First the scene of them decorating the gingerbread house. Like usual I set everything up on a box on the kitchen counter. That's so the dolls are at roughly the height that their eyes would be if they were real children, which is important for shooting anything in forced perspective....
I had Sara standing, and Bella sitting flat on the ground, both of which were easy poses, but I wanted variety and wanted Alex to be sitting on his knees. He is articulated at the hips and knees, but won't hold a knelling pose on his own, so I took a thick elastic band (the ones that come around our morning paper) to help him hold a kneeling position. He also needed elastics at the wrists so his hands would be pulled close enough together to actually hold something.