What's Behind Door #2? A Holiday Surprise!

Welcome to Day Two of our Advent Calendar follow along! 

Before we get into that, we had an interesting development yesterday with one of the cats. In the evening Miss Willow came into my room, and stayed. We got Willow shortly after Sunshine passed away as a kitten. She lived in my room but eventually branched out into the rest of the house. She would visit sometimes but not for very long. We then adopted Simba from my Grandmother, Simba moved into my room (she always had the option of using the entire house but preferred to stay in my room). I had hoped Simba and Willow would be friends being the two indoor cats, but Simba was too set in her ways to share a space and Willow was extremely skittish around a new pet.

I was hoping after we lost Simba, Willow would get used to coming back into my room and sometimes she would come in the doorway, but usually she'd turn around and scamper out. There was a few times I'd bring her in and put her on the bed, but usually she'd leave after a minute and I didn't want to force her to stay if she felt uncomfortable. But yesterday she came in and I put her on the bed and she stayed and slept pretty much all evening. She left for a few minutes, but came back and this time she jumped on the bed herself. She spent the entire night in my room on my bed and didn't leave until 6 am. Even when she was a kitten Willow was very good at sleeping the entire night. I know it was that time because I got up to let her out. The door was already open a crack, but she seemed to have a hard time getting it open and I wanted to make sure she could get out.

 I'm hoping that she'll be around more after today, especially at night. I like having a cat to sleep with at winter, it gets so cold her at night we both can use the shared heat. We might have a set back coming up though, in a few weeks we're going to be babysitting my sister's dog. Finn's a good dog and a tiny dog. Back when my sister got Willow for us, Willow and Finn were friends, but nowadays she's scared of him so when we're fostering the dog she makes herself scarce the entire time he's here and several days after. And since he's a small dog who needs a lot of attention, I usually step up and have him in my room a lot. Hopefully it won't cause too much of a step back in her thinking of my room as a safe space.

I had Finn in my room a lot when Simba was here and never had an issue. Usually I put him in a spot where they couldn't see each other, but the last time they both were together I had them both on the bed and neither of them cared about the other. Finn's so skittish, I would have assumed she'd be the aggressor in any issue.

Anyway, onto the calendars, kudos to you if you've made it through my ramblings. I think I'm going to start with the chocolate calendar since I think it's less exciting and it'll be good to get it out of the way.

Our day two door is tucked away at the very bottom corner:

Peeling it back reveals....

Excuse me small child, let me pull open your face to find the candy inside.

A horn! 

Not sure what kind of horn that is, I want to say a French horn, but I'm pretty sure it's not a French horn, however I don't know instruments.

Moving onto Barbie, her day two door is near the center of the calendar, underneath the ice skater illustration. I think Barbie and Monster High share an illustrator, the images on the calendar reminds me a lot of the Monster High art used in the fashion packs when they first started coming out.

I had just as hard of a time opening this door as I did the big one the doll was behind.

Opening it I find....

A pair of blue pointe shoes!

They have a nice indent in the package so they're easier to take out.

I'm not sure if the outfits are scattered around or follows a theme, but if they're themed we're starting with the ballerina. These shoes are an ice blue that closely matches the bodysuit and are designed to mimic pointe shoes. They have molded on ankle straps, a molded on bow on front, as well as some geometric designs on the front and sides near the heel. The one on front looks a bit like a snow flake, but I'm not sure if that's true since the sides just look like geometric shapes that aren't designed to look like anything specific. There is slit in the back for ease of putting on and taking off a doll.

As a self confessed shoe addict, I don't really like these shoes. They're a little over the top and out of scale for me. I think the bow and the geometric designs together are a little much. I don't like the blend of frilly and sharp edges. I'd personally lose the bow and make the geometric pattern bigger and more like a snow flake (or just put a snow flake period, how cute would that be!). Also the toe part seems a little oversized. I know pointe shoes have a larger toe section for actually standing, but they just seem too big for that. However I do now that; A. Mattel isn't making this for my tastes and B. I'm sure these are reused molds from something else. I'm sure a child would be a lot less critical of these than I am.

I'm a little surprised we're getting shoes, I thought we'd be getting a skirt or something first. The doll looks a little odd wearing just the bodysuit and ballet shoes, but let's see what tomorrow brings.

Have a great day everyone! See you tomorrow!