The Nutcracker

I think my mother started her Christmas shopping in June. The Christmas after my mother passed, there was one present under the tree for me-with love, from Mom. It was a Nutcracker Soldier. The base was warped so it never stood right…but obviously I wasn’t going to return it.

Over the next 15 years I put him on display. He fell over so often that his hat came off, he lost an arm and his paint was all chipped. I quit putting him on display- rather he stayed in one of the boxes in the basement.

Several years ago, some switch within the washing machine stopped working and we ended up with a flood in the basement. The kids, their spouses, Ben and I spent an entire day cleaning out the mess. I went through so many boxes I began to wonder how I had managed to acquire so much!

I started through a box of Christmas stuff and came across the Nutcracker.  I couldn’t even find the arm. I handed it to Bennie and asked him to toss it. I said “I just can’t watch you do.” it and went upstairs for a cup of coffee.

That year when I decorated for Christmas, I thought about the nutcracker, and that thought let to Christmases past with my mom-lots of good memories.

Christmas morning, as I opened packages I opened one from my son. It was a nutcracker, for a second I thought he’d found one like the one from my mother-until I saw the warped base-and then I started crying.

Bennie had taken the Nutcracker home, photographed and cleaned it. He went out and bought another Nutcracker and took the arm from it to put on mine. He repaired the hat. Then he carefully repainted him using the photo he had taken, wrapped it and put it under the tree-with love, from Bennie.

Outside of the religious meaning, Christmas is all about family -my Nutcracker symbolizes the love of three generations- a gift from both a mother and a son.