A Delightfully December-y Month

Near all of December has been a frozen, cold, snowy and/or rainy time.  I enjoy the snow, I don't mind the cold, and I don't care for the rain; but when we had about a week of low temperatures and a frozen little world, I went outside as often as possible to enjoy the ice and crunchy ground.  I took my dolls out to play with and take pictures of them several times that week.  Of course, I also had to break all the animals' water and pour hot water upon each thick sheet of ice, but I didn't mind at all.

December is not only fun because of the cold; it is also a particularly enjoyable month because of Advent and Christmas.  I must admit, the thing I like most about Advent is opening up a box from the Playmobil Advent Calendar every morning and, on Christmas Eve, admiring my lovely, complete Playmobil Christmas scene.  The best parts about Christmas are having family over to eat and talk and opening presents.  The problem with me is that when there is a crowd of people, I feel as though all eyes are upon me, watching me unwrap each gift.  (I feel the same way about my birthday.)  I usually hand out each gift under the tree to the person to whom it belongs while building up my pile slightly behind the tree, and when the tree is bare underneath, I plop myself down at my stack and open them while everyone is exclaiming over their gifts.  It usually works very well, but perhaps this year I shall sit in a chair and open my presents.  Yes, I suppose it is possible.

My Plucky Duckies

Before I write anything about my wonderful ducks, I wish you all a delightful Thanksgiving.  In Rainbowland they have what is called "Day of Thanks," which is their Thanksgiving.  It is always on the 30th of November.

Now for the ducks.  In April I got two ducks whom I named Salieri and Victor.  Now they are grown up and Sally lays eggs for us.

Here is the picture I took of them when they were a few days old.  Victor is on the right and Sally is on the left.

And here they are now.  Very beautiful ducks, if I do say so myself.  They are a bit dirty and messy looking now, but this summer their feathers were sleek and gorgeous and their beaks weren't caked in mud.

This is Victor:

This is Salieri:

They love each other (and me) very much and are definitely inseparable.

I decided to show you a picture of Feisty (outside that cage) and Patrick (inside the cage).  Feisty and the two ducks are very good friends: after all, they do live together.

Well, that is all I have to say about my ducks.  Again, I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving.  We shall be driving off to Shedd, Oregon for Thanksgiving in a very short while, so I must hurry up and end this post, as much as I should like to continue writing.

A Visit with Walter

Last Friday Mother, Daddy, Patrick and I drove down to California for our yearly visit with our grandchild/nephew, Walter, who turned a year old on October 12th.  I could only write about the adventures, but of course you want to see pictures, so I shall tell the adventures along with the pictures I took.

                                                                          Saturday:

We went to the beach, and since Walter is always eating (he's a growing boy), he ate the whole way there.

Waving to Aunt Janet (he's the best waver and ball-thrower I know.)

His Cowlick

Matthew, Patrick, Margaret and I climbed up a little cliff-type rock and Grandpa and Walter stayed down on the beach.

This is the view we had from the cliff.

Mama, Grandpa and Walter 

Grandma was sitting with Walter on the blanket while he played with rocks and ate.

Of course our boy needs lots of kisses.

His Beautiful Curls

A horse came by and stopped so Walter might see it.

Once Walter had had enough of the horse, the horse and his rider went down to the water.

Walter and Uncle Patrick

My Doll, Consuelo

                                                                            Sunday

Uncle Patrick played guitar for Walter and he enjoyed it very much.

I forgot: he's also the best little clapper.

Walter and the coasters

Monday (our last day there)

Papa, Sad Baby and Mama

And those were our adventures.  I took 375 pictures altogether, but I limited myself to 30 for you to see.  Ah, and we did so much more than the pictures tell, but this post is long enough with the pictures and a bit of writing.  I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

The Tale of Rainbowland

Today I'm going to tell you a story, so make some tea, fetch your favorite blanket, and curl up in the coziest chair you can find.  Now, be prepared to be taken far away into the land of a young child and her father.

Once, years ago, an imaginative little girl and her daddy created a world.  In this world were vampires and dragons; Cloneys* and horses.  Together these great beasts and strong men kept the land in harmony and peace.  They encountered and conquered many villains and creatures, especially Cobrae**, while dealing with their own troubles in their own lives.

All this fancy was created in the bed of the daddy, turning it into a magic carpet-like object as it delivered the girl and daddy to their magnificent world.

