Elsa's 12 Days of Christmas: Two Bah Humbugs

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my 12 Days of Christmas. I have been very behind on my posts, so I've decided to submit a lot of them all at once over the course of a few days. December 6th was the first day, where we found a tiny tree for humans and befriended a nutcracker named Benny. Later, She found us a tiny doll-sized tree and we decorated it together. That lead me to my first discovery: Christmas is beautiful. And now we continue with the second day and verse. On the second day of Christmas a human gave to me two bah humbugs and a tiny doll Christmas tree!

***

Twelve days until Christmas. What I strange thought! I titled my head, trying to imagine what Christmas would be like. I hoped I could finish my 12 Days of Christmas posts by then! Well, I knew what it was like upstairs. I wasn't sure what it was like downstairs yet. I hear the humans bustling around a lot down there, but we've never had the time to investigate. She is in her room almost all of the time on her laptop, groaning about schoolwork. I wasn't sure what school was. Dolls don't have schools. We were probably lucky, born knowing all the education we would ever need. But no amount of learning could get us alone in a room for a while, it seemed.

Fortunately, I had time to think aloud and discuss our options to Olaf and Loki when She went downstairs in the morning to leave to wherever humans disappear to. We waited for the door to close behind her, and then her footsteps going down the stairs. When She was finally out of earshot, the three of us let out a breath it felt like we'd been holding in forever. 

"Finally!" cried Olaf. "I thought that She'd never leave!"

"Olaf!" I scolded. "That's not polite! She takes good care of us here."

"Right," said Loki. "So what's our plan for today?" He was laying on the blanket She gave him, staring at the ceiling above, the part with the hanging paper snowflakes.

"Well..." I stopped speaking to bite my lip. "I didn't exactly have one."

"Ooh! Ooh! I've got an idea!" the snowman yelled, jumping up and down with a stick-arm in the air.

"Yes, Olaf?" I asked.

"How about we go downstairs? I read the calender She had over there and it said something about a bigger tree being decorated down there."

"Oh, really?" I replied. "I had no idea." ...that Olaf could read. But I didn't want to offend him by pointing it out, and besides, there were three trees in the house now! We just had to go check the other tree out. Maybe it held another Christmas clue.

"You okay, with that, Loki?" I asked, turning to our little elf-man friend. 

He only shrugged and picked up his staff, just in case. "Why wouldn't I be?"

I shrugged in return. "I don't know."
"Okay, let's go everyone!" Olaf cried happily. He was the off the dresser and out the door before any of us had the chance. We followed him quickly.

Benny was there guarding the little human tree as usual. As if it needs to be guarded! From who or what? Oh well. We waved hello, and he asked us where we were going.
I curtsied in his direction, unsure if I still had to be extra polite to him. Better overdo it to be safe. "Good sir, we are going to visit the human tree downstairs." I replied.
"Which one, my dear lady?"
The three of us looked at each-other. There was more than one downstairs as well?
"Whichever one we see first." Loki answered for me. So that was that.

I find this rather interesting- we all had our separate ways of walking down the stairs. Well, maybe walking only described what I was doing. Olaf and Loki had their own separate style. Olaf acted as one of those human toys- a slinky, by going down each stair bouncing up and down, smiling like a goon the whole way. I think he's beginning to learn that things don't hurt him, but I'm not sure if it's because he thinks he's made of snow or stuffing.

Loki simply teleported. But I had to walk like a queen. Lift my dress slightly, try to not to trip on my cape, step slowly.
"I found one!" Olaf cried once he reached the bottom of the stairs. He was looking into a room with a table and chairs...and not much else. Was this what the humans called a dining room? Well, it was lovely anyways. And Olaf was right. Another tiny tree sat in the middle of the table.
Olaf was the first to check it out. He gave it a good look-over and then moved on. It didn't seem to interest him much. Loki and I took our time. I had to kneel down to see it properly.
It was a tree made out of four panels of green wood all connected at the center. There were multiple circles in the center of the tree. Some of them held ornaments, others did not. It was a pretty tree, but not really as magnificent as we were expecting. I wondered what on earth it was intended for. The tree was sitting on a box, which held smaller, numbered boxes inside of it. Loki opened one to see what was inside. It was another tiny ornament.

