Hello dear, wonderful readers!! I'm so excited to finally be back to blogging after such a long time! :D I hope you've all been well.
I'm sorry that you've had to wait almost an entire week for my post about Christmas, but at least this way you get Christmas and New Year's greetings at the same time! ;)
As Maggie already mentioned in her last post, Hayden, Charlie, Alice and I got to spend Christmas at Mimi's house with Mama again this year. This was my fourth year going, so it was wonderful to go back and enjoy all the same places. Alice was really excited to go with us because she was going to see her sisters, Piper and Ruthie, again. It was so special that all six of us got to be together for the holidays! :D
When we first got there, Piper and Ruthie were waiting to welcome us. We met in the living room by the gigantic pile of human presents, as Piper's room was full of (human) Christmas guests.
As soon as she saw them, Alice ran over and gave them a big hug. :)
And then we did our normal tradition of climbing around the presents.
As you can see, Hayden got over her reservation about climbing the presents from previous years. ;)
Charlie wondered if any of the presents that Mama got would be ones she'd share with us.
I was just happy to be here with my family. I did wonder what on earth could be in all of these huge packages, though.
Ruthie chose a more conservative height...
...and Piper just watched.
Alice was still trying to get over how many presents there were. ;)
A little while later, when Alice and Piper were walking around the room and talking, Alice completely freaked out when she saw Mimi's Doctor Who DVDs. Piper informed her that Mimi also had Netflix, so Alice could watch as much Doctor Who as she wanted to while she was here. Dangerous words, Piper. ;)
We decided it was a good time to raid the snack table since the humans were otherwise occupied. There were all sorts of great snacks:
Gingerbread flavored M&Ms...
...chocolates...
...mini mints just our size...
...mixed nuts...
...Toblerone chocolate...
...and Aunt V's FUDGE!!! :D I noticed after only moments, though, that there was no gingerbread. I mentioned this to Mama, and she checked with Aunt V. Apparently Aunt V. only made a small batch of gingerbread this year, so the humans had already eaten it. I couldn't believe it. How would I survive without Aunt V's gingerbread? Mama suggested we try making it ourselves later in the week (Aunt V had brought her recipe). That sounded like a great idea to me!! :)
Later that evening, Mama decided that she wanted to get some nice pictures of all of us beside Mimi's tree. We took this picture because Hayden and Piper ended up wearing the same dress. They spent the whole first day we were there joking that maybe they were the twins instead of Alice and Piper. ;)
The Ellison Sisters: Alice, Ruthie, and Piper.
The Hathaway Sisters: Hayden, Charlie, and Emma (me!) ;)
Mama attempted to get a big group picture of us by having us stand on different levels, but it didn't really go according to plan. No matter what she tried, my sisters and I were always looking down, and our cousins looked really far away. This was the best shot of the bunch. :}
We spent most of the week chatting, watching movies, reading books, eating, and just generally catching up. Mama mentioned offhand the first night there that she and Mimi would be playing some Doctor Who episodes after the human girls were in bed so her mom and dad could get caught up in the series. Alice begged Mama to take her with her, so Mama agreed, as long as Alice promised to act like a "normal" doll and not start talking or anything. She must have done well, because she watched with them every night. ;) The first night, she came back sobbing because they'd watched some episode called "The End of Time" which was "the last Ten episode"...whatever that's supposed to mean. I still haven't tried Doctor Who myself, although I understand that Alice convinced Ruthie and Piper to try it on their coast trip this summer. Piper's apparently become quite the Whovian (she joined Alice and the rest on the second night), and she's also become a huge Benedict Cumberbatch fan (Mimi's really into his movies and shows).
But it's time to move on! Christmas was a little different for us this year. Since our normal present opening spot was taken, we actually ended up opening presents on Christmas evening, when all of the humans had gone to bed. Mama left our stockings and presents under the big tree for us. The plus side was that we weren't as tired as usual. The bad part was waiting all day long to open our presents!! We kept waiting and waiting for the humans to go to bed! I was so happy when the house was finally quiet and we could sneak out to open our gifts!
We all sat in a circle under the tree. As you can see, Rontu came along with us, too. Charlie hates to be apart from him. ;)
Ruthie and Piper didn't have stockings this year, but Mama had just one small present for each of us in our stockings. We felt a little weird opening stockings in front of them, but they told us not to feel bad.
