All golden

Because our nutcracker collection was on its way out of control following an after-Christmas clearance last year, I'm now limiting it to one new cracker per boy, per Christmas. This was Jackie's choice for 2008.

It's fair to say he's one of the ones that falls under the "creepy" category.

For one thing, we got him at the thrift store. I love shopping there, but the premise of the store is that it's filled with items that other people rejected. It's times like these when it's easy to tell why.

He's also the only nutcracker without a wooden face -- instead he has this molded old man doll's face and it's actually a part of his sternum that unhinges to do the cracking.

Finally, his outfit is completely covered in gold sequins, hat and everything. Oh, and he's missing his feet. But other than that, a perfectly fine specimen.

Here's how Jackie described his newest acquisition:

"He's my nutcracker and I call him old man but he's a king, and he has a mustache, and he can stomp his teeth and he's all golden. And he doesn't have any feet."