As time wore on, the girl grew into an adolescent and their world turned into hers, and her world expanded into the outdoors.

You, my loyal readers, know this world as "Rainbowland."  Though "Rainbowland" is its original name, what is inside this world has changed entirely, making it an almost unrelated world, but still the product of my mind.

As I close my story, let me remind you: Rainbowland was created and played by a daughter and her father in a simple little bed.



*A "Cloney" is my version of a clone trooper.  I came up with them while watching Star Wars with my dear brother Patrick.  In the original Rainbowland, I was Pink Cloney, Daddy was Blue Cloney and my husband was Red Cloney.  There were many more, but I am certainly not going to list them all.  They're just humans in special suits, by the way.

**"Cobrae" are like cobras.  They were highly venomous and quite common in original Rainbowland.  The "Cobrae" is also my original idea, just like the Cloneys.

I'm Back!

The title says it all; I'm back!  Did you miss me?  My plan was to blog about going to American Girl Place Seattle and my birthday back in July, but obviously that never happened.  The rest of my summer was spent doing summery things and not blogging, which resulted in two months' worth of nothing on my poor little blog.

Anyway, during my absence, I decided to change the name of my blog.  "The Blog of J.M. Newhall" is boring and unoriginal, and I wrinkle my nose when I say it, thus I have given it a Rainbowland influence.  I hope you like it, because I shan't be changing it for a long time - I think.

To end this delightful little post, I shall make a commitment to blog on either Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, depending on how busy my days are.  And, just to let you know, "Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland" will be back within a few weeks.

Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland Part 3

I didn't realize how well-loved Old Rainbowland, New Rainbowland was until I posted something different: the reaction was positive, but I believe my Rainbowland posts were missed.

Now, if you haven't read the other two parts, I highly recommend you do.  Part 1 is here and part 2 here.

A few minutes later she (Daisy) walked out of the bathroom and into Kyla and Edward’s room.

Kyla and Edward have their own house now.  I only had the Johnsons and Harps in the same house because in many of my unwritten stories it worked out to be more convenient.

“It’s 7:30!  How can it be late?”

In Rainbowland people usually awaken at 5:30 to 6:30.

“If they find out of my absence, I’m afraid I would be tortured to near death."

This is a Black Rider speaking, and they (the Master) would not torture a Black Rider.  The Master doesn't really care if his Black Riders leave.

“Come on, let me take you to Sever,” she (Daisy) said.  Sever was Kyla’s horse.

Sever is now Ian's horse.

Back at the hospital, Daisy was in room 27.

As far as my knowledge goes, there are no room numbers in Cedar Ridge.  I have no idea why, though.

She had a magazine in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

Coffee?  Rainbowlandians do not drink coffee; they drink tea.

Well, that's all I found in chapter 3.  Now if you'll excuse me, I am going off to play with dolls.

The Big World of Dolls

Besides being a Grammar Nazi, the inventor of Rainbowland, and a lover of animals, I enjoy dolls.  Or, I should more properly say, I thoroughly enjoy dolls.  Here's a list of some of my favorite blogs:

The Toy Box Philosopher

Never Grow Up

Belle's Bulletins

Jane Austen and Unicorns

Doll Diaries

Steampunk Addie

Yes, of course I read non-doll blogs, but about half of my favorite blogs are written by or about dolls.

Now, there are so many brands of dolls out there, but which ones do I like?  American Girl dolls are by far my favorite.  I've spent little bits of 2013 brushing up on my AG knowledge, and now I know almost as much about American Girl as I do grammar!

Carpatina is another high quality brand.  Of their dolls I have Veronika, the Medieval doll, who is very high quality and absolutely stunning.

Hearts for Hearts is another nice brand.  They're the "Girls on the Dresser" in my room, but they come down often, whether it's of my own will or not.  (One of them fell into the turtle's water once so I used my doll knowledge and quickly and gently washed her hair with water and brushed it, and now it's even nicer than before.)

The Les Cheries dolls made by Corolle are excellent little play dolls.  Camille Equestrienne is my doll and I play with her all the time.  She is the perfect size to be a little sister for 18 inch dolls, too.

Kidz 'n' Cats are extremely high quality dolls with 11 points of articulation.  I have Sabine and I play with her very often.

I hope you've enjoyed this post; I should make it longer except I must feed the chickens and ducks.  In case you're wondering about the Rainbowland posts I was writing, I still have more, but I thought a different post would be nice.