A clipboard with a small green piece of paper entitled Nutcracker Hunt was all I had. Along with a "good luck" from the Nutcracker Lady, and of course, my trusty pen. Now that’s honestly all I had, as I set off into the mass of nutcrackers to search for 25 well chosen ones. I saw many rare and beautiful nutcrackers on that 40-minute journey through the jungles of the Nutcracker Museum.

I look down at my list and see that the Astronaut is first. Well that doesn’t seem too hard does it? Just look for a guy in a white suit with a helmet, right? Sounds pretty easy, until I look up and see rows and rows of nutcrackers. Hmm… maybe this is gonna be harder then I thought. Well I have to start someplace so I choose the first row, pretty smart huh? I look up and down and all around, no astronaut. No astronaut in the next row or the one after that. Until, finally, I spot him on the forth row, ah, the taste of success. The next few are easy to find and then, what’s this? A nutcracker on the end of a matchstick! I wonder who made this one, must have taken lots of skill.

Next comes a horse. Well I’ve seen one already, so on my way back to find it what do you suppose I saw? Another horse, this one carved out of wood and absolutely beautiful. By this time I realized that there was often times more then one kind of the same nutcracker. None were made the same, and each one was unique.

My favorite one of all I found while looking for the Bride and Groom. As I was crouching down to look in a bottom case I saw a furry little something. It looked rather like a bug. Then low and behold it was a nutcracker bug, well almost; it was the Y2K bug! There are so many interesting nutcrackers in the museum.

Finally after finding the Moose (a rather cute little fellow too) I was done, YIPPEE! I went to the Nutcracker Lady and proudly told her that I had finished. And I even have a pin to prove it!