Vintage Ornament Disaster

Only One Broke!

Not this one...this one was the replacement.

One year, when my sister still lived at home and I lived across the country, I got a call

from my Mom letting me know that the Christmas tree had fallen over the night before.

Every year I'd look forward to unwrapping this one ornament. (see above)

I loved how you could peer inside of it to see a little mushroom under a snow covered bush.

I always imagined a little elf had just been sitting there and somehow had just 

escaped just before I looked in.

It was my favorite.

So the year the tree fell over...Mom said they were in the den when they heard a loud crash

in the living room. My sister and she ran to see how bad the damage was.

She said she was happy to report...only one ornament broke,
Daddy's blue bell which was bought the year he was born...1939...
the only ornament his parents could afford that year...was fine!

The glass birds and ornaments from my Mom's childhood tree were fine!

All the glass icicles made it through. All the special glass ornaments we'd bought together over the years were ok. 

She said they couldn't believe how lucky we were. Only one ornament broken!

"Which one?"...I asked

"Can you believe it?"... she said, "We only lost one. One on that whole tree!"

"We are so lucky. Thank goodness all of my Mom's ornaments are fine."

"Which one?"...I asked, again.

"What?"

"Which ornament?"

"Oh...that one with the mushroom in it."

"That was my favorite!"

"Oh,"...my Mom said..."We got that when Grams came to visit that year when you were a baby".

I asked, "Did she bring it from Marshall Fields?" 

My Mom was from Chicago and I was always impressed by Marshall Fields when we went to visit.

"Oh...no" she said, "that came from AMC Discount Store here in Oklahoma City".

(not a classy establishment)

me: "Oh, well it was still my favorite."

So turns out it was never an expensive ornament and obviously never had special meaning for my Mom.
She said Grams came to visit that Christmas and declared immediately that they needed many more ornaments for their tree.
They'd gone to a discount store and bought ornaments to go on their little tree.
 Many of them being Shiny Brites like on my tree now. This was the only one they bought like this.
And I loved it most and was heartbroken that it had smashed.

Then last year I thought, I wonder if I could find an ornament like that on Ebay?

The very first time I searched...I found one.

Heart mended.