"Oh, I know what this is!" said Loki. "It's an Advent calender. Each day the humans put one ornament on the tree to count down to Christmas."
"How odd!" I exclaimed. Was that a clue?
"I'm bored. Can we leave and go find the other tree?" Olaf asked.
"Just a minute." I said, lifting all openings on every tiny box I could find. I heard Olaf impatiently humming one of the Christmas songs I had heard a few days ago. It might have been called, "Silver Bells." The singer did that those words a lot.
Once I had almost finished a row of boxes, I heard Olaf grow quiet. A rare thing for him. So something must be wrong. I looked up and saw him worriedly looking over at the cupboard across the room. The cupboard had all sorts of things on top of it. It appeared to be a tiny town, with heaps of cotton as snow, and mirrors posing as ice. It was pretty, but not as pretty as the tree. I guess it didn't help my opinion that the town was too small for me to enjoy.
"What is it, Olaf?" I asked, walking over to him. I had given up on searching all the boxes. It was boring and it took too much time. I don't think the meaning of Christmas is hidden inside a box of any sort.
He looked to me, and then back to the town. To me, and then the town. "I don't think we should be here." he said finally.

I, too, got weird vibes from just looking at the town. But I also felt that we had to stay for some reason. So we stayed.
Loki didn't seem to pick up on it. He wandered around the table. Checking out the Advent calender tree, and the candles, but there wasn't much else to see on our side. It seemed that we had no choice but the explore the town in hopes of finding the meaning of Christmas.
"Ready to check out the town?" I asked a little nervously.
"There's a town?" Loki asked.
"Yeah," I pointed to the town on the cupboard. "Right over there, see?"
"Oh," he said, and drew a blank card in his brain. "I see."
"Want to go check it out?" I asked reluctantly. I wasn't sure if his reaction was a good thing or not.
Loki only nodded. Okay then... I wasn't sure how to react to his reaction, if that made any sense. Olaf, however, dragged behind. There was something he didn't like about this place. And quite honestly, neither did I, but we kept going, all the way to the end of the table where there laid a little covered bridge, obviously the town's entrance.

(above picture is a overhead view of the town)
We were about to pass the covered bridge and leap off the table when we heard this awful growling noise. Well, it sounded like growling to me. It was probably more like angry shouting spoken so fast that it sounded like growling. But no matter. Because the next thing I knew, something was chasing after me and I had to get away. Such as the day in the life of Queen Elsa.
The growling thing was tiny. Smaller than Loki. And She calls him a little elf-man, so you know that it was small. And vicious. It almost grabbed onto my cape had I not ran back to Olaf and hid behind him. I never would have called Olaf smart, but at least he trusted his gut. Or lack thereof.
"WHO GOES THERE?!" The growling thing shouted. He had finally stopped long enough for me to tell what he was saying- and also see what my attacker looked like. Like I said before, he was tiny, but also in probably the most ridiculous costume a doll could wear. If he was a doll. I noticed the metal clasp drilled into his head and found that he was a key-chain. Made sense. The other dolls at Wandering Oaken's had warned me not to speak with key chains.
Once I saw what he was and that I was no longer threatened, I came out from my hiding place. Olaf was too scared to speak, but so far I was the tallest doll I had seen at The House She Lived In, and a key-chain was something I shouldn't be afraid of.
The key-chain man stomped over to the covered bridge and raised his arms in terror. I was vaguely reminded of the human story of an evil, ugly troll living under a bridge that ate helpless billy goats. Loki stayed his ground. In fact, I don't even think he flinched when he saw him. Perhaps Loki recognized the key-chain somewhere, after all, I knew for a fact that Loki was apart of the Marvel universe, and maybe this key-chain was, too. The outfit was certainly ridiculous enough. And I wear a dress supposed to be made of ice.

"WHO GOES THERE?!" The key-chain repeated. I was vaguely reminded of Benny, you know, guarding something for whatever reason. Only less friendly. A lot less friendly.
We reluctantly walked towards the troll. Loki was first, the gears in his head probably turning at light speed, and me behind him, practically dragging Olaf along with me.
The key-chain scowled, looking up at Loki. He looked down at him, confused.
"Yes?"
"State your name and business!" the key-chain yelled. He had a surprisingly large voice for someone of that size.
"I am Loki, of The Room She Lives In, upstairs. I have traveled down here with my companions..."
Wait, companions? What did that mean? That he considered us friends?
"...Queen Elsa and Olaf. He is a snowman, yes, and he doesn't like you pointing it out." Loki finished.
Olaf raised his eyebrows. "No, I'm fine with it," then he waddled up to the key-chain, who had his arms crossed, and said, "Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!"
The key-chain didn't respond. He just sort of glared at him. Olaf backed away slowly.
"Fine then," the key-chain spat. "I am Magneto. That is all I will say about myself. Now go."
"Please, we just wanted to see the town." Olaf mumbled, shuffling his little snowball feet.
"He is welcome to visit my town," said Magneto nodding at Loki. Then he pointed at Olaf and I as if we were guilty of some crime. "You are not."

