• Mood: a little headachy
• Music: Alizée - A Quoi Reve Une Jeune Fille

Yeah, it's been a bit crazy around here

I never told you about my favorite Christmas present, did I?

Galadriel glides forward. "So... welcome, and all that. I'm the Lady of Lórien and that's Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, over there with my granddaughter" (he still looks a bit peaked, but I think he's getting his strength back) "and the other Aragorn's off with the other Arwen. The ones with the swords--they're Anna Dollerious, Elizabeth Swann, and Eowyn, Doll of Rohan."

I think Galadriel's getting a little tired of the whole welcome wagon thing, but if she doesn't represent, I don't know who will.

"HEY, COULD YOU KEEP IT DOWN OVER THERE? I'M TRYING TO CONVERSE HERE."

"I want to play with them."

"Lyraaaa... tell her who you are!"

"Oh. Right. Lyra Belacqua. Nice to meet you. I guess."

Once again, I have to congratulate Tonner on the detail here; even the outfit under the coat is perfect. She's also got her own tiny alethiometer (with very detailed etchings on top) that's a little bigger than a quarter, and thick-ass mittens that I couldn't get on her hands for love or money, so I found her a little jewelry pouch that's just the right size for a knapsack, and that's where we put all her stuff. And the pouch is a nice silvery-beige color, so it even matches her coat.

So I'm wondering if I should interrupt the swordfighting and introduce her to the girls (I'm still concerned about the delicate social balance there, particularly with Eowyn feeling so low lately) when I feel something nudging my foot. Hey, it's that Webkinz I got two Christmases ago, my very first one, because my mother knows I like polar bears. So of course, when I started up the account on the website, I gave him the best polar bear name I could think of--

"IOREK!" She has to bend down to hug him, though. "You're... a lot smaller than I remember."

"BUT MY BEARLY DIGNITY IS UNDIMINISHED."

So I put them out on the stairs in the afternoons now (the carpet's even white--well, cream-colored) and they have a big time climbing up and down the "mountains" looking for sky iron. (And you can hear Lyra just going a mile a minute about how her uncle's an explorer too, he's probably on some really big stairs right now, and she hopes I'm not going to get any Mrs. Coulters because playing dress-up was okay for a while but it got really boring and also, Mrs. Coulter's face never, ever moves, which is really creepy, and you wanna talk about creepy, don't even get Lyra started on that monkey...) I'm going to have to think of something to do about the whole armor thing. Maybe Iorek will be okay with sky foil? I'll have to look into that.


(More from the Secret Life of Dolls.)