Creepy, Creepy Nutcrackers

 

The girls make fun of me because at some point during the Advent season, our house becomes absolutely overrun with wooden men, peering creepily out from every nook and cranny.

It began as a quirky novelty when I picked up a giant nutcracker for a couple of dollars on extreme Christmas clearance years ago and gave him the company of some smaller men from the dollar store, but it quickly turned into a problem along the lines of Pied-Piper-in-Hamelin when several years later I discovered DOZENS OF CHARMING GIANT WOODEN NUTCRACKERS ALL FOR 5 DOLLARS EACH AND SMALLER ONES FOR ONLY FIFTY CENTS! at the Christmas Tree Shop, at which, you see, I serendipitously had been given a $50 gift card by Mom Owen. (Don't worry. I did not spend the entire gift card on nutcrackers.)

I could explain this away by letting you all know that in high school I discovered a love for old toys, particularly wooden and metal ones, and that I still love wooden and metal toys, and that nutcrackers are kind of like wooden toys for adults, but....

 Yes. 

I am now THAT creepy old lady with a creepy house stuffed with lots of creepy nutcrackers.

To my great delight, however, I've found a kindred spirit in Ransom, whose love for nutcrackers exceeds even my own! Last Christmas season was filled with him giving countless kisses to every nutcracker he could reach. I even gave him a big nutcracker I found at an antique store for a dollar for his birthday last year, and he still plays with it.

Here he is on the day of our Epiphany celebration, wearing his Ephiphany overalls from Mom Owen, playing with a nutcracker.

(I remember talking to an old college friend who visited John and me when Millie was a baby. He confessed that he didn't often check my blog because "there were too many words and not enough pictures."
Millie's totally right. I am needlessly long-winded.)

Here's the progression.
1. Ransom plays with a big nutcracker.
2. I replace the big nutcracker with his small nutcracker ornament to take a picture for posterity.
3. He cries until I return the big nutcracker.
4. He eats the small nutcracker.
5. The End.