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.

Kish Riley dolls

Hi guys,

We never introduced our-
self properly.

We know we should have done it much earlier, but we were so busy with our kitchen.

But now we have time.

We are Riley dolls by Helen Kish.

I'm the one with dark hair. My name is Analee, a.k.a "Little Bell". My sister, Lilly, is the blond one, a.k.a. "Sauder Village Riley."


We are twins and 8 years old.

My mom says I am more outgoing than my sister because I am very curious and sometimes even naughty. Lilly is the quiet one, she loves to read and do crafts, though I do too.

We live in a cute little house in the Bay Area near San Francisco with our parents and our big brother. He is already in college.  We are in 3rd grade and our teacher is Mrs. Thatchle. We really like her a lot because she is funny and teaches us very interesting stuff. School is cool:)

We love all kinds of adventures; everyday something new to discover and learn. The world is full of wonderful and mysterious things. Let's explore ! We are happy to invite you. See you guys tomorrow.

We got walls!

We got walls!

Our parents bought walls for our new kitchen. Thanks mom and dad! You guys are the best.

Now it is up to us, to paint and decorate our very own, little place.

The cupboard is protected with a huge plastic sheet. We just need paper hats and off we go to paint the walls yellow and wainscot green.

Yes, the yellow looks really nice and will make the kitchen look as if it were drenched in sunlight.

The floor is protected and we can start painting.

Lilly is in charge of the wainscot and applying the tape in order to get a clean line between the yellow and green.

Analee will start with the yellow part and Lilly will help her later since it is a big paint job.

The hats help a lot to protect the hair, with all the dripping and spritzing.

It looks gorgeous!

We already put all the nice, little things we had on the walls, including the new things from Germany.

Now we just have to bring in the rest of the furniture.

This cupboard is too heavy.
We need help, please!

Now the "Spuehltisch". It is a table used for doing dishes.

Open the drawer and you have two round bowls for the water.

It is not the most practical since you have to schlepp the water from outside, but still pretty neat and it is our own sink.

Thank goodness the bench it not heavy and Lilly can carry it all by herself.

We need desperately to take a break from all this hard work.

We also have a table. With the bench, it will be the perfect place to eat, do homework and all the arts and crafts projects to come.

One of our favorite motifs: the toadstool.

A little bouquet on top of the cupboard brings something whimsical to our new kitchen.

Do you see the chair? Isn't it cool?

We really love our little kitchen.

New furniture

We are Kish Riley dolls. We live with our family near San Francisco and we love all kinds of adventures. Come with us.

New furniture

Finally, our furniture from Germany is here.

They are very, very old and they even smell old. Did we make a mistake buying
antics? I don't know?

We should clean, sand and refurbish them!!!!!!

That was a lot of work!

But all the furniture came out beautifully.

New curtains, wallpaper, and fresh lacquer and it looks like new.

Now we just have to unpack all the kitchen stuff, pots, and pans.

The box is almost too heavy for me.

Unpacking, nothing but unpacking.

We have so many things.
And everything is so dirty. No wonder almost all the things we got from Germany are 100 years old.

But it will be really beautiful and cozy in our new kitchen.

I like doing the dishes. Really.

Everything will be spic and span and
smell fresh and clean.

I have to be really careful, the porcelain and glass are delicate and it could break easily.

Drying is not my favorite thing. But it has to be done.

Wuff, the little dog is happy to be with me. He is my second best friend.

Everything is clean!

Thank goodness!

And in the cupboards.

I am sooooooo tired.

Good night, till tomorrow.

With the furniture from Germany came although a pram.

As before with all the furniture and dishes it has to be thoroughly scrubbed.

Analee is back from a short vacation with my dad and can now help me with the baby bedding.

She could not believe how nice everything looked and how far along I came.

In with the little mattress and flat sheet.

It looks so summery. We like it very much.

So the baby can finally lay down.
She is tired and needs her nap!