Emma's Editorials: Christmas at Mimi's Part 4

After sneaking some of the humans' traditional Christmas breakfast (scrambled eggs, biscuits, and sausage gravy), we hurried back to the room to open our gifts.  We were all so excited!

Jo really liked her Razzles lunch box that we got her.  

Charlie loved her cute stuffed monkey from Mama.

Isn't he adorable?

My first gift was from Mama, Hayden, Charlie, Ruthie and Piper.  Mama had warned me ahead of time that I wouldn't be getting my special edition Cecile doll.  They were sold out before she had a chance to get one.  I was disappointed when she told me, but I knew life would go on whether I got my Cecile or not. 

You can imagine how excited I was when I opened up this beautiful Holiday Edition Belle doll!

It wasn't a Cecile, but it was probably the next best thing.  She was so beautiful!

Isn't her dress amazing?  I just love her!

Hayden got to go next.  She was really excited to see the toy horses that Charlie and I had gotten for her.

Hayden is a total horse nut, so we knew she'd love these.

Her favorites were the mommy and baby Palominos.  She told us that Palominos and Friesians were her favorite types of horses.  We didn't even know! :)

Ruthie's first gift was from Hayden, Charlie, Grandmama and I.  We hoped she'd like it, and she did!

It was her very own Kirsten doll (minus the shoes...she was a thrift store find). ;)

Ruthie didn't have her own American Girl doll before this, so she was really happy to get a Kirsten.

My sweet cousin.

Even quiet Piper let out a gasp of delight when she opened her gift.

Charlie, Hayden and I saw this Chococat notebook at Target and knew it was perfect for our cousin. 

Kailani was next.  Her gift was from everyone (we all pitched in).  It was a very dolly Christmas, because she got her first doll too!

Kailani thought Samantha was just beautiful.

Then it was Janie's turn, and she got a doll too!  It was a Julie from Grandmama.  We all oohed and ahhed over her long, silky hair.

Janie and Julie (isn't Janie's hat adorable on her?)

There were lots of other presents:

Hayden got these beautiful charms of all three of her favorite princesses (Ariel, Jasmine, and Belle) from Ruthie and Piper...

...and a Disney Princess puzzle from Grandmama. 

Tess had sent this present with me.  It was a beautiful blank journal MADE IN INDIA!!! 

I couldn't wait to fill it with sketches and notes. :)

I also got a Wooly Willy from Grandmama.  I think I'll use him to entertain myself on long car rides. :)

Charlie was really happy to get this Ken doll from Toy Story 3 (her favorite Pixar movie).  Ruthie and Piper had found it for her.

She also got Cars Squinkies from Hailey (which was funny, because she'd gotten Hello Kitty Squinkies for Hailey.  Neither of them knew they'd gotten each other the same thing!).

Jo got an Uno game from Grandmama...

...and a vintage Holly Hobbie doll from Piper.

Ruthie gave Janie a Connect 4 game.

Kailani got a card game from Grandmama (that looked very Hawaiian!)...

...and two Cars Squinkies from Piper.

Grandmama got Piper a Wooly Willy game too...

...but Piper's favorite present from Grandmama was this cute mini rolling stamp that had Chococat on it!

She also got this Chococat eraser set from Ruthie.  It was a very Chococat Christmas for Piper! ;)

Grandmama found this little Hello Kitty case for Ruthie.  I think Hailey has the same one at home.

Zaara's gift was this lovely jingly necklace.  Grandmama wanted to make sure Zaara didn't feel left out in all of our festivities, even though she's basically a "display-only" doll. :)  

I think her new necklace suits her perfectly!

Here we are with all of our goodies!

When we were done opening everything, all of us on the front part of the dresser turned around so we could see what the others got.

All in all, we had a great Christmas.  We spent the rest of the day reading the Christmas story from Mama's Bible, playing with our new things, and watching movies.  Some of us even took naps since we'd stayed up really late the night before.  

