Do you love the Nutcracker ballet? Me too.
Have you seen it a dozen (or two) times? Me too.
We know the score, the story and sweet Clara...
But, have you ever seen a Clara doll? Neither had I, until just the other day. I was hustling my way thru the check out line at Home Goods with a few marked down napkins, sea salts, etc. and what caught my eye from behind the clerk? Why a beautiful little Clara doll, holding a Nutcracker!
"How beautiful!, I said to the clerk. Even from here, I can see how carefully detailed she is."
Yes, said the clerk.
She is very special.
Hand carved and hand painted in Russia.
Signed and numbered.
Marked down...half-off.
It was then that the pinball machine in my head (or something much like it) hit the jackpot.
"May I see her, please?"
Yes, Clara, you'll spend no more time on the metal rack at a discount store, wedged between broken bulbs and smelly soaps. No siree Bob. You and I are going to get along just fine.
P.S. Click
here for better pics. Retails for everywhere between $750 (gulp) and $300. I joyfully paid a scant fraction of that for mine.
:-)
