Christmas Eve Eve - Cookies, DSI, and Dolls

Christmas Eve Eve.
Miss M heard that phrase at church last night
And she referred to today as that all day.

So...about the cookies -
Christmas cut-out cookies
Have always been a tradition with my family in Michigan.
We would spend an entire Saturday.
Dad was in charge of the dough making
(Usually the night before, I think)
And then the rolling and cutting out
And then all four of us kids
And mom
Would spend hours and hours and hours
Frosting
Hundreds and hundreds.
I think my dad made 4-6 dough batches every year.

Somewhere along the line
I took over the making of the dough and cutting out
(Probably because I learned that I could sneak all the raw dough I wanted
And that if you rolled and baked then you got out of frosting!)

Every other year,
Since I've moved to Arizona
I've gone back to Michigan
And they would save the cookie baking job for me.

This year
They did it without me.
This year
I did it without them.

Today
I taught my foster daughters
The joy and craft of making roll out sour cream cookies
Using Great Great Aunt Clara Virkler's recipe.

And
I taught them
How to lick batters
Lick fingers
(And then wash hands)
Eat the broken pieces
And how to best hold the cookie in order to frost.

Ms. O is like me - not so much into the frosting.

Miss M loved the frosting.  Truly have never seen her put some much effort into making something look so nicely.

Hard at work.

Here is some of the "finished project."

Proof of Miss M's patience and focus.

So...about the DSIs - 
The girls received DSIs from their grammy
At their visit yesterday.
Now we are establishing
Rules
(No whining if you can't figure out how to play the game - read the directions.)
Guidelines
(No chatting to each other of the machines when you are in the same house and room!)
Time limits
(30 minute increments for now - not sure how to deal with this one yet.)
They also received little MP3 players.
Loaded them up with various Christian music
And oldies I used in my classroom.
Got to love watching them dance and sing around the house to themselves.
So grateful they are comfortable enough to be free and childlike.

So...about the dolls - 
Probably a month ago
One of my friends from my licensing group
Contacted me to see if Miss M and Ms. O might be interested in
Receiving two dolls that a woman from her church found.
I said sure
And then I kind of forgot about them.

Then about two weeks ago
She called me to say there were at her house
And I could pick them up at anytime.
Then
I began to realize what it means to be
"Home for the Holidays"
And have two girls
And a full time jobs
And too many evening commitments
And I never got them.
Just kept forgetting.

So,
They dropped them off this afternoon.
The girls were estatic.
Way more so than I could have EVER suspected.
They were nearly giddy.
Each other came in a box
That also contained a suitcase
And in that suitcase came
Multiple hand-made
Complete
Outfits for each doll.
Dresses
Coats
Pajamas
Socks
Shoes
Slippers
Robes
Underwear
Hats
Purses

It was hilarious to hear them be in the middle of imaginary play
And then break "character" and exclaim over a new treasure they located.

Ms. O and Allie in Allie's Party Dress

Miss M and Emily in Emily's Princess Dress

Emily and Allie in their spa robes and sleep over clothes - Check out those slippers!!!

Emily and Allie in their "Country Club" clothes.  I heard them talking about these from the kitchen and couldn't wait to see what in the world they felt were "country club" outfits.  After I saw them I asked them what they thought a country club and they said it was somewhere people went to those horse riding shows.  LOL.  We ended up calling these their "Hoedown" outfits. 

PS - So...about the roses- 
Drained the water out of them this morning.
Stuck them on top of the dryer
And shut the door.
Four + hours later
Still not dead.
Sprayed some Oxi Clean in the vase.
Four + hours later
Still not dead.
Sprayed some Pledge in the vase.
Four + hours later
Heading to bed tonight
Still not dead.
Crap.

May have just shoved them into the trash bag
Which then made a speedy exit
Out to the trash container.
Then again
Maybe I didn't
And some evil elf did.