Magneto was in a nasty disposition or maybe he was just a nasty person. Discriminating us by our height since we weren't allowed in the town. Or maybe he was just trying to make sure we didn't destroy anything, but any choice was rude nonetheless. Then again, so what? Olaf and I couldn't fit in any part of the town due to our size. Even Loki had to duck to properly see most of the buildings. We were at least able to watch from afar on the table. Magneto didn't seem to care about that.
So while Olaf and I stayed on the table, Magneto and Loki jumped down from it and climbed up onto the cupboard where the town was. Magneto still held his grumpy mood, but at least he agreed to show someone his pride and joy, his home. And Loki had been given the grand tour. Magneto spoke loudly, (I found that it wasn't just the fact that he was shouting, that was his real voice) so I was able to hear most of what he said. Loki had decided to be a respectful tourist today, and he kept quiet throughout most of it.

The tour started with the gazebo in the center of the town. All good towns have something to mark the center, where people are most likely to visit in the weekends, and the gazebo was just that for the tiny town, which I found later it was made of a ceramic-like material, except the piles of snow was made of cotton, and the ice skating rink was mirror glass.
The smaller, less impressive places were next on the tour. There was a barn, a train, a police car, a lighthouse, and a bakery, each held a tiny bright bulb to give out some light, even during the nighttime. It would have been really nice had the lights not been so blinding, it made you shocked rather than warm.

(above picture is Magneto on the snowy bridge. Poor guy seems to be permanently in that pose for all of his pictures. Hey, maybe that's why he's so grumpy!)
The second-to-last was a small wooden bridge, covered in sparkling fake snow and surrounded by fir trees. Or were they pine trees? I could never tell. It's not like I was required to know my tree types anyways. Magneto was very protective of his snowy bridge. He wouldn't let Loki step on it. Now he reminded me even more of a grumpy old troll.

The last, and possibly the best attraction, was the mirror shard posing as an ice skating rink. I could ice skate pretty well, but on a tiny mirror? I stayed where I was on the table. I wasn't allowed in the town anyways. At least Loki really seemed to like it. His favorite was the mirror. Except for in pictures, dolls never really get to see themselves... unless they're standing on the mirror. Loki admired his reflection like any attractive guy would, seeing himself in a mirror for the first time. It was actually kind of funny. I covered my mouth in a queenlike way to hide a giggle. Magneto whipped his head around and shot me daggers. My smile faded quickly until he turned away again, and then Olaf and I chuckled quietly together.
When the tour was finished, I felt that it was time to leave. She was probably going to be home in um, ten minutes at least. We had to get going and get back into the room upstairs and act like nothing at all had happened.
Loki and Magneto climbed back onto the table. Loki rejoined our group, and Magneto stood as best a key-chain like himself was able to by the covered bridge to keep any other, taller, trespassers from sneaking past him to his town. He frowned at us when we waved goodbye, looking unamused.

"Bye, Magneto!" I called back to him as we slowly made out way to the other end of the table closest to the staircase. "Thank you kindly for letting us pay a visit."
Loki raised his staff in some sort of Asgard greeting or goodbye ritual. Heck if I knew.
Olaf just kind of stood there, smiling until we all had finished talking. Then he jumped up and said, "Bye, mean troll guy! Thanks for letting us visit your town, or not really, because I never got to see it. Well, bye, anyways!"
I shot Loki and terrified glance and titled my head towards Olaf, who didn't know he was treading on thin ice. I hoped we would be spared from the key-chain's wrath.
Magneto grunted in reply.
I've never been so happy to hear such a thing.
We turned to leave. Loki expertly dropped off the side of the table and made his way to the staircase. Olaf, who was afraid of heights, wrung his hands in worry at the sight of our distance from the ground until I pushed him off playfully.
I myself swung my legs over the side of the table before remembering the main reason we had come downstairs. I turned my head back to the bridge and said, "Hey, Magneto, do you know the meaning of Christmas?"
The key-chain leaned farther against a ceramic statue of a man in a red coat and a long white beard. Magneto lifted his eyebrows slightly at my question.
"The meaning of Christmas?" he repeated in question.
"Yes- that was our main reason for coming down here to this room. We're trying to find the meaning of Christmas."
Magneto paused and uncrossed his arms to adjust his helmet. I actually preferred Loki's over Magneto's. His looked a lot more revealing face wise. "Christmas," Magneto stated. "Bah humbug."

