Something new and something blue at the American Girl Store

It has been a while since I've dropped by the American Girl Store at the Stanford Shopping Center, and since the holidays are coming up, I thought I'd pay them a visit so I can get a good look at their current offerings and see which items are going to make it into my American Girl Holiday Gift Guide.  As usual, I'd love to get pretty much everything, but there were quite a few new items that caught my eye (note, the full holiday collection is not yet in stores, so I'm going to hold back on my AG gift guide for a couple of weeks!).  Here are my favorite new items at the American Girl Store so far:



1) First up: Samantha!!  The Pea and I are just thrilled to have her back.  Samantha has always been one of our favorites, and it's so nice to see her make a return to the American Doll family.  Now, if only they could bring Nellie back as well.......

(and speaking of Samantha, American Girl sent us a Samantha doll, so stay tuned for more photos and a detailed review on Bonggamom Finds!)

2) Samantha's ice cream parlor playset is adorable.  It's so detailed, down to the gilt scrolling on the counters and the heavy metal cash register.

3) I'm still not sure how I feel about Samantha's new dress, but I have no doubt about my delight at Kit's redesigned dress for the reimagined BeForever historical doll collection . It's so colorful and cheerful!  I also love Josefina's and Addy's new dresses, as well as their girl-sized counterpart dresses, which are inspired by the doll dresses, but not exact replicas.

4) Okay, nothing in this photo is new, but I wanted to feature it anyway, because I just love how Kit looks here!  Kit's dog, Grace, is at the foot of her bed, but there are many other cute new pets for Kit and other dolls to love.

5) The holiday dress for the My American Girl line is so pretty.  I really like the deep blue, which goes so well with Hanukkah colors.

6) You can never have too many holiday dresses!  The new silver shimmer dress is less formal than the blue one, so dolls can wear it to afternoon teas or holiday piano recitals.

7) I don't think I've ever seen the Hanukkah gift set before.  It comes with gelt, a dreidel, a mini menorah, a doll bracelet, and a blue gift box.


8) The Bitty Twins have a new Nutcracker outfit!  The girl Bitty Twin has a ballerina nightgown, just like Clara, and the boy Bitty Twin has a toy soldier pajama outfit, just like the Nutcracker Prince.

9) Caroline has a new party gown!  It's light blue and it comes with white gloves and a flower headband and I like it way better than her old party gown.

10) Caroline's new party table and treats works just as well in a 2014 setting as it did in 1812.

What are your new American Girl favorites?