Day 1

“Finally!” Annabella wanted to yell out this word as she was gently lifted out of the box. She had given up all hope of ever escaping her prison of cardboard and plastic. Wasn’t she pretty enough? Every time the box was opened, she had tried extra hard to look pretty and sparkling, stretching her tiny little ballerina toes as far as she could for an even more delicate look, and smiling as wide as possible to show off her sparkling white teeth and her twinkling blue eyes.

But it was always one of her sisters or brothers that was chosen. Her box was stored in a closet in a child’s bedroom – the child currently holding Annabella in her hands – of the pretty house. Now, if the door to that closet was just slightly open, she could see her reflection in the plastic cover of the box. When her sisters were still living in the box, she could see their reflection, too. She thought they all looked very much alike – they were all pretty little ballerinas waiting to be put on the tree. Her brothers were handsome ice-skaters, with rosy cheeks, red scarves, and sweaters with all kinds of designs on them.

As she was carried to the pretty little spruce tree on its own table near the window of the living room, she could see some of her sisters and brothers looking at her from several different positions on the tree and she wondered where she would be put. She was very excited to see, hear, smell, and feel different things, but she was also just a little afraid. She had never been taken out of the box before – what would this new world and life on the tree be like for her? Would she be able to survive? Would she like it or wish she had stayed in her comfortable, but very lonely box?