I wasn't sure what those words meant, but they didn't sound good. "Magneto! How could you?"
"What? Have a sense of what goes on in this season? It's all about greed, Elsa. Selfishness and greed. People wanting this, people wanting that. I've given up on Christmas. You should, too, before it is too late and you realize what this world does to you." Magneto protested.
I needed a while for my brain to chew on this information. I slipped off the edge of the table and walked up the stairs, quietly. What to say to that? I decided that maybe saying nothing was best.
When I got upstairs, Olaf and Loki were already waiting for me on the dresser next to our doll Christmas tree from the first day.
"How did your talk go with Magneto? I heard voices from you two before I came upstairs." said Olaf immediately. Loki seemed to be busying himself with polishing his helmet with the edge of his blanket.
"Oh, you, know, it went fine." I replied, even though it did not go fine at all.
"Good. Now how about you come up on the dresser now?" said Olaf, motioning to my usual spot between Olaf and Loki.
"I think I'll just stay down here for a while." I replied, trying not to sound unnatural in any way as I settled down on a fine piece of carpeted floor, tucking my legs under my dress. Olaf gave me a worried look. He's very sympathetic. I think it may actually be a requirement to be an Olaf plushie.
"You know, you shouldn't listen to Magneto," Loki mumbled, not looking up from his helmet. "He's a bit of a grump."
"A bit?" Olaf butted in.
"Olaf, don't interrupt." I scolded him.

"Sorry."
"Anyways, most Magnetos are. And the fact that he's a key-chain doesn't help much either. Key-chains, I've heard, are not to be trusted." I saw him lift the corner of his blanket to see the card beneath him. The card I knew nothing about, the card that was kept hidden, the card that She or Loki couldn't bear to throw away for whatever reason. Loki sighed, then blew some invisible dust off his helmet.
"But why?" I asked, curious. "Why is he like that?"
"Who knows?" Loki asked. "Maybe he's stuck on his character's story. Maybe he believes he is something that he isn't," Loki side-glanced over at Olaf. "Maybe the world was cruel to him, or maybe someone denied him love." Another sigh. "I just don't know, Elsa. One of the mysteries of life. For humans and dolls."
Pure and utter silence in the room. Even Olaf, the extrovert, didn't dare speak. It was just the sound of the soft cloth of the blanket rubbing against the plastic of Loki's helmet. Maybe Magneto was lost. He said Christmas was full of greed and selfishness, but that can't be true. I mean, look what we have to prove it! A beautiful doll-sized Christmas tree with all the decorations, the gift She gave us. Maybe Magneto was looking for the same thing we were, the meaning of Christmas. I guess, even for a doll like him, that was possible.
There was a sudden sound of a slamming door from downstairs. The humans were home. I quickly scrambled up the dresser and pretended to look the same I had been before She left.
She was up the stairs in a jiffy, carrying something small enough to fit tightly into her closed fist. I watched her as she walked over to our tree and clasped something- maybe another ornament, onto the topmost branch. She exited quickly and closed the door, giggling slightly.
Suddenly I knew why. Magneto hung from the tree branch, obviously unhappy, and swinging back and forth, trying to get down. "Fiends!" he yelled. "Monsters! Traitors! Fiends!"
"Shh, be quiet, someone will hear you!" I hissed, holding a finger to my lips in silence, but the sight of it was just too funny. I started to laugh. Olaf joined in, and even Loki smiled.
"Excuse me, would you like some help?" he called up to our struggling acquaintance.

"No! I'm going to get down by myself!" Magneto insisted, twisting his body in a desperate attempt to reach his key-chain clasp. But to no avail. It was useless.
"Magneto, we have an offer for you." I began.
"What do you want now?!"
"Nothing. Well, not really. It's sort of a deal. Loki can help you down from your unfortunate position, and then you can help us find the meaning of Christmas."
"I told you before, it's useless! Christmas is a waste of time."
"How can you know? You're hanging from a tree branch!" I laughed.
Magneto paused as if to say, "Good point." Finally, he gave up. "Fine," he groaned. "You get me down from here, and I will help you on your stupid quest for Christmas."
"Good," I replied. "We start as soon as possible." Loki started climbing the tree, and Olaf grinned at the thought of adding a new member to our troupe.
"Think of it as a thanks for sharing your town with us. Since you did that, we'll share with you the meaning of Christmas once we find it."

"IF you find it," said Magneto, dropping from the branch to the dresser once Loki lifted his clasp. "It's not going to be easy."

I smiled at him. "Who ever said I liked easy?"

Magneto glared up at me, only I didn't feel threatened this time. He started brushing off arms and legs. "Bah humbug." he replied.
Well whatever Magneto thought right now didn't matter, because as soon as we found the meaning of Christmas that he'd change his mind. And at that moment I discovered our second clue; Christmas is meant to be shared.

Sharing Christmas, 

Queen Elsa

Elsa's 12 Days of Christmas: One Tiny Tree

Sorry I haven't been posting anything in a while. She has been using her laptop a lot more often and I haven't had the chance to blog. But now I'm back, and to make it up to you, I've decided to start a new thing. December has arrived, (obviously, indicating the date on this blog post) and the humans have starting talking about this thing called Christmas. Now, I don't know what Christmas is, but I've decided to find out. Each blog post I do from here until January will be about what I've discovered about Christmas. The music She plays is about Christmas too, and there's this one song I happen to like called The Twelve Days of Christmas, so that's what I've decided to call this special. I don't know if I'll only do twelve posts, but that's the only name I got at this point. So here goes nothing.
On the first day of Christmas a human gave to me a tiny doll Christmas Tree! Yeah, that was supposed to be sung. Oh well. Here's our first day of Christmas!

