Happy feet

This ornament represents why I keep going to Christmas shops. You never know what kind of surprise is waiting for you inside. It makes me happy just to look at this little plush penguin with its dangling legs and big bootie-like feet.

Grey plush penguin with shoestring legs and big orange feet

Acquired: April 3, 2010, The Christmas Mouse, Williamsburg, Va.

Number: 244

Size: 6 inches tall

Price: $4.50

Similar stripes

These two aren’t part of a matched set, but they have a lot in common, so I’m posting them together. Both are clear acrylic and both are ready to slide downhill on a sled and skis decorated with candy cane stripes. I bought them the same day in the same store. I think it’s odd that I didn’t assign them consecutive numbers, but when you buy a dozen ornaments at once it’s hard to figure out which came first. I have two other similar ski ornaments that you can read about here.

Candy cane skier

Acquired: April, 3, 2004, The Christmas Mouse, Williamsburg, Va.

Number: 243

Size: 5 inches tall

Price: $7

Candy cane sledder

Acquired: April, 3, 2004, The Christmas Mouse, Williamsburg, Va.

Number: 245

Size: 2 inches tall, 3 inches long

Price: $4.50

Twice as nice

These two look good enough to eat. So good, in fact, that I bought two of them on separate occasions. I tried to convince myself that the second one was colored differently, but they are identical. The first one came from Williamsburg, Va., where I had made a detour on a driving trip from New Jersey to Florida. It was around Easter and the traffic on I-95 was bumper to bumper from Washington, D.C., to Daytona Beach, Fla., so I decided to stop for the night, and then take a longer slower route south the next day. My intention was to see historic Williamsburg, then head to Kitty Hawk, N.C., to visit the Century of Flight exhibit at the Wright Brothers National Monument. Instead I spent most of the day in three Christmas shops. By the time I got back to I-95, it was late and there were no motel rooms available, so I slept in my car at a rest area in South Carolina along with a lot of other drivers who were in the same predicament. It wasn’t so bad. That night I went to sleep in the driver’s seat with visions of Sugar Plum Penguins dancing in my head.

Sugary glass penguins with candy colored accents

Acquired: 1. April 3, 2004, Bassett’s Christmas Shop, Williamsburg, Va.

2. Sept. 28, 2008, Christmas Rocks, Houston, Texas

Number: 0234 0497

Size: about 2.5 inches tall

Price: $6.50, $5.75 

Two happy skiers

It’s Winter Rendezvous ski week in Stowe, Vt., and these two acrylic penguins on candy cane skis would have loved it on Mt. Mansfield today. In the morning the middle of the mountain was wrapped in clouds. On top, the sun was shining on a pure white world of snow covered trees and rocks. The trails were as smooth as silk.

The ornaments are identical. I got the one on the right on a side trip to Williamsburg, Va., and the other almost two years later on a trip to Stowe. It was the first time I bought an identical ornament unintentionally. As the collection has grown, that has happened more frequently.

Clear plastic penguin on candy cane striped skis and block of ice

Acquired: April 3, 2004, The Christmas Mouse, Williamsburg, Va.

Number: 246

Price: $7

Size: 3.75 inches tall

Clear plastic penguin on candy cane striped skis and block of ice

Acquired: Feb. 3, 2006, The Christmas Loft, Stowe, Vt.

Number: 286

Price: $5.99

Size: 3.75 inches tall