Stitching with Elli

The dolls are still hard at work decorating the tree.

“Watch out! You almost kicked my head! Who is that in there anyway?” said Rose as she had to duck away from a  foot that was a bit too close to her head.

“Oh  sorry! Was it me? Where are you standing?” Susan asked

“What color is your shoe?” asked Rose.

“Black” replied Susan.

“No, this is a white shoe” said Rose rose grabbing the foot and shaking it. “Who goes there?” she teased.”

“Oops that is me! Sorry I almost kicked you. Let go of my foot!” laughed Nellie.

“I think we are done fluffing out the branches, What is next?” Samantha called down from her perch.

“I found the pretty fabric to put around the bottom!” Bridget called. “Shall I put it under now?”

Josefina agreed that was a good next step. Bridget crawled under the tree to tuck it in place.

Samantha suggested they listen to Christmas music while they put up the tree. They all thought this was a good idea. Alice was elected to go put on some music.

Felicity had found the lights in the box. They worked together to form a light passing line. Felicity passed it to Lanie…handed them to Josefina…who passed them to Susan….who passed them to Bridget who was still under the tree.

Bridget plugged them in and threw them on the tree. “Look Josefina!! I put the lights on! Ta-da!!!!!”

Josefina wasn’t quite happy with the way it looked. Though she did admit it looked very bright….in just that one spot.

Soon they organized and Nellie, Bridget, Samantha, Lanie and Debbie were on the lights team.

“Bridget can you give Nellie any more length? It is pulling tight up here”. Samantha called down to Bridget on the ground, as Nellie reached for the light string and pulled it up.

“I think I have it now!” Nellie said as she stretched out to unhook the lights from a branch.

“Here is the next string!” Debbie came up with an armful of lights.

“How do we attach them?” Nellie wanted to know. Lanie showed them how the end of one light string could plug into the front of the string.

“How many strings do you all have?” asked Josefina from the ladder.

“This is just the second, but we have 4 more.” Nellie called up.

They got to work….Samantha even helpfully climbed in the tree to help with the tall parts.

Josefina  (and Rose, and Felicity, and Maryellen, and Ruthie) went to work adding the decorative picks to the tree.

“Hold still Felicity.  I  almost have the bow adjusted” Susan told Felicity. She found she couldn’t get high enough with just the ladder…so she was using Felicity’s shoulders as well.

Rose found some more red berry picks to hand to Felicity.

They were all poking the decorative berries and sprays in whereever they could reach.

Uh oh…there seems to be a problem with the light crew. They are having a conference.

There seems to be a lot of whispering going on with the light crew.

Josefina went over to Lanie to see what the problem was.

The problem is that they have run out of light strings, and the top of the tree doesn’t have any lights on it!!

“Oh no!!” said Josefina.

Bridget suggested that they use colored lights at the top.  That idea was voted down by almost everyone else , because it wouldn’t match the rest (….except for Nellie and Felicity. They thought it would make it look unique!)

They decided that they would either have to redo all the light strings already on the tree….or wait until Emily bought them more lights.

Another delay in getting the tree up!! Still, there are worse Christmas tree catastrophes…at least this one hasn’t fallen over! 😉