This Week's Sneak Peek

Here's a little something to tide you over until Thursday.

Over the course of the past week, I assisted my better half in converting our home into a Christmas wonderland. We're up to five trees in the house now (only one of them full size this year) with at least 200 ornaments and eight or nine strings of lights strewn meticulously among them. 

We also have eight nutcrackers standing at attention in front of the fireplace. They don't include the LGBTQ Pride nutcracker that I drew about last week, though. I did hear from a Facebook acquaintance that they had found one in a Target store in Palm Springs, California; so I guess I stand corrected as to how openly they're sold.

But if you find one on the shelves in a South Beach, Florida Target, do keep quiet about it. They're bound to be against state law there.

We also don't have any Green Bay Packer nutcracker. I've seen them, but I couldn't tell you whether they were officially licensed merchandise or something that showed up at one of the many craft fairs that pop up this time of year. I do know that craft stores sell unpainted nutcrackers that you can paint however you like.

My better half ordered what he thought was an Italian-looking nutcracker on line but wasn't; apparently the black paint looked greener on the screen. It arrived in a box that was ever so slightly too short for it; the top was held down with tape that pulled off some of the paint from the top of the fellow's hat. The company sent a better-packaged replacement but didn't want the damaged nutcracker returned, so my husband sanded the hat down to look more like an Italian alpine hat, and is in the process of repainting the outfit red, white, and green.

I'm kind of surprised that I don't see more nationalities represented in nutcrackerdom. Oh, you can find ones with darker skin tone, and we do have a leprechaun nutcracker. (He's not in the Christmas display; he's in storage until March.)

I suppose if I had the time, I could make myself a Norwegian nutcracker of some sort. Maybe carrying lefse or lutefisk, and sporting a braided beard.

But unless we get that Green Bay Packer nutcracker, it simply will not do to have a Viking nutcracker in this house.