Score!

I went in search of the impossible-to-attain today: A cute Mouse King ornament and Clara/ballerina with brown hair ornament. Yes, those two crucial elements (cute and brunette) were destined to foil me, I just knew it.

My first stop was Hallmark (because, hello, it's Hallmark) and they did have an ornament Barbie as Clara (and Barbie as Corinne) ... but she was very blonde. My monkeychild is not a blondie (and I don't care who disagrees with me). There was no Mouse King in sight. I then wandered into a supposed holiday shop, but that was actually a party store that had 18 different types of $40 skanktumes for all seasons but only a small display of ornaments.

I was prepared to take hours out of my precious schedule to drive all the way to Cary or Fayetteville for a real ornament hunt. My mind was 85 percent made up. And then I alighted on it: the little shop tucked away in a corner. On a whim, I decided to explore. Can you guess what I found?

There was no official nutcracker, but the kids were so beside themselves with excitement and adoration over each of these that I'm calling it a huge success. I presented the nutcracker and the mouse king to Javi and Bella is the proud owner of the Sugarplum Fairy (who has brown hair!). So perfect.

I participate in an ornament exchange each year, so I also bought a cute little ornament for that family (and Bella's second official ornament will come from the exchange). And because I was sucked into the magic, I went ahead and selected this cute gem for our family ornament.

Honestly, I really wanted a penguin family but there was no family of four penguins and so I had to settle for people. Really pale people. But that's okay -- the shop was magical and I was happy to support it. There was also a gorgeous cinnamon bun and french silk pie on display but I abstained. I prefer my magic to come without added calories.

The ornament spree wasn't over. While I cooked up a pot of turkey stew (the last of our Thanksgiving leftovers), the wee ones painted their own wooden ornaments. I have no idea what we'll do with these yet, but lorda mercy did those two love this activity:

Bella quickly whipped through her Christmas tree and then moved onto paper while Javi worked painstakingly on his snowman. I foresee more wood and paint in our future.

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