Stitching with Elli

It was lazy, but yet busy afternoon. There was nothing too urgent for the dolls to do, but they were finding things to keep them busy.

Ellen, Lanie and Lea were working on another puzzle. This was bigger puzzle than the last puzzle!!

The cousins, Emma, Bonnie and Alice, were reading another Christmas book.

Bonnie read slightly faster than the other two, so she had to keep waiting for them to finish before turning the page.

In the corner, Debbie and Elizabeth were working on stringing popcorn. Elizabeth had already threaded her needle, but Debbie was having a great deal of trouble putting the thread through the eye of the needle.

Debbie was fussing under her breath. “Go in there! why won’t you go in!! oh please! coooooome ooooooon!!!” She finally exploded ” Oh!! Graham crackers!!!! I can’t get this thread to hold still! It wiggles all over the place and gets tangled around my fingers.”

“Try licking it,” Alice called calmly from the couch next to Debbie. She didn’t even look up from the page.

Debbie stared at a her a second, wondering how Alice could multitask like that, solving  one problem, while reading a book about something entirely different. And how did Alice know she hadn’t tried that??? Her back had been to Debbie the whole time. “Maybe someday I can be smart  and multitask like that,” Debbie thought to herself.

Debbie then tried licking the thread…it worked!!

“Thank you Alice!!!” she called. Alice nodded and said “Welcome”,  without even lifting her eyes from the page.

At the other end of the couch, there was a very serious discussion going on. Bridget had found out about something called “writing Christmas lists” She was explaining what this meant to Maryellen and Rose.

“You write down things you don’t have, but would like to have…and then people can give it to you. They don’t have to give it to you, it is just an idea list, just in case they want to give something to you,” She explained.

Rose stared at her paper and said she couldn’t think of anything.  Maryellen said she couldn’t either. From different parts of the room, dolls called out helpful suggestions.

“How about a wagon?” Elizabeth suggested. “We have one ,but having two would be nice. We could have races!”

Maryellen and Rose said they thought one was enough….but Bridget thought it was a great idea!

“How about a book on Morse Code? suggested Ellen.  She was studying a puzzle piece very hard, trying to figure out where it went.

“What is Morse Code?” asked Rose.

“It is a way of talking or writing that uses dots and lines instead of words and letters,” explained Lea

“Oh, that sounds interesting… but too hard.” Rose replied.

Other suggestions were brought up, including a horse (but where would we put it?) a car (but we can’t drive) candy (but we have so many cookies..) Music cds (Emily has many and we can listen to hers) …., but nothing sounded right to Rose or Maryellen.

Bridget suggested they sit and think quietly for a while.

Things were quiet for a while..only the occasional murmurs and little noises from the puzzle workers.. “ah hmmm!” “There it goes!” “What about this one?”

Occasionally an “OW!” would come from Debbie’s corner as she stabbed herself with the needle instead of stabbing the popcorn.

“Maybe the needle is too big?” Elizabeth asked anxiously. She knew Debbie had so looked forward to this. She wished it was going easier for her. Debbie didn’t think it was the needle…she said it was the ornery popcorn kernels.

Rose and Mary Ellen don’t look like they are making much progress …

Every one continued working (or reading, or writing… Or puzzle piecing) quietly.

“Ellen?” Bridget’s voice broke the quietness. “How do you spell hippopotamus?”

“H-I-P-P-O-P…..Wait..” Ellen paused with a puzzle piece in her hand to stare at Bridget. “Why do you need to know that?”

“For my list!” Bridget said cheerfully.

Ellen stared at her….pushed her glasses up on her nose and said slowly…”Why is there a hippopotamus on your list?”

“I thought it might be fun. They are kind of cute.” was Bridget’s innocent reply.

Oh my, I think maybe we need to see what is on Bridget’s list…..

That list caused a lot of discussion. Ellen said if Bridget got a hippopotamus ,then she was going to move out! She wasn’t about to live with such a huge lumbering beast. Also, what was Bridget going to do with an airplane??? Bridget said she had experience, so it would be okay. Debbie said that was true, Bridget had been in the cockpit of an airplane before.

Emma wanted to know why Instant Pot accessories. Bridget replied, it might be safer for a doll to cook with one of those, because “it doesn’t get hot until you close the lid”.

“What did you put on your list? ” Bridget asked Rose.  She was trying deflect Ellen’s attention away from noticing that there was a puppy on the list too.

“I couldn’t think of many things” Rose replied.

“I just want a cello and a bear…I love teddy bears.” She said wistfully.

“Maybe you can get a bear that plays the cello” joked Bridget. “What did you write, Maryellen?”

“Mostly I wanted snow…but I already asked Emily, and she said that wasn’t likely. So, I put some other things down, too.” Maryellen explained as she showed them her list….

While all the discussion about the list was going on on that side of the couch…

Debbie was expressing her exasperation with stringing popcorn! She said it hurt too much, plus even after she got one strung, it would fall off. Anyway, the tree was already up ….Maybe next year she would try again. There must have been some sort of “how-to instruction” in the Christmas books that she missed. “oh well,” she sighed…I guess some traditions can be overlooked.” The stringing was going easier for Elizabeth, but she thought it was going to take a very long time to string enough popcorn for the tree. Maybe they should start earlier next year…like maybe August……

P.s Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for the Jacket see the post here! The giveaway will end tomorrow night!.