***

(the above picture is the three of us on the dresser)

The humans are acting strange. Today I saw them bring home a plate of sugar cookies, decorating in thick white icing and colored sprinkles. One of them is complaining that some strands of lights don't work, and another one wishes for snow on Christmas. Even though I knew the snow could probably be arranged, I didn't know what Christmas was. I heard the humans talk about it a lot, so it must be something to look forward too, at least. One night I asked both Loki and Olaf if they knew what Christmas was. Olaf only shrugged and chuckled, and Loki admitted that even though he was the first one found, he had no idea what Christmas meant, either. All this talk of it amongst the humans made me more and more curious. It wasn't long before I was determined to learn more about this Christmas. But how was I to do that without asking a human and breaking The Code of Dolls?

One day we were lucky enough to be left alone in the house for a while. I found this as my chance to explore the outside of The Room She Lived In, and to find out what Christmas was really about.

"Come on, guys! Let's go!" I exclaimed, jumping down from the dresser.

Loki only raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Where are we going, Elsa?" Olaf asked, jumping down from the dresser and following me excitedly.

"We're going on a journey." I explained.

"A journey for what?" 

"To find the meaning of Christmas."

"Huh?" Olaf asked, confused. 

"Nevermind. Let's just explore to see what's outside."

"Okay! You know, I've always wanted to know what Christmas was all about. The humans talk about it all the time! It has to be big or special in some way. But what does it mean? I want to find out."

"Me too, Olaf." I said, smiling in the snowman's direction.

"We shouldn't leave." Loki said. He was in one of his bland, serious moods today.

"Why not? The humans are gone." I gestured to the room around me. "I want to leave. I need to leave."

 I sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't seem right. The lights in the room are on and the door isn't closed. She put us here for a reason. I know it."
"She's gone, and probably will be for hours. Let's go." I inched closer to the door, which was cracked open slightly. That did seem a bit odd, but it was open at least, and that tempted me.

"You guys can go. I'll stay here. We're I'm supposed to be right now." Loki put the end of his staff thingy firmly on the dresser, as if to make a point.

"Fine. We'll go. Come on, Olaf. Loki's no fun." I threw a scowl over my shoulder before opening the door all the way.

What we saw stopped us in our tracks. I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

"Woah." Olaf gasped.

"Loki- you have to come see this." I said, somewhat speechless.

"What is it now?" Loki asked, frustrated. But he expertly jumped from the dresser to the ground and pushed Olaf and I away in order to see what all of the fuss was about. And his reaction was priceless. First, his eyes widened, and then his mouth opened in awe.

It was a green tree, I believe those ones are called fir trees. And the little fir tree was a complete mess. It had strands of green lights wrapped around it, along with silver and red beads. Multiple shapes and sizes of small toys covered nearly every bare spot on the tree. It was a child's tree.

"What is this?" I asked, stepping forward to touch the tree. I thought the branches would be soft, mostly because it was called a fir tree, and I think fur is soft, but it was actually quite rough feeling. My hand drew back in surprise.

"No idea." said Loki. The green lights on the trees were mirrored in his eyes, like he was hypnotized by it.

"Is this what the humans call a Christmas tree?" I asked him, almost certain that this is what it was.

"Maybe it is." said Loki. His words were slurred. Again, like he was hypnotized.

"So this is a Christmas tree," said Olaf, reaching his stick-hands towards the tree. "I love it."

"Hey!" a haughty voice called. "Snowman! No touching the tree!"

"What?" I asked. Who had said that?

Loki's eyes narrowed towards the base of the tree. The hypnotized glare was gone from his eyes. Olaf and I followed the direction of the voice and found that it came from a small nutcracker near the tree's trunk. The nutcracker had red cheeks and a black mustache, with white hair and a beard. He was dressed like a soldier. I noticed that he had a sword on his belt and my heart stared beating a little faster. Would he dare use it? The sword brought back bad memories. 

"Hey! Don't touch the tree!" he yelled again, yelling a wooden fist in the air.

"I'll handle this." said Loki. He gripped his staff and approached the nutcracker, then stepping onto a flat wooden ornament in order to make himself to appear taller. The nutcracker stared him down. Olaf and I stayed back. Let him deal with the angry nutcracker alone.

"Excuse me, sir," Loki began with a somewhat forced bow. "We come in peace. All we wanted to do was explore your Christmas tree."

