Had myself a merry little Christmas!

  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! For me, in spite of not feeling my best on the day, it was one of the best Christmases I've had in years.Our oldest, Emma,stayed all night Christmas Eve, so we had a nice, cozy Christmas eve, with our tradition of everybody falling asleep on me while I read "A Christmas Carol".(Everybody but Fuzzy, that is, who did his tradition of going to bed before everybody else so he didn't have to listen to "A Christmas Carol".) Christmas morning we were all here and Ivy didn't nearly explode, waiting for Emma to come over so she could go downstairs and open her presents. We took the kids' picture in front of the Christmas tree like we have done most of their lives.Fuzz, who has tried to prove how 'adult' he is for the last few years by claiming not to care about anyone but himself, went Christmas shopping! He bought presents for all of us and his best friends.I didn't have much of a chance to do any decent shopping because I only went to The Big City three times since Halloween, and two of those were rush trips.But, in spite of that everybody liked the gifts they got. I did a lot of online shopping, so that helped. As it turned out, a few things that were last minute finds or decisions turned out to be favourite gifts. The down side of online shopping was a few things didn't get here until after Christmas, but that was still ok. So, we had a very cozy Christmas, with everybody here, which is my favourite thing.That was my best gift.
  Of course, I got some other gifts too!

The haul. Note the gift 'for the woman who has everything': that new laundry basket we've been needing. Ken, good thing I know you're kidding!

A couple of Monty Python presents,( a DVD from Ken and a CD from Emma.), and a few Beatles ones,(socks from Emma and magazines from Ken).

Something for my viewing and listening enjoyment,

An obscure and short lived 70's tv series, the soundtrack to a great, underrated movie,and one of my all time favourite movies.) from Ken. 

Dolls, of course!

Maudlynne Macabre and China Girl wonder why Meygana is still in her box. So does Meygana. That sock monkey is just a ham.

  Maudlynne and China Girl are from Ken,as is the set of E.J. Taylor Ivy Cottage dolls,(The kids and I loved the books when they were small.), and the gum ball mini dinosaurs.(I really wanted those!Well, all of those!)And the sock monkey was from Fuzzy.
  And this Lalaoopsy from Ivy!

Guess who got me food!

My favourite Russell Stover chocolates,the best vegetarian marshmallows,candy,chocolate hazelnut Jif, and that bottle of Hershey's syrup I've been wanting to get for ages.Oh, and Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits to make at home! I had to promise Ken I would still go with him to the actual restaraunt. Of course I will: you can't get the Bar Harbor Salad with that blueberry dressing anywhere else!
And then there are some gifts that defy category!

Like this pig whisk from Emma.It matches our pot holder, spatula, and corn forks.
  I hope everybody's holiday was as good as mine was!

My Christmas list is ready, if anyone's interested...

  Ok, It's December now. I feel it's finally ok to put that mental Christmas list that's been living in my head for months into print!
  Apart from that DVD recorder (which is VERY doubtful), and the black socks (which are possible.), I also have ** SURPRISE!** quite a few dolls on my list! Here are my top doll wants for this Christmas:

  This Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse Midge. If her bangs aren't looking screwy, she's so pretty. But even more than Midge, I want...

Life in the Dreamhouse Raquelle. She is so cool! I love that smirk! And Smirky Raquelle is articulated too.And that's the one I want. It has to be the smirky one. Not the one with the regular face.
  I also love the Bratzillaz Meygana dolls. I have had the first one for a while, but they just keep coming out with more. I like them all, but this one has glasses!

I seem to have a thing for dolls in glasses. I know for a fact that this one is already in Santa Ken's bag, because I put her in the cart myself when I found her clearanced at Meijers last week! Actually, I went looking for her since this particular Meijer was the only one I knew of that still carried her. Then I panicked because the entire line was GONE. I was desperately looking at the clearance shelves to no avail, when a Meijer worker walked up and placed her on the shelf right in front of me.She was the only doll of the entire line left in the store and the guy sat her on the shelf right in front of my face. That was my excuse to Ken that she was obviously MEANT to come home with me. He insists I wait until Christmas though, so she disappeared the minute we got home. I just hope he doesn't do something he frequently does, and lose her in his computer room and/or forget to give her to me.
  I also want the China Girl from Oz the Great and Powerful.

I like the tiny one, and the large, limited edition one is amazingly accurate but too expensive. But I have actually found the 14" regular line one in stores.
  And Tonner still has Maudlynne Macabre on sale for $34.99, although not with the extra 20% they had after Thanksgiving. Just saying...

  And in the category of 'dolls I will never own because they cost too much', there's always Amelia Thimble's friend Hamish.

Amelia is nice too, and I wouldn't turn her down if I were gifted with her, but Hamish is so cute. I love little boy dolls.

And the amazing R.John Wright Red Queen.

Again,I wouldn't turn down any R. John Wright dolls, but that Red Queen is wonderful! I've seen her a couple of times at the BIG doll show, and she is so, so...AMAZING. That's the only word for her. And of course, I collect Alice stuff.
  Back to more affordable things. Ken, if you're reading this, (and I know you're not.), I still want a vinyl Diana Effner Willow.  They turn up on Ebay at affordable prices occasionally, and I'd be willing to sell my porcelain Willow if I got one...Ken! Are you reading?!
  And I really like the Journey Girls Kelsey doll, available at Toys R Us Ken.

This one, with the sweater.
  I like a lot of variety in my doll collection.
  I have only just discovered that Barbie has twin siblings again, and one of them is a boy! Check this out!

Not only is he a boy, he wears GLASSES! What was I just saying?! Apparently even the dog wears glasses! I'll have to see them in person first to be sure I want them, but they look cute. And toy companies make so few boy dolls. The World kids have very few male friends and most of them bear a great resemblance to Harry Potter characters! Check this out Emma! Emma collected Stacie dolls when she was little because Emma the doll was a Stacie. I even had to get her one of these new Stacies when they started them a couple of years ago. She would definately have had this set!(Her 'Dolltown' was so desperate for male characters that she resorted to a Toy Story Woody Burger King doll, a Pee Wee Herman action figure, (He was the town trouble maker and led Woody, Snow White's son, astray many times,), and a figural Arthur (As in the aardvark from the children's books.) flashlight.She did eventually get a Todd and all those Harry Potter dolls, but for most of her childhood Woody, Pee Wee, and Arthur were it.
  And ok, I need new Beatles socks too.

 They're more sensible gifts, right? I mean, they are socks.