Well, it's almost time for Santa to go and deliver his gifts, so the elves are busy double 
checking the list, and gathering all the presents to load into the sleigh.....

Efreet and Ringo are brand new elf recruits this year, and Ringo is getting rather 
fed up with hauling so many presents. Some are very big and heavy.

"Are we done yet?"  
"Almost...... Just a couple of million more."

Miki wanted to make a popcorn chain for the tree, so we popped a big bowl full of popcorn....

"Is this long enough yet?"

After gorging themselves on sugarplums, the mice realized they'd completely blown their diets.

"It's time for something nutritious - something better for us than sugar.  How about some nuts? 
I love pecans, and there's plenty of nutcrackers about."

But they'd underestimated how tall the nutcrackers were. So, after dragging over a chair, one of them climbed up, while the other handed her a nice big pecan....which she stuffed into his mouth....

"Okay, now we need someone to pull hard on the lever...."
The little white mouse was only too happy to oblige....

" Ooomph...this is hard work!"

With a little teamwork they soon had a nice pile of cracked nuts, 
and sat down to enjoy them..

"These are the best pecans I've ever tasted!"

Christmas pictures this year have taken a different turn from previous years, mostly because I don't like to repeat things endlessly, and last year I covered almost everything. This year I have my doll's Christmas tree in the middle of my dining room table, along with some doll furniture, some nutcrackers, and of course my little mice. Each day when I go past I'm inspired to try something different with them.  Yesterday was no exception, so today I have a few more photos to share.

....the little mice enjoying the sugarplums after another great performance....

....a portrait of my lovely Butterfly Narae.....

.....then another scene from the ballet......

The Nutcracker brings back memories of our very first date many years ago. Jan and I met in November 1975, and the first two attempts at a date were snowed out with major blizzards. So he asked me to the Nutcracker after Christmas. My Mom sewed a beautiful long red velvet dress for me to wear. Jan picked me up and we drove into downtown Toronto and had a lovely dinner at Old Ed's (which was later torn down and replaced by the Princess of Wales Theatre) After dinner we tried to find our way through the dark one-way streets towards O"Keefe Centre (later renamed the Hummingbird Centre, and now the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts) Suddenly out of nowhere we were broadsided and the car spun around. Seems we had somehow ended up going the wrong way on a one-way street, and because there were no traffic lights in the direction we were coming from, we had driven right into the path of oncoming traffic on University Avenue. The first thing the police said to Jan when they arrived, was "You are from Hamilton, and you don't know about one way streets?" It was so embarrassing, but thankfully no one was hurt. 

It was winter, and freezing cold out, so we were seated in the back of the squad car.  Jan's damaged car was towed away. One of the officers had found my glasses which had flown off during the impact.  Finally all the paperwork was done, and the officers turned to us and said "It's still five minutes to curtain time, so do you still want to go to the Nutcracker?" We looked at each other and both said "Yes!!" So with lights flashing and sirens wailing we sped through downtown Toronto to Front Street, and pulled up into the front entrance of the theatre. Everyone  stared as the doorman stepped forward, opened the back door of the police car, and we stepped out....

With the mice playing the Sugar Plum Fairies this year, we needed an appropriately 
diminutive individual to play the role of the Nutcracker Prince opposite them. 
Well, Mr. Ropuha the Toad was only too happy to step in and give it a try....

"Okay, let's get this show on the road!"

For someone new to ballet, he did quite a good job. Of course some fine nylon thread 
tied to the chandelier above, and a few pieces of well-placed eye putty helped too.

Another shot from dress rehearsal. Butterfly Narae is playing the part of Clara this year....

Lisa is busy baking cookies today, and Ringo can barely wait to try them....

I think I've finally found a wig that suits my Lisa. I've been trying all kinds on her all year, and none of them really seemed to work. Most of the other Lisas I've seen look amazing with black hair, but I find black is such a 'dead' colour, so I tried a dark brown short bob.  I really like it.

My mice love to dance, and every Christmas season they look forward to participating in the annual production of the Nutcracker.  But they were very tired of always having to be the bad guys and battle the Nutcracker Prince. So this year they decided to be Sugar Plum Fairies....all three of them

I managed a quick photo at dress rehearsal.....

Well, it's just one week until Christmas, and I've changed my mind about the photos I was planning with the elf costumes I've been working on the past two weeks. I've decided what I really need is a Santa figure, but there's no time to make one this year anymore. What I'd really like is a Santa head to go on my Maya's body, so he would be a completely pose-able BJD for holiday photos. So that will be one of my goals for next year - sculpt a Santa head. In the meantime I've started a new project using some very fine silk left over from dressing miniature dollhouse dolls years ago, some very fine tulle and nylon tricot, and some small lace wings.... 

It's been above freezing and raining for two days, so when Tillie went outside to check
 on her snowman, she was disappointed to see there really wasn't much left of him....

Well, winter hasn't even officially begun yet, so there will probably be a lot more snow to come.