Charlie got a little Zelf in her stocking. Tess and Maggie told us all about Zelfs after their Ladies Retreat trip, so we're quite familiar with them. This one is Flamy.
When I also found a Zelf in my stocking, we figured that was what in everyone's. I got a cute little Pega Sue.
Hayden got Angelala.
And Alice got Lunanne.
Since Ruthie and Piper had waited so patiently while we opened our stockings, we let them open their presents first. Ruthie squealed when she opened her Caroline doll. :)
She said she's been asking Grandmama for one for months.
Piper opened her present and found a mini Lalaloopsy. She's one of the new ones! :)
I think Mama said her name was "Teddy Honey Pots". Isn't she cute?
Piper got her pet and accessories, too.
Charlie went next. She had some cute toys from Monsters Inc.
She thought "Boo" was adorable.
I was really excited to get this Princess clock. It even has a real working alarm!
Here's a closer look. It has one of my favorite Princesses on it: Rapunzel.
Hayden opened her present next.
It was a paint your own Breyer Horse set. Hayden loves horses (especially Breyers), and she can be pretty creative, so I'm sure she'll have lots of fun with this.
Next Alice opened her gift. Hayden was grinning from ear to ear as Alice started. She'd helped choose part of the gift.
It was a really cool looking jewelry box. "It almost looks Gallifreyan!" Alice said happily. I'm not sure exactly what she meant. Half the time she talks, I have no clue what she means, except that it probably has something to do with Doctor Who. :}
When she opened up the jewelry box, there was something inside.
It was a pin with two My Little Ponies on it. She looked at it for a moment and then laughed. "Hayden, is this that Doctor Whooves pony you keep telling me about?"
My sister grinned and nodded. "I thought you needed it for your collection."
They both laughed together, and then Hayden instantly launched into an explanation of some of the Doctor Whooves episodes she'd seen on YouTube. The rest of us found other things to talk about.
Shortly after this, we raided the snacks again, and everyone sat still and listened as I read the Christmas story from my little Bible. We ended up falling asleep under the tree. Thankfully, the humans are used to seeing us around because of Mama's photo shoots, so no one even batted an eye the next morning when they came out and found us sprawled beneath the tree. :} Mama gave us quite the stern lecture later, though. I wondered why Mama was so concerned. Mimi and Grandmama know we're alive. I doubt it would bother the others that much if they found out. But Mama's the boss, and I felt really bad that we upset her.
Later that afternoon, during the next lull in human activity, we decided we would make our gingerbread. We put on our aprons (several of them new ones, made by Mama's best friend's mom). ;) Then we found Aunt V's recipe and followed it to the letter. Before long, we had some delicious cookies.
We frosted them while they were still on the baking pan, and then Hayden decided to transfer them to a fancy plate.
I thought this was a bit silly, since we'd only made enough for each of us to have one, and we planned on eating them right away. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, though, so I didn't say anything. :}
And after our hard work, we enjoyed our tasty treat. :)
Yum! :) Now it felt like Christmas. ;)
You might have noticed that Alice wasn't there for the cookie baking. After our late night, she wasn't interested in cooking. Instead, she stocked up on the pre-made snacks Grandmama had brought just for us and put in some more Doctor Who.
Snacks galore!
She was thrilled when Mama decided to share one of her gifts. It's a pack of Doctor Who sticky notes, but Alice said she was going to pretend it was a book for her shelf.
Some of the sticky notes are doll-sized, so she could even use them and still use the rest of it as a book. ;)
Even though Alice didn't help us bake, we were nice and shared a gingerbread cookie with her. Christmas just isn't Christmas without Aunt V's gingerbread. Alice had to experience it. ;)
We didn't document much else from our trip, but we had a great time together. :)
All too soon, it was time to go home again. I hate goodbyes. :(
I had to admit, I was looking forward to getting home and getting back to the normal routine. I knew I would miss Ruthie and Piper, though. Hopefully we can get together again soon! :)
I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your families! And now it's nearly the new year! (A couple more hours left in our time zone.) Have a wonderful evening, and I'll talk to you again in 2014. ;)
P.S. Tess wanted me to mention that she will have a post up about her Christmas with the other dolls a little later this week. :)
