Christmas Gifts

 Here are Tiny's NEW furniture items, with bows.

 We tried something a little different with Christmas gifts this year...downsizing.  My DH was willing to go along with my crazy notions.  I asked the boys what they wanted most (Nintendo DSi's) and we decided they'd get that...and that's about it.  So far, not too crazy.  But then... I let the boys come along with me on Black Friday, er...Thursday night.  We started at 10 PM and stayed out until probably 2 AM before I dropped them back at home and finished up my own 5 AM shopping.  They were able to come with me to get the "deal" DSi's at gamestop and they even picked out a few games to go along with it.  No surprises at Christmas this year, but when the day came they were delighted to finally get what they'd been pining for (and I didn't have to guess.)

For the girls, I decided that since Tiny loves her dollhouse so much, I would get her some additional furniture for it from the neighborhood used-toy-lady.  Yeah, there is a lady here who collects used toys from yard sales and sells them out of her basement...so you always know she has what I need!  My favorite item is the piano which really plays the notes of the major scale, so many real tunes could (and will?) be picked out on it.  The baby cribs will accommodate the many baby-in-my-pocket dolls that we have living in the house, too.  Every family needs 12 newborn babies, right?

 Zoe had the audacity to insist that all she wanted for Christmas was ANOTHER baby doll.  Her current top babies are Zoelle, Charlotte, Julie and Sarah.  She has an American Girl doll also named Zoelle.  Tiny has 3 favorite babies named Molly, Polly, and Penny.  I decided that all Zoe needed to make the dolls new was some new clothes, so I sewed up several outfits for the 18" doll (did you know American girl has some patterns online for free!?) and her cousin Isabella got some of those, too.  My next move was to collect up all the baby clothes we already had (and we don't need those anymore!) and stitch them as needed to size them so they fit these dolls.  Mostly the necks needed to be tightened and the torsos shortened.  Sometimes the sleeves and pants needed shortening, too.

I dressed all the dolls in new outfits in this doll crib I actually got last January at Costco on clearance for a way-cheap price (yay).  I put all the extra clothes in the bottom cabinet.  I had a lot of angst about how to wrap the girls' things since they were not store-bought and did not have bubble packs and fancy boxes, etc.  Zoe especially seems really interested in shiny boxes.  In the end I displayed things nicely, set up the dollhouse, and put big bows on it.  They were happy!

The kids got up at 6 AM to open stockings.  After playing with stockings and the dolls, we went to church, then came home and leisurely opened the rest of the presents.  After playing with toys and having something to eat, Zoe crashed in the front foyer, wrapped in her new cupcake blanket from Grandma.  That's the sign of a fun Christmas!