Weekly Photo Challenge: (Christmas) Treasure

I love this week’s topic, Treasure, not the least because there are about a gazillion ways to interpret the word.  And, honestly, I have about a gazillion treasures, both literal and figurative, and so much to be grateful for.  I had to think about what I wanted to share this week.  I shared some treasure of an entirely different sort in a post on my Garden Reverie blog.

This being a (mostly) “Vintage Christmas” blog, I decided to share my very most precious ornament: The Little Ballerina.

I have lots and lots of wonderful ornaments that have been collected over a long period of time.  Many are precious because of who the giver was and the memories attached.  Some are loved simply by dint of their unusual nature or their beauty.  Or the time and place where I found it.

But this one trumps all of the others in the treasure department.

The little ballerina was made in the year I was born by my mother’s cousin, Fran Vilas, who lived in Madison, Wisconsin.  Cousin Fran, whom I never had the good fortune to meet, sent her to my mother for my first Christmas. I’m not going to spill what year that was but, trust me, my little ballerina is vintage.

Her limbs are made from pipe cleaners and her head is a little wooden ball with curly gold metallic locks on top.  Her tutu is made of crisp tulle in a beautiful shade of blue and she holds a tiny silver orb in her little pipe cleaner hands.  Her toes are encased in gold.  She is petite and slim just as a ballerina should be.  And she is precious beyond compare.

Every year she got hung on our family Christmas tree.  Front and center.  I adored her.

She was a constant.  When I came home for Christmas, there she was, greeting me from her spot on the tree.

A few years ago, my mother wrapped her up and gave her to me on Christmas morning.

Now I hang her on my own tree every Christmas.  Front and center.  Just like all those years at home.

I can’t bear to wrap her up and put her away once I take the tree down so she patiently hangs in a special place the rest of the year where her forever cheerful countenance greets me.  She’s my little talisman; a life full of happy memories wrapped up in the tiniest of packages, smiling at me even though she hasn’t lips.  A constant reminder of just how lucky I am.  And that is treasure indeed.

To see what other’s treasures are click here.