We didn't really get any more pictures of anything else.  I'll tell you guys about coming home in a later post.  I've done plenty of posting for tonight, and my shoulders are tired from listening to Bollywood music for an hour! (You can't help but make your shoulders dance when you listen to it!) ;)

Thanks for bearing with me and reading through my really long posts.  I promise next time I'll try to have something more creative and astounding for you to read. ;) 

Emma's Editorials: Christmas at Mimi's Part 1

Hi everyone!  Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post up.  This week has been pretty crazy!  I'm finally sitting down and making myself get it done!!  I have some Bollywood music playing on Rhapsody right now, but I may have to turn it off if I get too distracted with my feeble attempts at Bhangra to type! ;)

Our trip had a rather stressful beginning.  It took Mama almost all day to pack, so by the time she put us in the car, she was not in the mood to make sure we were perfectly comfortable.  It wasn't the most pleasant car ride we'd ever experienced, but we lived through it. ;)  Mama wasn't rude about it or anything...she just really wanted to get to Mimi's and be with her family!

Here we are crammed in the front seat!

Once we got there, we rushed back to Mimi's doll room to say hi to Kailani and Piper.  Ruthie and Janie had already gotten there, but were out taking a walk.  Kailani and Piper were really excited to see us.  They showed us their beautiful tree and their curio full of Christmas stuff. :)

Of course, I had to get a picture with Zaara!  She was as polite as ever.  She's been enjoying herself at Mimi's.  She has her own special spot in Mimi's office, and is surrounded by Mimi's Hrithik Roshan posters.  As you all know, I'm a Shahrukh gal myself, but Hrithik is an amazing dancer!  Mimi calls him "beautiful man"...he does have pretty amazing eyes!

Once Ruthie and Janie got back, Mama decided to take a group picture of all of us in our fancy dresses.  And then, of course, we had to do the obligatory individual shots (Mama's big on that!). ;)

Janie

Kailani

Hayden (doesn't she look great in red plaid?)

Charlie

Me!

Ruthie

Piper

After group photos, I took my sisters around the house.  I remembered how fun it had been to explore all of Mimi's fun decorations all over.  Charlie really liked the Christmas tree.  

It was fun to see a tree with colored lights.  Mama's tree has all white lights.  I know Mama and Papa like white lights the best for their elegance, but I have to admit I'm a bit partial to all of the bright colors on colored lights.  It's like decorating your tree with a rainbow! :)  

After we saw the tree, I led Hayden and Charlie to one of my favorite places from last year:  the snack table! :)

This year there was a white box sitting there.  There was something about chocolate on the label, so I knew we would like it. :)

There were so many different ones to choose from!

I chose this piece with pink on top.  It had a strawberry creme filling.  Yum! :)

I found another one for Charlie, while Hayden searched for her own.  She finally decided on one of the plain chocolate ones.  It had a yummy chocolate creme filling.

Next, we found THE FUDGE!!!  Mama's other aunt makes it every year, and it's AMAZING!!  

You can tell it's amazing just by looking at it! ;)

We found a really big piece and split it three ways.  It was just as wonderful as I remembered!

At this point, we all started grazing on our own.  We had to hurry while the humans weren't looking!  I made sure to remind my sisters to leave some for the humans and the other dolls.

Hayden went back to the boxed chocolates...

...while I chose another piece fudge and then helped myself to Mama's aunt's gingerbread cookies (another Christmas tradition!).  There were mixed nuts, too, so I picked out a few cashews.

Charlie went for the tortilla chips.  They were way better tasting than the whole grain ones that Mama has been getting!

When we'd stuffed ourselves with all of the yummy goodies, we continued our tour of the house.  We found another decorated tree in the dining room.  It had all sorts of really cool Coca Cola decorations which I loved. ;)

It was fun seeing the cute cardboard fireplace again.  We all pretended to warm our hands by the fire.

We ended our tour with a look at all of the presents.  Can you believe this pile of stuff?  It was like climbing Mount Everest!

Hayden was a little bit concerned that we shouldn't be climbing in the presents.

I assured her that it was okay.  I'd done the same thing last year.  We just had to make sure not to break anything! 

Can you find us in this picture?  It's like playing "Where's Waldo?" ;)

There are so many pictures, I think I'll break this up into parts.  More to come soon! :)

P.S.  Sorry I didn't write this in story form or anything.  I just want to get caught up, and I have to be in the right frame of mind to be that creative.  I'm always amazed at Tess's lengthy posts.  She writes everything in narrative, like her readers are a part of the story.  Oh well, this will just have to do! :}