Protest!!!

 Poor Lilly is sick and must stay in bed!

So it is just me and mom going to the protest march in Oakland.

Yesterday I made the poster. It took me a long time to figure out what slogan  I should write. I decided on
"Not my President." I really do not like Trump. Lilly does not like him either nor do my dad, mom, and big brother.

I like my sign. Pink is one of my favorite colors and my mom says it is the color for girls and women.

My dad gave me the pole for my sign and I taped it to the poster. Now I can hold it up in the air and everybody can read it.

 Wuff likes my poster, too.

He would like to come with us. But mom says he has to stay home. Too bad!

Mom crocheted the "pussy cat" hat for me.
She is wearing one too.

She told me a lot of women are wearing hats like that. I guess it has something to do with protest, Trump, and being a woman.

The wind almost blew my sign away.

 I am ready.

Let's go!

On our way.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!

Finally, Christmas is here.

Since we are half German we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve,
not Santa but "Christkind" brings the tree and the presents.

Do you like our outfits? My mom made them.

After we sang German and English Christmas songs like "Oh Tannenbaum", "Kling Gloeckchen", "Jingle bells" and "Stille Nacht", dad read a story about how Christkind went to a poor little girl and brought her gifts.

We are allowed to open the presents.  Wuff is very curious, too.

Lilly got a game. It's called Candyland, and I got a German book.

We like Christmas a lot:)

Wuff likes it, too.

But where is our cat Maunz?

Of course, we had to try out the game immediately.

It's a lot of fun. Too bad Wuff can not play. We will invite friends over and have a little game party.

Mom baked Buch de Noel. It was delectable and we drank hot cocoa. Yummy.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

The Kish Riley dolls wish you a very Merry Christmas.

May all your wishes come true.

More from us in a little while.

Gingerbread house

The Gingerbread house is finished!

Sorry, we did not post yesterday as promised but the house took us 2 days to finish.

There was a lot of royal icing and waiting involved.

The house was so crooked,
it took a lot of icing just to be able to stand up.

But after a pound of "snow", it finally started to look like the gingerbread house we were looking for:)))

The tree is made from pipe cleaners and so is the fence.

The glitter sparkles like really cold, cold snow.

The candies are also made of different color glitter.

We are now very happy with the result and will enjoy the little house.

Since we celebrate Christmas the German way, we just need to sleep 2 times before it's time to open the presents.

See you on the 24th of December.

Christmas cookies!

Baking Christmas cookies!

Only 4 days 'till Christmas!

We are on winter break and decided to finally start with our holiday baking.

We will make sugar cookies and a gingerbread house.

The dough for the little witch house is already done.

So we just have to make the cookie dough. We need flour, sugar, lots of butter and vanilla extract.

 After mixing the flour and sugar with a spoon, we quickly knead the cold butter with the mix together.

Since the dough is so sticky, we need flour, but not too much! (as Grandpa always said.)

Now the dough has to be cooled in the refrigerator.

Lilly is already cleaning the table. Everything is so sticky.

We have to wait at least 30 minutes.

The dough is cool and the real fun can begin.

Stars and hearts: my favorite shapes.

I lift the little star very carefully with a knife and put it on the cooky sheet.

I decided to make the cookies shiny.

With a brush, I paint the heart with egg
and bake the cookies for 5-6 minutes in a 375⁰ oven.

There are always broken cookies.

Lucky for us; we can try our cookies right away.

They are delicious.
I wish you guys could try them.

After a little break, we start with the gingerbread house.

It's not easy. Lilly is holding the walls and I put royal icing on the fourth wall.

It looks crooked. Oh, my.
It has to dry over night.

See you tomorrow.

St. Nikolaus

St. Nikolaus came to the
Kish Riley dolls!

December 6th is St. Nikolaus day.

The kids clean their boots in the evening of December 5th and put them at the front door.

 Then St. Nikolaus will come and fill them with goodies.

But only the nice kids get the good stuff. The naughty ones get a switch.




We got goodies!

Of course, we are nice little girls.

I woke up and ran to the door and found my boot filled with an apple, Lebkuchen, a mandarin, and a golden chocolate Nikolaus.

Mom said we need to eat breakfast first and then we can choose one thing before school.

 This is my boot.

I was nice, too!

St. Nikolaus filled my boot with all of my favorite sweets.

Thank you, dear Nikolaus.

My mom told me the story of the old man. He lived a long time ago in Syria, I guess.
He was a Bishop and helped the poor and especially the kids. He gave them food and sometimes even money.

But first, Breakfast.

Which sweet should I choose?

Analee will pick the mandarine and I will pick the Lebkuchen.

 Here you can see our nice decoration on top of the shelf.

We made the red glitter star ourselves.

We still have the glitter everywhere.

In the bed and even in my hair.
So maybe I am a Christmas angel now.

Analee brings all the dirty dishes to the sink. The cleaning will have to wait till after school.

"Analee bring the advent calendar, please. We can open the door for today."

But now we have to hurry to school!

Adventkranz

December 1st.

We got our "Adventskranz".
Every Sunday one can light one more candle. Christmas is here when all 4 candles are lit.

Last Sunday we lit the first candle and sang Christmas songs. Mom read a story about a little boy and how he found a golden star.

Today we started to "deck the halls" with greenery.

Lilly did not want to cut the branches. They were too prickly for her.

So I cut and cut till the vase was full.