He's finally here!

 So I got the e-mail that my package was out for delivery. But mail delivery here can be any time from 11 am until 5 pm (I do not think my route currently has a regular delivery person; at any rate, I see different people doing it).

So I ran out to the post office to mail my cards (if you were in this first wave - and I think everyone who reads the blog who requested a card was - it should show up in the next week). When I came back, I saw the mail truck up the street, but no box on my porch. 

"Okay," I thought, "it BETTER be in a mailer bag and be in the mailbox"

And yes, it was.

I'm glad I bought this now. He's super detailed and very cute and nice. (I might not take Squishy Dog with me this time, but take this guy instead. I THINK he could be a stand-in pillow in an emergency....)

 As I said when I first saw him: "He looks very polite" (The bell there actually has a real bell embedded with the stuffing, and the bell jingles)

I cast about for a name - first thought Rudolph, and then maybe Nestor but in the end went with Wenceslas (for obvious reasons). Maybe Wenzel for short, that's a diminutive/other language version (though the real "other" version - which I didn't know - is Vaclav. I grew up in an area with some Czech people and knew at least one Vaclav, and never knew the connection with the name....actually I guess the original pronunciation of Wenceslas is more like Vaclav.)

As I said, this is an incredibly-detailed stuffie. The hood can be taken down (there are holes for the horns in it):

His cape (which forms his body) has some embroidery near the hem

He's almost perfectly round but is small enough to hold

I guess I'm glad I bought him, now, but wow was it an agony waiting for him to ship and wondering what the heck UPS was doing.