Meet Cecile - oops, that is, Meet Nadira!

I fully admit, I am probably on Santa’s “naughty” list right now. My chief crime: buying presents for myself in December! Growing up, my family had a rule: once Thanksgiving hit, you were to stop buying stuff for yourself and focus on getting gifts for others. (This worked to not only focus our thoughts on generosity and giving, but also avoided the awkwardness of Little Jenny buying herself the same thing Grandma had already wrapped up.)

But even my parents’ oft-repeated lessons get thrown to the wind in the face of a mighty American Girl flash sale. And what a sale – Cecile and Marie-Grace, plus accessory sets, for $50 each. That’s right, two American Girl dolls, brand-new, with accessories, for less than the price of one.

And now it’s time to confess my lesser crime – the fact that, on the morning of the 5th, I was sitting at my work computer, logged in to AG’s site, with my phone in my hand refreshing Playthings for the code. Online shopping at work, for shame. Long story short, the code worked, I ordered on time, and Cecile and Marie-Grace were on their way. And now I’m going to be like one of those twelve-year-olds on YouTube and chronicle the deboxing, because these are my first brand-spanking-new AG dolls in 19 years, and I’m going to enjoy this. :D

On Monday the 10th, this huge parcel was waiting for me at home:





Obligatory catalog (only my third or fourth since Halloween, thank you AG):



And the main event:





I am still in a minor state of shock over actually pulling the trigger and buying all this. Even on sale, that’s a lot of AG stuff.



I decided to only unbox Cecile at first. Having two new dolls at once is a bit much.

Cecile in her box:



Am I crazy, or were AG dolls not so tied down 19 years ago? I remember just opening up the box and lifting Felicity out right away. I needed my husband’s help to detach Cecile’s neck tie!

Lovely Cecile:



Cecile is beautiful. Her only flaws are a loose right leg and a tendency to look downward.



Her hair is actually thinner than I had imagined. She has sausage curls, but they’re not very large, and there’s only about two layers of them.

I believe I set a new record here: box to decapitation in under an hour!



Changing her into modern clothes – it’s less scary to take her head off than put open Velcro near her curls!



Cecile is very skinny – perhaps the skinniest of all my girls. Also, loose right leg. I did a quick feel-check on her shoulder joints – her elastic is knotted instead of clamped with ferrules. A restring might be in order after the holidays.



I’m very impressed with Cecile’s meet outfit. I was expecting that weird obviously-synthetic windbreaker fabric, but it has a lovely satin feel, and the velvet trim is nice. The wee pleats on her bodice are a great detail.



Her hat is cute and sturdy – I never really noticed the red bow in back, but it really makes the hat! Her necklace is still in wrapping, but has a nice heavy weight. Her gloves are less impressive, but doll gloves just kinda look goofy anyway.

But all this historical stuff gets set aside! Because Cecile is not Cecile, she is…



Nadira Bahrami, modern girl, Lucy’s best friend, and the next J.K. Rowling. I had originally planned to use #46 as Nadira, but when the sale came along, I decided I could live with hazel eyes and a center part if it meant a $55 discount!



Nadira is Pakistani-American, and yes, she is Muslim. I wasn’t sure whether or not she would wear hijab (could I bear to cover those curls?), but I found a piece of spare fabric and wrapped it around her hair to get a feel for how it would look. What happened then is the same thing that happened when I put glasses on Lucy – an immediate feeling of yes, there she is, that is the character that’s been in my head. Now I need to find/make her a hijab that isn’t as culturefail-tastic as a piece of spare fabric, because she flat-out refuses to uncover her hair.



Nadira is very shy, and very sweet – she loathes confrontation and tension, and she couldn’t hold a grudge even if you super-glued it to her hand. She would be perfectly happy to hole up in a library and ignore the rest of the world. She and Lucy have been friends since they were in diapers, and they plan to write the Next Big Fantasy Novel, with Dira writing and Lucy illustrating.



Poor Marie-Grace is still in her box, until I figure out where she fits in! I do have some pictures of her and her stuff, which will be posted shortly. Hopefully I can crank out a few more blog posts this week, while using up my paid time off from work. :D

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or a very nice December 25th, if you're not of the Christmas-celebrating persuasion) and you all are staying warm and dry and out of the snowstorms!