Drag, drop and merge?

I originally posted this in the Flash forum and received no answer, thought I might have better luck here…

Hello,
I’m working to create an interactive snow globe in AS3. The user would have a choice of dropping several items into the globe - a house, a candy cane, a fir tree, etc. - and, when done, hit a shake button. The globe and items would shake together, then the snow would appear.
I’ve got the drag and drop and snow functionality (using Flint particles). However, I’m not sure how to get the globe and the items to move together once the user hits play.
Here’s my drag and drop AS, with the globe and tree as movieclips:
Code:
treeMC.[COLOR=#000000]addEventListener[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]([/COLOR]MouseEvent.[COLOR=#000000]MOUSE_DOWN[/COLOR], pickUp[COLOR=#000000])[/COLOR];
treeMC.[COLOR=#000000]addEventListener[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]([/COLOR]MouseEvent.[COLOR=#000000]MOUSE_UP[/COLOR], dropIt[COLOR=#000000])[/COLOR];

[COLOR=#993300]function[/COLOR] pickUpCOLOR=#000000[/COLOR]:[COLOR=#993300]void[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]{[/COLOR]
event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#993300]startDrag[/COLOR]COLOR=#000000[/COLOR];
[COLOR=#000000]}[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#993300]function[/COLOR] dropItCOLOR=#000000[/COLOR]:[COLOR=#993300]void[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]{[/COLOR]
event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#993300]stopDrag[/COLOR]COLOR=#000000[/COLOR];
[COLOR=#993300]var[/COLOR] myTargetName:[COLOR=#993300]String[/COLOR] = [COLOR=#0000ff]“globeMC”[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#993300]var[/COLOR] myTarget:DisplayObject = getChildByNameCOLOR=#000000[/COLOR];
[COLOR=#993300]if[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]([/COLOR]event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]dropTarget[/COLOR] != [COLOR=#993300]null[/COLOR] && event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]dropTarget[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]parent[/COLOR] == myTarget[COLOR=#000000])[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000]{[/COLOR]event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]removeEventListener[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]([/COLOR]MouseEvent.[COLOR=#000000]MOUSE_DOWN[/COLOR], pickUp[COLOR=#000000])[/COLOR];
event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]removeEventListener[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]([/COLOR]MouseEvent.[COLOR=#000000]MOUSE_DOWN[/COLOR], dropIt[COLOR=#000000])[/COLOR];
event.[COLOR=#993300]target[/COLOR].[COLOR=#000000]buttonMode[/COLOR] = [COLOR=#993300]false[/COLOR];[COLOR=#000000]}[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#993300]else[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000]{[/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]}[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000]}[/COLOR]

treeMC.[COLOR=#000000]buttonMode[/COLOR] = [COLOR=#993300]true[/COLOR];
I’m at a loss as to how to get them both to work together. A DisplayObject, perhaps?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Ian