feel a big urge to get them.

Right now if I close my eyes I can rattle off all my bears and their names. And trust me it’s a lot of them. I don’t want to get to a point where I can’t remember their names, or else they stop being special…

I could see myself going for one if Charlie Bears came out with a really beautiful dinosaur or dragon, that was decently sized, not mohair, and with a beautiful facial expression. But right now, it would take a very high standard of uniqueness for any new bears to join my hug. Like don’t get me wrong, I’m not “over” Charlie Bears. I can’t wait until I can take my current bears places for photos again. But, I’m more excited about that, than I am about the 2021 catalog.

Anyway I have no name or outfit planned for this bear because I was just not expecting to get him at this point. I might call him a Christmasy name… Tinsel? Since he’s a Christmas hedgehog. And having plenty of Christmas outfits he can wear if he should arrive in time for that. I hope so. I’d love to have him in all of the Christmas photos I take. 🎄🦔