Kymani's Travel Book

Before I moved from Toronto to Chicago, my sister-in-law gave me the cutest going away gift. At first glance it looks like a standard photo album, but it's so much more than that. The album tells the story of a teddy bear named Kymani, which means adventurous traveler.

On the first page, Kymani introduces himself explaining that he lives with my brother, sister-in-law, and their dog, and is well taken care of but gets a bit bored with life. He explains that the only places in the world he's seen are...

The basement, cuddled up with Gunther, watching the travel channel and dreaming...

The bathroom, where he had a very close call one day...

The backyard, which has lovely views but too many pesky fish flies (and if you can't see, there's one sitting on his poor head)...

Etc, etc. Kymani goes on to say that he knows there's something bigger and better out there for him, but the last time he tried to explore, he only made it to the end of the driveway then got stuck in the grass. The next page goes like this...

And then there are lots of empty pages to put in the pictures of all the places that Kymani has traveled to with us. So, Kymani has become my little travelocity gnome and so far has made it to some exciting places:

A road trip to his new home in Chicago,

the Amsterdam airport where he kept busy eating cheese and doing crosswords,

The top of Mt Kilimanjaro,

Bourbon Street in New Orleans,

and Love Park in Philadelphia.

Sadly, Kymani was feeling under the weather and couldn't make it on our last trip to Nashville. Either that or I forgot him :(

My sis-in-law is so crafty and this is a really thoughtful and meaningful gift, as I realize it takes creativity and is time consuming. I can't wait to fill up the rest of the pages with pictures! Thanks Stace. It's truly one of my favourite gifts that I've ever received.