"Who are you and who are you with?" the nutcracker asked, trying to get a good look of Olaf and I.

"I was going to ask the same thing of you." Loki retorted.

Good one. I wanted to say, but I was too nervous.

The nutcracker narrowed his eyes. "Fine. I shall introduce myself first. I am Sir Benedict Edgar Norbert Newton Yankovitch. The human girl here calls me Benny for short. I am with no one for now, just the various ornaments around me. They are not alive like you and I."

So She named him that? What an unusual name for a nutcracker! I thought. Then again, I had never met a nutcracker before until now, so that name could be a normal one with him.

"I am Prince Loki of Jotunheim. And," He looked behind him at Olaf and I to introduce us. I felt suddenly exposed. I could feel Benny the nutcracker looking at me. "This is Queen Elsa of Arendelle and Olaf of Arendelle."

"Ah, yes, the two that were touching my tree." Benny said in a slow, judging voice. I felt the urge to hide my hands behind my back. They were vaguely glowing blue. 

"Beg your pardon, it is not your tree, my good sir, but the humans'." said Loki. His words were extra polite, but his voice was not. I could almost laugh, but I didn't.

"Right. I am aware. But the humans were the ones who put me in charge of guarding this tree, and you, my friend, are a threat."

As I was watching the fight break out between the two of them, realizing that it wasn't going anywhere. No, it was going somewhere. It was going in the wrong direction. Olaf, I knew, was too afraid to step in and do anything, so I guess it had to be me. So I gathered what small amount of courage I had and faced the nutcracker.
"Sir Benedict- we're dreadfully sorry for invading your privacy. You clearly have an important job to do here, and we are being a nuisance. I apologize an behalf of all of us." I said with a somewhat shaky voice.
Loki looked back at me like I was crazy, but Benny looked happily surprised.

"Finally! Someone who respects me and my work!" Benny puffed out his chest in pride. "And what is your name, young lady?"
"I am Queen Elsa of Arendelle," I replied. "Pardon me for touching your tree here. It's just so beautiful and... well, you see, we're trying to find the meaning of Christmas. It's our first one here, and we thought that this tree, your tree, might have lead us to the answer."
"Ah, you want to know about Christmas?" said Benny.
"Yes- do you know anything about it?"
Benny sighed. He suddenly looked as old as he really was. "I have been around here for years. Longer than you, or your friends, or most of the ornaments. I have lost track of time. Most of my life is spent in a box in the attic until December rolls around. I have seen many, many Christmases."
"So you do know what Christmas is?"
"I have an opinion on it, but it may or may not be the truth," Benny sucked in some air. "Christmas is...old."
"Old?"
"Christmas has been around for ages upon ages. It started centuries long ago, and it will remain for more to come. Traditions are formed, and traditions change. That is all I can say."
I stayed silent for a minute, trying to process the information. Nobody else could say anything, either. "Well, thank you, sir." I replied. I turned to leave. I wanted to see more of the tree, but we clearly weren't welcome here, and Benny only knew that Christmas was old. Somehow I knew it was something more.
"Wait!" Benny called. "Young lady- you may touch the tree." he shot a glance over to Olaf and Loki. Olaf looked awestruck that Benny had let me, and Loki stuck out his chin in protested anger. It appeared, though, that I had no choice but to go and touch the tree. I walked slowly over to it, aware that they were watching my every move.
I carefully began examining the ornaments. I recognized my shoe from the dresser in The Room She Lives In. My ice-blue handed nearly blended in perfectly with the shoe's surface. I smiled a little to myself. It inspired me to think of a plan.

"Excuse me, sir," I spoke. "I'm having a little trouble deciphering these ornaments. Perhaps my friends could help me find their meaning?"
"Um, are you sure you don't want my help? I know every single one of these ornaments down to the core." Benny argued nervously. I could tell he didn't want Olaf or Loki near the tree.
"Really? Do you know what this one is?" I pointed to my shoe, knowing that Benny wouldn't know a thing about it. It was a brand new ornament.
Benny squinted his eyes and frowned. "Is that... a shoe?"
I titled my head to the side. "I think so. But I still need some help trying to figure out what it means."
Benny shook his head. "Sorry, young lady. I can't help you with that one. It looks new to me."
"Yes, I think it is. Loki, perhaps you know something about this ornament?" I asked, trying to spell out a message to Loki through my eyes. He looked at me strange, then a slow smile spread across his lips.
"Oh, I know exactly what this one means," he approached the ornament and pretended to examine the shoe. Benny flinched whenever he touched it. "Oh, there's a very deep meaning behind this one!" he joked. I coughed, hiding laughter.
"Really?" I stuttered. "Could you tell me?"
"Hm...yes. I see it now...it's born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining."
Okay, I couldn't help it. I had to laugh. "Really? All of that?" I asked.
"Yes. And there's more. This icy force- both foul and fair- has a frozen heart worth mining."
"A frozen heart? Now what could that possibly mean?"
"See? I'm an ornament expert. Maybe I could help you with some more."
Benny sighed again. "I suppose, young lady, if your friends want to help...then that is fine."
I lifted the sides of my dress in a curtsy. "A thousand thanks, Sir Benedict."
"You're quite welcome." He muttered.
So now it was Olaf and Loki and I, all in good spirits and all playing around with the Christmas tree. Benny watched us closely.
Every ornament was different and beautiful, and indeed very old. There were lots of handmade paper snowmen, angles with bells instead of feet, and small stuffed animals based off of different children's TV show characters. Definitely a child's Christmas tree.
At one point I found a doll-sized hat hanging off a branch on the tree and decided to try it on. It was so ugly, but at least it was warm. And it was just my size. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

