A thousand Nutcrackers
One of my family traditions that I look forward to every year is Christmas dinner at my Auntie Rosie’s. She’s by far one of the best cooks in my family, and my mouth salivates in anticipation for her chocolate chip cookies, to which mine pale in comparison. In fact, Auntie Rosie is the main reason I became a pastry chef. I’ve been trying to duplicate her blueberry cheesecake and chocolate chip cookie recipes for years. Every time I see her, I have a barrage of questions about her recipes. She tells me step by step how she does it, but I never get them to come out the same.
Yet despite how good the food is at Auntie Rosie’s, the thing that amazes me most year is her ever growing collection of Nutcrackers. It seems every time I go to her house, she’s added another shelf of Nutcrackers. This year, Auntie Rosie passed the 1,000 mark! As my brother-in-law and I browsed through her collection, he pointed out that she doesn’t have any Star Wars Nutcrackers. I looked. She has a Snoopy Nutcracker, several Disney Nutcrackers, vikings, golfers, chefs, Sesame Street, Wizard of Oz, snowmen and even a pirate, but sure enough, she did not have any Star Wars Nutcrackers. Well, I have an entire year to find one for her. I sure that there is a Storm Trooper or Wookie Nutcracker out there somewhere.
