Christmas Cut-Outs

December is finally here! I remember wishing Christmas would come back in November. But with Thanksgiving break gone and done, anticipation for Christmas came quickly after. Each of the dolls began basking in the delight of the season in their own ways. I decided to abandon She's laptop for a quick minute to get the scoop on what everyone was doing.

Magneto was pleased to see that his tiny town was up and lit.

Moana was taking the animals for one last frolick outside before the weather could get too cold.

Idina was setting up a Christmas-themed spa, complete with peppermint teabags to soothe tired eyes.

Steve and Loki were trying to figure out a way to play ice hockey without my magic. Unsurprisingly, they weren't having any luck.

Dorothy and Bell were out taking a walk around the house, grateful to be away from Toto for a while.

Benny and Napoleon were trying to bring Christmas decorations up from the basement, only to put them back, grumbling, because they realized the humans would notice.

Nessa was planning a Christmas karaoke session, and Elphaba only appeared to be helping because she was the only one of us who was so tech-savvy.

Anelle and Kristoff were using She's iPad to play video games. Apparently Kristoff is a very competitive gamer! I guess he missed all the fun he had at his previous home.

And Anna was showing off her new screen-accurate cape to Olaf, which was made by MyLittleMegara as an early finding day/Christmas present. I had to say, I was a little jealous. It was warm and beautiful, the best of both worlds for any cape.
When it occurred to me that nobody was spending the day together but with a few other people, I approached Anna and said, "Hey, isn't Christmas supposed to be about spending time together?"
Anna whirled around in her cape. "You tell me, Elsa. This is only my second Christmas here."
"Well, that's what I think it should be," I stated. "Let's gather the others up here. I have an idea."
I remembered the year Napoleon got amnesia, we all had crafted paper snowflakes to mimic the ones on She's ceiling and hopefully jog Napoleon's memory on Christmas. I decided to do something similar, and since we had a larger group this time around, we would do something larger in turn. I had noticed a chain of paper people holding hands when Loki was recently going through She's writings (again), and thought it would be nice if everyone made one, each representing something they liked about Christmas.
Luckily, I wasn't alone in thinking it was a good idea. The dolls were happy to get a break from some alone time to come into She's room and get working.
Making the paper cut-outs were fairly easy for everybody, and I thought I ought to include the directions here just in case you guys want to make it, too.

1. Get a regular 8x11 sheet of computer paper, and accordion-fold it, alternating sides, so that you have four planes and three creases.

2. Create a sketch of whatever shape you'd like to be connected on the front plane of the stack of accordion folds, making sure a little bit of the drawing runs off into each side so that they will stay connected to the others.

3. This step should be pretty obvious. Hence the name, you have to cut out the cut-outs! Be careful not to snip around the edges you drew to, or else you will have four separate shapes instead of one large one. This may take some trial and error.

4. After that, if all went well, you should have your connected cut-out.

First, Anna made a pretty poinsetta flower silhouette. She has an affinity for flowers, and apparently, an affinity for paper cut-outs as well! We were all very impressed with her attention to detail.

Of course, I had to make mine into a snowflake. Are any of you really all that surprised?

Benny made his into a Christmas tree, complete with a star on top. It reminded him both of the humans' smaller tree he guards, as well as the year he mended his relationship with Napoleon. Goodness, it feels like a such a long time ago!

And speaking of Napoleon, he went with a theme similar to his brother's. But instead of a tree, it was a line of presents to protect.

Olaf, unfortunately, struggled with the scissors, so he was only able to make a simple shape, but Nessa knew what he really wanted was to build a snowman, so she built one for him, with a top hat and everything.

Only last year, when Elphaba was first introduced to our family, it was by mistake, as she had saved Nessa from being crushed by the doll-sized Christmas tree before she was actually supposed to be found on Christmas Day. Otherwise, she would have gone in She's stocking, so it made sense that a stocking is what Elphie made her cut-out to be.

Idina is a quiet character, so she never explained to us what her shape was supposed to be when we were making them, but when it time for Idina to pose with her creation, Steve had the guts to ask,
"What have you got there, Idina?"
"Mistletoe!" She tittered. "Pucker up, Olav!"
Olaf was taken by surprise as Idina kissed him on his way to the backdrop.
Moana's lip curled up in disgust. She wasn't the romantic type whatsoever. "Gross." She whispered.
"I agree." Magneto not-whispered.
Idina was brave enough to shoot a glare his way, making the rest of us laugh.

As I said before, Olaf had a simple shape, but a nice one nonetheless. He is very excited for Santa to visit us this year!

Ever since her finding day on July 20th when one of the dogs saved her from the stairs, Anelle has been obsessed with animals. This includes the dove of peace, which she made her Christmas cut-out of.

Kristoff was getting into the holiday spirit by being a reminder to the rest of us that winter was coming. His cut-out was made into the shape of a mitten.

Steve was a little lost on what to make, so I suggested that his be an opening box, capturing the memory of the one Christmas he came down from the attic, and all the other Christmases in which people open boxes to find a present inside. Although, I do have to say that finding Steve was greater than any other present I could imagine a human would ever get from a box.

Loki made a traditional Christmas bulb with his paper. He did enjoy hanging the ornaments with his scepter that first Christmas we had in the Room She Lives In.

Bell, keen on puns involving her name, just had to make hers into a bell. A bell, she claimed, "to ring in the holiday season", but I think we all knew she was making an excuse for her bad joke.

Dorothy has always loved baking, and that certainly showed her in cut-out of gingerbread men cookies.

Magneto was inspired by his daily visits to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and others in the nativity to make his cut-out into a star that marked the town of Bethlehem.

But Moana's by far was the most creative. She made a Christmas palm tree with coconuts for ornaments, and one had fallen on the surface of a beach.
"Why did you make a... palm tree?" Nessa asked, clearly lost.
"Mele kalikimaka." Moana replied.
"Huh?"
"Mele kalikimaka. It means 'merry christmas' in Hawaiian. Haven't you ever heard that song?"
If we had, we couldn't remember, much to Moana's disappointment. She would be sure we listened to it later. It soon became a part of Nessa's karaoke plan, which worked out well for her. Not so much for the rest of the dolls that didn't want to sing.

Looking forward to Christmas,

Queen Elsa