I have a new addiction. This bug, this irresistible, death by cuteness bug bit me HARD in November of last year. (That's still weird to say 'last year' over 2018. I'm still getting used to 2019.) I had seen these adorable Calico Critters for years, of course. I used to admire from afar at the amazing displays and impressively detailed items at TRU (rest in peace, TRU.) But I never dared get into collecting yet another thing that I knew I would go nuts over. But finally, I took the plunge. I got a blind bag baby, and that was the end of all resistance. Little Henry Sweetpea with his baby sized drum and drum sticks had done it. I had to have more.
All of this hit conveniently when Walmart was offering their Christmas layaway services. (Insert gleeful grin here.) While we don't celebrate Christmas, we did want to celebrate Winter, so why not have some presents? I picked out the Hopscotch rabbit family, and put 2 baby playsets on layaway as well. I didn't get any houses, as none available really suited my slowly forming vision of what I wanted for my Critters, although I did get the tree house. (I also lucked out, and found 3 beach playsets at Tuesday Morning, so I ended up returning initially the 2 playsets I had on layaway. I got them later.) It was fun having wrapped gifts under the Gothmas tree.
We didn't wait until the Solstice, and had our celebration more like on the 18th or so? It was a lot of fun. I made some of my special hot chocolate for those who want it. (I never drink it, nor taste it as I make it, but somehow I manage to create quite a yummy hot chocolate, which is just plain weird.) Along with my Hopscotch family, I got the Splash and Play Whale, the Seaside Merry Go Round (OMG, the little fish seats on the ride! Yep, death by cuteness,) the Seaside Treasure set (I didn't keep the kitty figure) and last but not least, my tree house.
After opening all of my presents, I decided that these were so neat, I needed to make room for more by cleaning out everything that I liked, but didn't love. This was quite an endeavor, and I can say that I cleaned out probably half at least of everything I had accumulated over the last couple years. All of that can be a subject for another post if I want to go over the boring details. It felt really freaking good to clean out so much stuff. I enjoyed everything I had, but parting with it doesn't make me sad one bit. It gives me more space, cuts out a lot of clutter, and gives me some extra spending money for my Critters.
At this point, my Critter collection is off to a very healthy start! I'm going to create a Critter page on here so I can have a collection list, and I also plan to review all of my Critter items just for the fun of it. These little figures are so magical, they really do brighter my day. For the love of Critters!!
