Maggie's Memos: Still Alive and Kicking...

...although you probably didn't think we were with our long absence.  Yeah, I know, it's bad blogging etiquette to just drop off the face of the earth.  Deal with it. ;}

Between recovering from Christmas, Mama's family all catching the flu, and Mama's crazy eBay sales, our computer time has been pretty limited.  But we'll make up for this in the coming months as we bring you the most spectacularly awesome blog posts known to mankind...um...or maybe that should be "dollkind". :}

Okay, so maybe that's overstating it a bit.  But in all seriousness, we will get back to regularly posting here.  We just needed a break after the holidays.

And speaking of the holidays, here's our Christmas header for this year (because Tess panics if we don't have a record of every single header we've ever done in our blog posts):

Personally, I think this one could have been better.  I mean, I know I keep harping on this, but if the blog is "A Blog by Tess and Maggie", then shouldn't Maggie feature a little more prominently in the header?  Just sayin'.

Okay, so in other news, we've got new blog buttons, a new header and, drum roll please...a new Facebook page!  Mama also got a Twitter account and will be "tweeting" whenever we put up a new post (I'm sorry, but who came up with the whole "tweeting" thing?  I mean, doesn't it sound kind of lame?  Surely someone could have come up with a more sophisticated term!!  But moving on...)

If you'd like to connect with our Facebook page, click HERE.  We'll also add a link in our sidebar.  So if you want to "like" us (again, the terminology on some of these sites is beyond me...) or whatever, stop on by and spread the word.

I think that's about it for now.  We should have a "real" new post up sometime next week. :)  Laters.

Mags

P.S.  Since we now have so many authors on here (which was NOT my decision, thank you very much!), we've decided to start signing our posts, just to keep things a little less confusing.  Yeah, I know, we have our names in our titles and everything, but everyone thought it would be "fun" to sign the posts.  Well, almost everyone. :}  Talk to you later.

Hayden's Histories: Christmas Recollections

Hi everyone!  I'll bet you thought I forgot to share about our Christmas, right?  Well, I didn't forget...exactly. Things have just been really crazy with Mama's three girls around all the time.  It's hard to get to the computer unseen, which is still the rule around here.  I'm hoping I can convince Mama that her daughters could keep the secret that we're really alive.  It would sure make our blogging easier. :}

Anyway, we had a wonderful, quiet little Christmas here at home:  Jenna, Rachel, Maggie, Tess, Hayley Hailey (Good gracious!  Be professional, Hayden!  You can't be misspelling other doll's names!) and I.  Ava and Elena didn't join us.  They're too busy working out their history and where they belong.  Ava recently discovered that Grandmama's Jess is her twin sister, so she's decided to go live with Grandmama and Jess.  And Elena has apparently never really felt comfortable mingling with us since she's from a different doll line and a slightly different size.  I don't see what the issue is, personally, but I do understand how hard it is to be in a situation where you're not fully comfortable.  Maggie wanted to push Elena into joining us, but thankfully Rachel stepped in and mentioned that forcing Elena would probably just make the situation worse.

Goodness, I'm rambly! ;)  So the 6 of us gathered around the tree in Tess and Hailey's room on Christmas morning to open our presents from Mama.  She did things a little differently this year.  Last year was a big, huge, over-the-top Christmas where we all got a ton of gifts and Emma and Tess carefully documented our whole Christmas experience (as some of you may remember).  This year, before she left, Mama explained gently that she didn't have the budget for such a big dolly Christmas this time around, so instead of wrapping gifts galore, she left each of us a present in our stocking.  That seemed reasonable to me.  I mean, if we got that many gifts every year, we would run out of room to store and display them! :}

(And once again, I've gotten sidetracked.  I really must get better at this if I am going to be a regular around here.  If Maggie reads this post, she'll never let me hear the end of it!)

Each of us grabbed our stockings and peeked inside to see what Mama had left for us.

(After these first couple of pictures, we realized that, while the idea of opening one's gifts with just the light of the Christmas tree is dreamy and romantic, it is not very practical.  So we turned on some more lights.  We figured it might be nice if we could actually see our presents.) ;)

I wore my elf hat for the morning, and was feeling quite festive and merry.

I felt even more merry when I saw what Mama had gotten for me:  an adorable Blythe doll!  I've been wanting one of these ever since I saw my cousin Piper's Blythe doll last Christmas. :)  I can't wait to find a special spot for her on my shelf. :)

Meanwhile, Jenna was excited to see her gift:

It was a little light-up glitter snowman with her name on it. :) 

For Rachel, Mama had found a Pepe figure from the Muppets.

