Decorating the tree for Christmas 2018

Since my October posts I've not been able to do much with any of my dolls for close personal family reasons so I'm not feeling very festive this year. Loss of a beloved sibling (even though expected after a long, courageous battle) is a whole new experience for my sister and I (having experienced loss of both parents in childhood) and does bring into focus what really matters in our daily lives, even though we live in different countries.  However, we're still doing what we can for Christmas as we cherish the memories of past happy Christmasses which he did so well.

Yesterday my younger daughter and I had a redressing doll afternoon and preparation of the scene, then on Christmas Eve we found time in the evening to take photos.  So enjoy the photos of the much loved pastime of children decorating the Christmas tree in preparation for celebrating the giving and receiving of love.

How to keep two excited toddlers occupied on Christmas Eve?  Give them their own new Christmas tree to decorate!

Edmund had the first decoration - a miniature Christmas tree

Louisa was pleased to hang a snowman on the tree next

Several decorations later

Baby Daisy reached into the box of decorations

She picked out another snowman to hang on a lower branch which was nicely in reach

Baby Nina found a red decoration in the box

Louisa watched a bit anxiously as Nina reached over to the tree to hang her decoration

Nina managed to hang her decoration on the tree without pulling the tree over

Edmund had a red bauble for the tree

Edmund carefully put the red bauble on a branch

Daisy and the tree

Tree decorating all finished - the toddlers looked at each other proudly as Trendon Elliott and Melanie looked on.

Edmund and Louisa with their tree

The whole Sasha family with their Christmas trees

L-R: baby Theo, Timothy, Nicholas James, baby Daisy, Edmund, Trendon Elliott, Melanie, Louisa, baby Nina, baby Davy, Reuben and baby Amy

L-R: Edmund, Trendon Elliott, Melanie, Louisa, baby Nina, baby Davy, Reuben, baby Amy, Laura, baby Leo, Florence, baby Mabel and Miranda

Jenny and Lexie's Halloween party 2018

Jenny and Lexie invited their best friends for a Halloween party - the most important part of the party was the food! My Jenny and Lexie are joined by Heather Maciak's vinyl girls Annie and Emily, as well as my three Heidi Plusczok girls (Patsi - Anniversary, California and Florida).

What should we eat first?

It all looks so yummy - cakes, jam tarts, jelly, toffee apples, ring donuts, chocolate biscuits

I like toffee apples and chocolate (Lexie, Annie and Patsi)

Please pass the jam tarts

I like jam tarts and chocolate biscuits

Halloween feast at the party - Lexie, Annie, Patsi (California), Patsi (Florida), Patsi (Anniversary), Emily and Jenny tuck in to their treats.

Lexie, Patsi (California), Patsi (Florida), Patsi (Anniversary), Jenny

Birds eye view of the Halloween feast!

Lots of chatting about the different cakes and jelly

Lexie, Patsi (Florida), Patsi (Anniversary), Emily and Jenny

Lexie, Annie and Patsi (California)

The miniature food is 1/12th scale and belongs in Mrs Harvey's cake, sweet and toy shop. The Sasha dolls uses the backdrop and Halloween decorations in their band at the Chat 'n Snap this year, however the small dolls wanted to join the fun too, hence their own little party.

Chat n Snap 2018 - part 2

I put my daughter in charge of the camera at the Chat 'n Snap, I did take some photos but she had fun prowling around with the camera and experimenting with the settings (the best way to learn).

In addition to Animal's Halloween Band, we brought 5 of our Sasha and Gregor dolls for the general display: Timothy, Laura, Florence with babies Amy and Leo.  We had dressed them in autumnal outfits.  My daughter enjoyed capturing their close up portraits.

Timothy, Laura, Florence and babies Amy and Leo

Timothy

Amy

Laura

Leo

Florence

Teddy was dressing his dolls in their Halloween outfits and did some restringing of dolls for Leni, who was delighted.

Dressing dolls in their Halloween outfits

I photographed a general view of the sales tables (after we had bought 2 outfits and two pairs of trainers).

Sales tables a the Chat 'n Snap 2018

There was an adoption table which also had a large box filled with lots of small balls of crochet cotton in many colours (donated by Catherine F) - my daughter chose plenty of colours for a donation towards the charity which the Chat 'n Snap always supports (Alzheimer's).

21 different colours of crochet cotton

My daughter took some photos of the Raffle table - there were 3 dolls in the raffle this time, with a multitude of other prizes.

The Raffle table

Two of the raffle dolls and some other prizes

Raffle doll donated by Dee

Raffle baby

Raffle doll donated by Petrana

Close up of the doll donated by Petrana

Raffle prizes (including the coat and hat set my daughter chose for her first winning ticket)

Raffle prizes

Raffle prizes

Raffle prizes included this table and chairs set

My raffle prize donation was the promise to sew a shweshwe outfit (sundress, hat, under pants and sandals) - I didn't have time to make anything before the event.  I brought the fabric with me in a bag to show to the winner, who made her choice, therefore I have some sewing to do soon.

The Raffle table, including my promise of a shweshwe outfit in fabric selection of the winner's choice

I took some photos of the dolls on the general display. Some of them had their hair dyed.

General display of Sasha dolls 1

General display of Sasha dolls 2

General display of Sasha dolls 3

General display of Sasha dolls 4

General display of Sasha dolls 5

General display of Sasha dolls 6

General display of Sasha dolls 7

General display of Sasha dolls 8

General display of Sasha dolls 9

General display of Sasha dolls 10

General display of Sasha dolls 11

General display of Sasha dolls 12

General display of Sasha dolls 13

General display of Sasha dolls 14

General display of Sasha dolls 15

General display of Sasha dolls 16

It was time for the raffle - the first doll (donated by Dee), later the baby doll with her set of clothes and the third doll (dressed and donated by Petrana) went to three different very happy people. We were lucky enough to win 4 prizes (a grey coat and black hat set, an original red pinafore dress with an original white school shirt, a pair of boneka shoes and some miniature cookie cutters). 

Returning from the raffle with the coat and hat set

The draw for the final doll (donated by Petrana)

Lucky winner of the final doll

Dee presented prizes for the Halloween ball best costume awards (all the individual dolls were entered, excluding the band).  The first prize was won by Theresa, all the prize winners received pumpkins from the display.

Winning the pumpkin for the best Halloween costume

Thanking everyone for supporting the Chat 'n Snap

All too soon it was time to pack up - Animal and his band went back into a trolley case for the journey home while our other 5 dolls went into their travel bags and we had final chats with friends before going home.

Thank you to Dee and all her helpers for another very enjoyable Chat 'n Snap, the spookiest yet!  Apparently a total of £1,300 was raised (via the raffle, tickets, food and donations) at the Chat 'n Snap for Alzheimer's research, a really good result.