I surprised Carol with a trip to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory. For a pregnant, craft loving person like Carol, she was like a kid in a candy store. It was a wonder I made it out of there with any money left on my credit card.
The history behind the Vermont Teddy Bears can be found on their website but basically a local Vermont man by the name of John Sortino found the none of his son's teddy bears were made in the USA. After discovering this he set about making teddy bears in the USA, using nothing but materials from the USA. It took him a year to sell his first 200 teddy bears. Today they sell over 300,000 teddy bears per year.
They will ship the bears anywhere in the world, with their biggest bear-o-gram day being Valentines (apparently the shipping over 50,000 last year). In addition you can also personalize you bear in whatever outfit you want. They have a number to choose from or they'll make to order.
To top it off, the teddy bears have a life time warranty. So it doesn't matter whether it's worn out by a loving child, gets in an argument with the family dog or jumps in front of the lawn mower, if you send back the parts they will either replace or repair the bear.
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Of course I was kidding myself if I thought Carol would leave there without a teddy bear. Carol picked out a honey colored bear, named Howard with a US flag tattooed on it's arm.