I saw Olaf looking at me in my hat. "So, Olaf, what do you think?" I asked, titling the hat the side slightly. I wasn't a fashionista, but I do appreciate it sometimes. This was one of those times.

"Um, sorry, Elsa. That hat's not really your thing."

"You think?" I asked, a little displeased with Olaf's reaction.

(above picture is me in my not-so-fabulous hat)

"No, not really." said Olaf admittedly.

"Fine then," I whipped the hat off dramatically and threw it. The gesture seemed somewhat familiar. The hat ended up next to Olaf. He picked it up and put it on his own head. It actually kind of looked good on him. The tiniest pang of jealousy flared up within me, but I got over it as quickly as it had come. I don't hold jealousy well, which is a good thing.

We rooted around the tree some more until Loki found some beaded snowflake ornaments. They were handmade with skill, and I laughed at the thought that I could do the very same thing, only for real snowflakes. I couldn't help but pose while holding a few of them, imagining a white Christmas, whatever that means.

As fun and as pretty as the tree was, we weren't finding what we were looking for. The meaning of Christmas seemed harder to find than we thought. 

"Well, thank you for your time, sir, but it appears we haven't found what we were looking for. We should be leaving now."

"Are you sure you don't want to check on the other side of the tree?" he offered. What a change of heart for Benny! I took up the generous offer and peeked around to the other side of the tree. Nothing much was there, just other ornaments that were old and childish at the same time. Olaf, Loki, and I split up and divided the tree up into thirds. Olaf found some stuffed animal friends on his side, (he was disappointed that they didn't speak, and I worried that he'd find out he was a toy, but I was lucky) but besides that, even the three of us working on separate sides of the tree didn't add up to much. After five more minutes of searching, combing each layer of the plastic branches, we gave up, not finding anything that would show us the meaning of Christmas. For now all we knew about Christmas is that it was old. Perhaps we'd have to try another day.

"Okay, we're done now-" Loki began, but he didn't get to finish his sentence. The loud slam of a door echoed around the house. The humans were home. 

Olaf shrieked, and Loki clamped his mouth shut quickly. Fortunately, I don't think the humans heard. 

"Hide!" Benny whisper-shouted. "Hide!"

As if we needed to be told what to do! Loki tried making a beeline to the room, but Olaf had closed the door behind him, and now we were trapped with no time to spare. She would probably notice if we were off the dresser, but she would definitely notice if we were in the hallway on the floor. I panicked, my hands glowing a strong ghostly blue. 

I remember hearing a nature program on the humans' TV from the downstairs say that when a certain kind of frog is threatened, they play dead. I didn't feel threatened, but I did feel nervous, and I couldn't play dead, but I could play "doll." I collapsed under the tree by Benny and tried to make my most plastic-like expression. Loki and Olaf quickly followed my lead. I hoped we wouldn't get caught.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, in time with the nervous beating of my heart. She turned the corner and entered the hallway where we were laying under the tree. And, to our misfortune, she noticed us immediately.

Fortunately, though, she laughed. "My little friends? What are you doing under the tree? We don't get our presents yet!" She scooped all of us up in her arms and opened the door to her room. I gave Benny a small wave goodbye. He nodded respectively.

She said something about how Olaf's hat looked adorable on him (Hm) and placed each of us on the floor, then pulled a small red box from the hallway. I hadn't noticed it before, probably because it looked empty, but it certainly wasn't!

She opened it, and inside was treasure that seemed to be worth a thousand pirates!

Or at least that's what I thought. It probably looked normal to her. She seemed happy to see it, but I could tell that the stuff in the box wasn't the thing that made her happy. She turned to face us with a light in her eyes and a smile on her lips. 

