Stitching with Elli

“Bye, Emily!! Hope it goes well!!”

Bridget and Debbie waved to Emily as she left for the day.

“Well, what are we going to do now?” Bridget sighed as she watched the van pull away. “We have already explored this house thoroughly….what can we do all day?”

She was rather sad that they couldn’t go with Emily. She and Bridget were too small to be able to handle one of the handchimes in the choir….so there really wasn’t much they could do to help Emily. Bridget had suggested that they could work the pedals on the piano for Emily. But, she had said “thank you very much for the offer ,but it really would be easier if I did it by myself.” Another brilliant Bridget idea shot down 🙂

“I have the perfect thing to do this afternoon!” Debbie said cheerfully. “Let’s have a chocolate party!!!”

Bridget’s eyes got big. “oooOOOooo I forgot about the chocolate! That is a great idea!”

The day before, Emily had gone to Haigh’s chocolate factory in Adelaide. The dolls couldn’t go, but she brought them back some delicious chocolate.

Bridget settled in on the couch with her bag of goodies. She eyed it with eager anticipation.

Where was Debbie? Bridget could hear her  bumping around upstairs in the bedroom, getting something else. Bridget’s little toes tapped impatiently as she peered into the bag. She couldn’t see anything. There were just more little bags inside the big bag. “Debbieeeee, Where did you go?” Bridget called toward the stairs.”  Can I open the bag yet??”

“No worries mate! Here I am!” Debbie announced in her best imitation of an Australian accent as she climbed up on the edge of the couch. “Look! I got the extra bag of Dark chocolate Speckles. Emily said we could have a few of those, as long as we didn’t eat the whole bag.”

“Yummy!!” Bridget’s voice sounded a tad muffled as she dived into the bag and quickly emerged holding a smaller bag. “Here, have a chocolate teddy bear!” she passed one of the bears to Debbie.

“Aww, look how cute he is!” Debbie was delighted with the little bear.

Debbie opened one of her bags and started gathering her chocolate in a neat pile.

“Is that a frog?? Bridget asked, surprised. She was staring at one of the chocolates that had been in Debbie’s bag.

“Yes. Isn’t he fun? Nellie would just love a chocolate frog.” laughed Debbie. ” Could you scoot over  please, Bridget. I want to look at all this chocolate without worrying about falling off the couch.”

Debbie gathered her precious plunder and prepared to position herself in close proximity to her pal.

They each ate one of the little chocolates, and shared a truffle. They couldn’t decide if the other chocolates were too cute to eat, so they took a break and looked at some of the sea shell’s Emily had brought back.

“Wow! These are small shells. Look.  I can just barely fit my thumbs inside them!” Debbie was impressed with how small but yet so perfect they looked.

Bridget thought they were very lovely shells….but she hadn’t forgotten about the chocolate, either. She still clutched one of the teddy bears in her little hand.

“Can we eat the rest of the chocolate yet?” she asked Debbie wistfully.

Debbie agreed, and they decided to start with eating the frog.

“Mmm, I’ve always wanted to try frog legs. They taste delicious.” Bridget giggled.

“We should get Ellen to serve frog legs like this. Maybe we can convince her they are healthy.” Debbie chuckled. (Ellen had slightly recovered from her health food ideas from the new year…but not completely, so telling her something was healthy was a good way to get her to try it. 😉

“Frog legs must be at least as healthy as the seaweed she fed us!” Bridget laughed.

Debbie nodded because her mouth was full of chocolate. When she finished that bite, she turned to Bridget.

“Say, do you know what these frog legs need?” She asked.

“What?” Bridget answered.

“Milk!!” Debbie replied. “Milk goes with everything!”

Bridget was unsure if they had any, but Debbie was not to be discouraged.

She hopped off the couch and went to investigate the refrigerator.

Bridget listened, and heard the refrigerator door swinging open. Then she heard Debbie’s triumphant “AH HAH! There is milk in here!” then a silence…..

“Do you need help?” Bridget called.

“No, I’ve got this!” Debbie replied…..pause

THUMP!… “Oops…umm no worries it didn’t break!”

Bridget was a little anxious, but soon Debbie came out of the kitchen pushing the milk jug across the floor. Bridget asked if anything broke. Debbie told her it was just the tomato sauce that had fallen out of the refrigerator, but it was okay now.

Bridget’s next question was how were they going to get the milk jug up there….

Debbie said that was easy enough, it just required a little pulling from Bridget and pushing from her.

It took a try or two because, as Bridget said, it was “sloshy” which made the weight shift around. Eventually, they got it up on the couch.

“Oops! I forgot the cups!!” Debbie dashed back to the kitchen and returned with two mugs for them. They were a little easier to pass up to Bridget.

“Are you sure there weren’t any smaller cups?” Bridget was examining the cup she held. “This is a very big cup, I like milk, but I’m not sure I can drink that much!”

“Sorry, it was the best they had in the kitchen. We can just fill it partially .” Debbie replied. “All clear up there? I’m coming up!”

“Hold the cup while I pour. Don’t let me fill too near the top!” Debbie instructed as she perched on the arm of the couch preparing to pour.

“STOP!” Bridget called before the milk filled the cup too far.

Debbie set the jug back down, grunting. “Umph! I don’t know why they call this Light milk…it feels heavy to me!”

The chocolate party (or frog leg party as Bridget called it) went smoothly after that. They sipped their milk and munched on delicious chocolate. As with most parties, the topics of their conversations rambled. They talked about their experience on the flight.- (Bridget didn’t like flying much. The security scared her and there were soooo many people around!) –  What they thought of the other people that were travelling with Emily.- Mostly they were staying out of their way, until they figured out how they felt about dolls. But, they had heard Emily talking to them, and Emily seemed to like them, so they must be okay.  – About the Kangaroos and those parrot-looking birds that seemed to be everywhere.

Then, like many travelers their thoughts wandered back to those left at home. They wondered what the other doll’s were doing… if Ellen was organizing a summer productivity program. ..if Elizabeth and Rose were taking care of all the rose bushes they had planted.  Debbie then started wondering about Emily’s Grandma, and how she was doing. They decided to use one of the post cards Emily had bought to send one to Emily’s Grandma.

They cleaned up the cups and put away the leftover chocolate and went back upstairs to write.

Bridget said Debbie hovered over her shoulder too much, and it made her writing wobbly. Debbie said she just wanted to see better.

Because it was a combined effort, there were a few things crossed out or smudged while they were discussing exactly what to write.

The signature and who they were writing it as, required much discussion. Debbie said they should write it as if they were Emily.  Bridget thought that would be forgery, and they might go to jail for it. What if Emily’s Grandma thought it was fraud???? Debbie said it wasn’t forgery if they told Emily about it. And after, all she would have to mail it for them…so it wasn’t being sneaky. They were just helping Emily. It just made more sense to write it as Emily than to write her grandma themselves. “After all, doesn’t Emily write things down like we say them all the time? That isn’t forgery and Emily isn’t going to go to jail for that!”

Bridget didn’t think that was quite the same…she thought the fact it was going thru the mail made it a federal offence. Which also brought up the problem of was it a federal offence in Australia, or the United states…or BOTH?? Debbie said goverments had bigger things to worry about.  In the end Bridget gave in, as long as they showed it to Emily and asked her about it later.

I hope the post card got through! What is the furthest away you have ever received a post card?

P.S I apologize for the quality of the photos. I didn’t have my regular camera with me and I didn’t make good friends with the one I had 😦