A Long Weekend

It's been a long but fun weekend visiting American Girl Place and presenting at MMLA, a dream for me. American Girl Place was truly fantastic; lots of people, even late in the afternoon, and all pink, white, and pastels. Two floors of the dolls and their accessories, and life-sized vignettes of the historical periods from which the dolls come. I chose Felicity to join the rest of the American Girls, since she will be retired. The staff there is very helpful and friendly. One chooses the type of purchse from tiny post-it note photos and descriptions. There were many books and of course, the clothes for little girls. I would liekt o return to see the holdiay window and to have lunch. They don't validate for Watertower, though, and don't serve dinner.

MMLA was fantastic; I saw one of my old profs from grad school, and the speaker was Lady Antonia Fraser, noted author and authority, and widow of Harold Pinter. I also love her Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Warrior Queens, and Mary, Queen of Scots. She was the first author to respond to me when I was writing my dissertation, and later my book. The Vampire Narratives panel went great; I mentioned the vampire dolls and toys popular, and gave everyone gummi skeletons and plastic vampire teeth. We all need our toys! The conference theme was "terror" and my sister panelists were terrific. Thanks for a wonderful experience.

Today, I went to a presentation on German cooking and holiday cookies. I visited the disoplay of my own dolls, too. We learned about gingerbread figures and molds, and figures made of dough and given on St. Nicholas day. I am going to make them for my class. Dolls made of dough and in gingergread are an important part of German Christmas, along with the Christmas markets and toy markets that date to at least 1450 or even earlier. The Christmas stollen, or cake, I learned, represents the Christ child in his swaddling clothes. There is a long tradition of dough figures from Sweden, South America, the US, Greece, and other countries. There is a fertility goddess with three breasts in Carl Fox's classic, The Doll, and the 1956 World Book Encyclopedia discuss Swedish dolls made of dough and dressed in long gowns.

I have several edible dolls made of gingerbread and other types of dough, preserved and varnished for posterity. I keep them in an extra fridge, low temp, or in cool, dry, tightly sealed places. I have seen Golliwog cookies in collections, and gingerbread marionnettes as well.

Tomorrow or so, there will be new photso posted of displays of my nutcrackers and German dolls and some of the dolls that I restored which were beyond hope. Also, I hope to discuss some of my favorite mysteries on dolls and hobbies by Deb Baker, Laura Childs, Diane Mott Davidson, Tamar Meyers, Joanne Fluke, Margaret Grace, Sharon Fiffer, Sharon Holub, and Ms. Jackson's classic, Missing Melinda. Happy Dolling!