"We have our own Christmas tree outside this room," She explained to us. "It's a children's tree- it's held the same ornaments and decorations since I was a baby. It's pretty old," she laughed through her nose. "But here I have a new tree for you. Well, it's sort of new. It was a present from my grandmother one or two Christmasses ago. Who knows how long she kept it?" She laughed from her nose again, a little more real this time.

She pulled a something from behind her back. It appeared to be like the humans' tree outside the door, only doll-sized and without decorations. She hummed a strange and lovely mixture of holiday carols and The Phantom of Opera soundtrack to herself, while spreading the branches on the tiny tree apart one by one. We watched and listened carefully, hoping She might give us a clue to what Christmas meant, if She knew.

Once the tree's branches were all facing outward, She connected the base of the tree to three plastic legs so it would be able to stand up on its own. 

She drew a circular piece of fabric out of the box and wrapped it around the legs of the tree. She said the thing was called a "tree skirt" and then added jokingly, "to protect it from the cold."

Once the legs and skirt were on the tree, it was started to look more like the tree outside. I decided it was quite pretty. Little did I know how pretty it was about to become!

Apparently She wanted us to join in the fun, too, so she began posing us in various ways to make it look like we were helping to decorate the tree. I kind of wished we could do it in real life, but we couldn't break The Code of Dolls, so we cooperated with what She was doing as we pretended to put things on the tiny tree.

Olaf helped with the garland.

 I was given the task of holding a small, doll-sized basket of ornaments to put on the tree later.

 She found a small glass snowflake in the red box and posed me to hold it once or twice.

Okay, so it was twice. But who cares? I loved it.

Loki even got into the Christmas spirit by using his staff thingy to hang up some of the bells.

She decided that She wanted us to be able to see the tree all the time, so She lifted it up and put it on the dresser, but not before a small silver bulb fell and crashed, breaking into three pieces on the dresser. She groaned and tried to pick them up. I saw Loki bite his lip in worry. He didn't want her to get cut by the glass shards. But She didn't, which was good for all of us. Pretty soon we (well, She was doing it, us dolls were just pretending) had the tree wrapped in silver tinsel and some small gold bells laid on various branches.

The next round were the bulbs, small glass spheres painted red, green, blue, silver and gold. We had learned by now that these bulbs were very delicate and shattered easily, but She trusted us to "put some on" the tree.

After all the bulbs had been used, (including the ones I had in my basket) She found a small red box of nutcracker ornaments inside the bigger small red box and decided to use them, even though there were only six of them. Loki was once again able to use his staff to put these on the tree.

She posed me against the bottom of the dresser balancing one of the nutcrackers in my hand. I smiled, remembering Benny guarding the tree outside. Even though ornaments don't come alive like most dolls, I thought that these nutcrackers could do well with guarding our doll's tree.

 The tree was starting the look better and better! I decided that I liked this tradition.

(above picture is the tree with the tinsel, bells, bulbs, and the nutcrackers)

 The final layer of decoration were tiny plastic dolls with bad paint jobs and washed out faces, so we glossed over that one quickly. She thought it would be fun to put one on Olaf's nose, though.

She found two more snowflakes in the red box and lined them up on the dresser, then told me to pick my favorite to hold. I couldn't say anything, of course, but I very quickly and very carefully looked over at the blue beaded one. She took this as a subliminal message to have my hold the blue one for another pose with Loki and Olaf, who were both holding their favorite ornaments as well.

 (the picture is a little small, so it's a bit hard to see, but Loki is holding a bell on his staff)

When we ran out of ornaments to put on, She posed me by the tree, but she didn't claim it done quite yet. She kept rooting through the box, until She found what She was looking for; a giant shiny red star.

 Of course each of us had to take turns holding it.

Olaf had to hold it by a stick of hair!

 But in the end, it was decided that Loki would be the one to put the star on the top of the tree. She said that the tree topper was the most important part, and that it is an honor to do such a thing, so She picked her little elf-man to do the job, much to Loki's pleasure. She held him up carefully, with the star on his arm, and then took it off and placed it on the highest branch.

Ta-da! A finished tree! (with a tired Loki in the background) Too bad the star refused to keep straight.)

As a final touch, She placed three tiny presents under the tree by the skirt. I knew that they were probably just decoration, small blocks of Styrofoam wrapped in shiny colored foil and tied with gold string, but I still felt a strange hopeful curiosity that there was more inside. 

 She set each of us by the tree and left the room to get something downstairs. I think it was called "hot chocolate." When the door closed behind her, we all let out a happy sigh. It had been a long, adventurous happy day, and a good one at that! Loki was grinning like an idiot, thrilled that She had let him put the tree topper on. Olaf always grins like an idiot, and I'm pretty sure I was, too. Mostly because of all that I happened, but also because I realized something while looking at our tree.
Christmas is beautiful.
My first step into discovering the meaning of Christmas.

Beautifully Christmasy,

Queen Elsa