A bright eyed ballerina strolls down a magical lane. It is filled with amazing things! She comes upon A ornate gate that is guarded by Powder the snowman. “Hello, my dear! “, says Powder. Welcome to Magical Memory Lane. We hope you enjoy your stroll.”
As she walks past the snowman, she finds two lovely clowns; one named Capricci and one named Pastello. “Hello my dear! We are the sacred keepers of the giggles! “ and they both laughed in unison. “We are here to remind you that the doorway to a childhood’s past opens with a smile and a giggle!”
Sugar Plum Ballerina, smiled a huge smile and the golden gates of Memory Lane opened. The streets were lined with twinkling lights and the sparkly glow of new fallen snow. As she walked further down the path. she suddenly realized she was getting very tired. A lovely bench appeared as if out of thin air. She went to rest a bit before continuing on her journey. As she sat down she heard a funny sound. Pthhwwww! She sprang up to see what it was. On the bench, there was a quirky little whoopee cushion smiling back at her! “Hello my dear! My name is Whoopee and I love to make children giggle! “ Sugar Plum giggled and exclaimed, “That you did indeed!”
She decided to continue on down memory lane to see what other wonderful surprises she would encounter.
Suddenly out of nowhere, a Rat King ran past her carrying a tiny Christmas tree. He was being pursued by a Twirly bird and a Christkind guard yelling in tandem, “Stop you scoundrel!”
She decided to give chase as well. They continued along the path until the Rat King was trapped.
“ Relinquish that tree, you scoundrel!”, bellowed Christkind.
The Rat King lowered the tree and set it down. He looked very sad and a tear fell from his face. “ You do not understand. I did not want to steal the tree to be mean, I wanted the tree so I could have something lovely for Christmas. It is very lonely in my cave and it’s such a magnificent tree that I thought it would bring me some happiness and smiles. No one comes to see me. “ the Rat King explained.
”Oh dear Rat King, we are all part of the wonderful memories of holidays past, present, and future! We are all friends here! Let us return the Tree to the square and we can start a new memory for us all filled with love, laughter, and smiles.“ said Twirly Bird.
So off to the square they went Sugar Plum ballerina, The Rat King, Twirly Bird and Christkind. At the square they found the Whoopee Cushion along with Powder the Snowman, Capricci, and Pastello.
Rat King placed the Tree in the middle of the square and everyone giggled. New memories were made that night and a new path down Memory Lane appeared!

Happy Holidays to you all from our Greybriar’s Travels Family to yours!

Magazine published in December 2017 by Greybriar's Travels