Rachel's very favorite Muppet is Kermit, but she said that Pepe is pretty funny.

Maggie got two gifts (not to sound upset or anything...just documenting as accurately as possible). :}  She got a really cool mini lion poster (that she said reminded her of Aslan) and a Playmobil lion figure.  

The lion even opened its mouth and everything.  

Maggie was very excited about her gifts, even though I know for a fact that she was really hoping for a Thorin Oakenshield action figure from "The Hobbit".  It was nice to see that she was able to enjoy the things she got, even though she didn't get what she'd hoped for. 

Hailey also got two gifts:  two jointed Hello Kitty figures for her Hello Kitty collection.

One of them looked like a little waitress...

...and one of them was dressed in a Panda outfit.

Tess was the last to open her gift.  

At first, we all thought it was a book.  But when Tess opened it... 

...we discovered it was a music box!  There was a little village scene inside, and the ice skaters really twirled around the pond as "Deck the Halls" played.  This was a great gift for Tess since she likes music boxes, figurines, and old-fashioned things so much.  I've always admired Norman Rockwell's work, so I enjoyed seeing it too. :)

And, I'm embarrassed to say it, but that's all the pictures and super details I have.  What can I say?  We were too busy enjoying Christmas to take the time to document every little bit.  So I suppose you'll have to leave the rest up to your imagination. ;)  I can confirm that we helped ourselves to breakfast in the kitchen, read the Christmas story from the Bible, and watched "White Christmas".  Other than that, it's all pretty much a big blur.  

I missed being with my sisters this Christmas, but it was also fun to have a simple Christmas morning at home with my friends.  

I hope you enjoyed the post, in spite of its flaws. ;)  I promise I'll try to do better on my next one. :)

Well, I'm off!  My bed is calling me, and tomorrow Mama has informed us that we must get all of the Christmas stuff put away.  Sigh...I hate taking down the decorations, but I suppose all good things must come to an end. 

Talk to all of you again soon!

Emma's Editorials: Christmas at Mimi's 2012

Hi there, folks.  Remember me?  Your faithful blogger?  Or...perhaps...not quite so faithful? :{  I'm so very sorry for not posting this sooner, but you would not believe how difficult it is to avoid 3 human girls between 8 and 4 when the computer you need to use is in the living room. :{  And waiting until after they went to bed didn't work, either.  Mama's been super busy doing her own computer work:  researching stuff on eBay, blogging, responding to emails and comments, paying bills online...you name it!  This is honestly the first chance I've had at the computer, and I can't take very long, because my sister Hayden is waiting to do her Christmas post once I'm done with mine.  I think Belle is going to have to wait to do her post until tomorrow...unless she plans on staying up past midnight or something. ;)

But enough with apologies and explanations...on to Christmas! :D

We spent the first day at Mimi's the way we normally do:  getting random pics around the house.  Yep, Rontu came too.  Charlie couldn't bear the thought of leaving him behind for 6 days. ;)

We always love getting pictures by the presents.  Mama has a lot of close family, so the present pile is usually pretty ginormous. :)

I love all of the festive wrapping paper.  It's too bad Hayden didn't join us...she would have loved the My Little Pony wrapping paper Mama used. ;)

And here's a shot of the whole big pile.  Can you find us?  I always feel like I'm in a "Where's Waldo" picture when we pose by the presents. ;) 

Shortly after having fun with the presents, we headed over to our favorite place:  the snack table!

Charlie was content once she'd found the Peanut M&Ms and the mini Teddy Grahams.

Rontu was busy sniffing everything and exploring.

Meanwhile, I headed straight for my favorites...

...Aunt V's fudge and gingerbread.  In this house, fudge and gingerbread are the official tastes of Christmas. :)

We didn't do much worth mentioning in the next few days, aside from visiting with our cousin Piper and all of her friends.

 

Piper was really busy most of the time we were there.  She's just like Mimi and Aunt V:  she loves baking at Christmas time. :)

Chocolate Chip, her faithful companion, was by her side constantly.  Mama rescued him from Goodwill for just 49 cents! 

It was nice to see Kailani again, and I enjoyed getting to meet her sister, Fi (pronounced "Fee", short for "Josefina").

There were several new dolls on the top shelf.  I recognized Gabby (the gymnast in the middle who looks kind of like the Olympic Gold Medalist of the same name), but I'd never met the other two.  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but we never even got a chance to introduce ourselves!  This Christmas definitely had more of a human focus than a doll one. ;)  That's okay, though.  We were just glad to get to spend Christmas with Mama.

