Bouncing Baby Coconut

When last we saw the coconut, it had arrived at my husband's office, via the United States Postal Service, bedecked in a fetching red hat, just in time for the Christmas holiday.

I asked for suggestions as to the coconut's next incarnation, and to my great delight, the lovely and talented Very Mary* volunteered: "Do you trust me enough to send the coconut here and allow me to have a crack at it? I'd be honored to decorate it and then send it on for you..." I tell you, I swooned when she left that comment.

We emailed back and forth, I mailed the coconut off to her, and she discovered the inner infant in the well-traveled nut.

Last week, Very Mary gently wrapped the new baby and mailed it off to my new nephew, confounding his parents and thrilling his aunts.

A big welcome to the little baby, and a huge round of applause for Very Mary!





* She has a blog and not one, but two etsy shops!

The Coconut, Redux

A few weeks ago my brother asked me for my husband's new contact information. I thought nothing of it, figuring that he was just updating his so-called Rolodex.

Yesterday, I got the following email from my husband:

A box addressed to me in T's handwriting arrived at my office today. It contains our old friend from Key Largo, the well-traveled, well-decorated Cocos Nucifera.

Wearing a red Christmas watch-cap.

Hmm. The mind reels with possibility. Any suggestions as to its next appearance?

(If you missed the backstory on this here coconut, click here.)

The Coconut

Once upon a time, in November of 2001 to be exact, W. and I went to Florida for the weekend. We had unused airplane tickets from the year we didn't go to Chicago for Thanksgiving because the cat had suffered a "degloving" incident when he got his tail caught in the door to the apartment. We finally got around to trading in the tickets and set out for Florida instead. W. lived there once upon a time, so he knew the lay of the land, and we spent most of the time driving around in a rented convertible. It was great. It was like visiting a foreign country.

At some nature preserve somewhere, I found a coconut in the parking lot. It had fallen out of a tree. I scooped it up and tossed it in the back of the car, because I just needed it. Later in the day, we passed a Mailboxes Etc. and I shrieked "stop the car!" I ran in, asked for a box, sealed the coconut inside, and mailed it to my sister. No note. No explanation. And we went on our merry way.

At Christmas the following month, I opened a box. Inside was the coconut, now adorned with yarn hair and Sharpie eyes. And with that, the coconut began an international journey of subterfuge and deception. It's been left under the seats of cars, hidden in closets. It's been passed on to other (innocent) people with the instruction "wrap this and give it to my sister". It's been shipped across the country. It's had a few more makeovers - including glued on googly eyes and new brown hair and earrings.

Last Christmas, my sister had possession of the coconut. She mailed it to our sister-in-law's sister in Canada, and asked her to wrap the box (without opening it) and give it to our sister-in-law when they opened their presents. Shock and hilarity ensued.

The coconut spent a couple of months in the guest room at my mother's house; it's now living in Brooklyn with my brother and sister-in-law. I don't know where it's going to turn up next. I only wish that we'd taken more pictures of its travels.