We loved Piper's new kitchen hutch.

Her room was really cute, too.  Nahji was chilling there when we stopped by the first time.

I'm sorry we don't have pictures of us interacting with Mimi's dolls.  Honestly, most of the week, Mama kind of left us to ourselves (which was actually rather nice).  A lot of what we did wasn't really documented this year...which was apparently a theme in more places than one, as you'll see when you read Hayden's post (coming next!).

On Christmas Eve, Charlie and I couldn't sleep.  We were too excited!

We decided to sneak out to the living room and sit in front of the tree, enjoying the beautiful lights and the brightly wrapped packages.

Some moments you just want to freeze and remember forever.  This was one of them:  sitting by the tree with my sister, gazing at the warm lights and dreaming of the morning to come. :)  I'll bet there were things Mary wanted to remember forever about the first Christmas, too. :) 

In spite of our insomnia, Christmas morning finally arrived.  We had to wait to open our gifts until all of the humans opened theirs, but we didn't mind.  We sat under the tree and Mama gave us our stockings.

Charlie got two vintage-looking mini posters from "Wall-E" and a Rex toy from "Toy Story".

I got this beautiful little Lalaloopsy named Ivory Ice Crystals.  I'd never really taken notice of Lalaloopsies before this past month, but when Mama's middle daughter kept talking about how much she wanted them, I researched them and fell in love!  I'm so glad I got this one.  She was a special Christmas Lala available only at Target.  Isn't she pretty?

She also came with a blue Popsicle, a little furry pet, and a snow globe.

I discovered that her furry cape was removable, which was fun.

We got some other things, too.  Grandmama bought a big, cozy American Girl sleeping bag for all of us dolls to share (not at the same time, of course!).

Mama found these two Christmas books at Goodwill (also to share with everyone).

Grandmama also found a little picture frame (partially viewable on the left) and two ceramic mixing bowls just our size!

My last gift was very exciting.  I've been noticing lately that my eyes are getting tired when I read or use the computer, and sometimes it's hard to see the words.  Mama thought I might need glasses, but she wasn't sure when she could get them.  Well, as it turned out, Mama's brother's brother-in-law (caught that?) was the one who found out that I needed them and bought them for Mama.  Wasn't that sweet of him?  

So, ta-da!!  Here I am in my new glasses.  What do you think?

It was hard to get used to them at first, but I think I like them.  Mama said I only have to use them for reading and computer time.

What makes my glasses even more special is that Mama had to get glasses a few months ago, too.  She needed them for the same things:  reading and computer time.

I think it's cool how similar our glasses are, don't you?  Mama said that when she picked out her glasses, they reminded her of the Chocolate glasses from American Girl.  Of course, when they're right next to each other, my glasses look more black than brown, but they do have their similarities. ;)

After we finished opening our gifts, we spread out our new sleeping bag and I read "A Christmas Carol" to Charlie.  It was amazing how much easier it was to see the words with my new glasses!

I love this version because of the beautiful illustrations. :) 

There was a lot of excitement for the humans, too.  Grandmama introduced Mimi to Sicily (I hope I've gotten her name spelled right!).  Sicily was looking for a new home, and Grandmama thought Mimi's would be the perfect fit.  

I was excited to discover that Sicily had glasses just like mine! :D   I got a chance to visit with her a bit, and she seems really nice.  I think she'll fit in just fine with Piper, Kailani, and the others. :) 

The rest of the week, we were very lazy.  We played games, ate snacks, watched movies, and hung around. The humans all got hooked on the TV show "Duck Dynasty" while we were there.  Charlie thought it was hilarious (aside from a few crude comments).  I must admit, while it has its funny moments, I much prefer my Bollywood movies. ;)

One of the afternoons, we got to play around outside.  Rontu and Charlie were thrilled to be outdoors after being cooped up in the house for so long.

We all had fun exploring and rambling through the yard.  

Because the lighting was so pretty, Mama wanted to get a close up of each of us.

I wish she'd come up with more original poses for each of us instead of posing us identically, but oh well. ;)

The beautiful view from Mimi's back yard.

And that, I'm afraid, is it as far as pictures go.  The rest of our week was lovely but remained off-camera.  Now we're both home, filled with memories of our wonderful holiday but glad to be back in our own cozy little room.

And Hayden is waiting ever so patiently behind me, so I really should wrap this up.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your own families, and a Happy New Year, too.  

Oh, and I promise we'll work on getting our Christmas header and background down soon...it's so embarrassing being so far behind! :{

Talk to you later! :)