The Doll's Storybook

Stories about dolls who live in our world. Although these stories are suitable for children, they should check with their parents before reading and always be careful online. Readers are invited to donate to a charity supporting pediatric cancer treatment and research. Images shown are taken by the author or from a free image website with attribution and appreciation. The author has no connection with Götz Puppenmanufaktur, but gives them credit for the amazing dolls they produce.

Showing posts with label slopestyle. Show all posts

Friday, February 20, 2026

Winter Games

“Jolena’s up next!” Pippa cried excitedly as Jolena appeared on the TV screen.

The dolls at home watched. They shouted, “Go, Jolena!” and “We’re with you!” and “Don’t wash out!” and “You can do it!” (although there was no way Jolena could hear).

Jolena stood ready at the top of the run. She was busy pretending she could feel her heart beating fast.

Jolena jumped onto the course. She turned around on her skis, so she was skiing backwards, then sped down the slope, looking over her shoulder to see where she was going. Suddenly, she went up into the air, flipped over and spun around, grabbing one of her skis with one hand.

Then she straightened out and landed, facing forward and on both skis, continuing down the slope, ending the course on the edges of her skis, throwing snow up into the air, all while the dolls watched her on the TV at home.

“That was magnificent,” Pippa exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight.

It was pretty magnificent, they all agreed. On the TV, they could see Jolena taking off her skis, goggles and helmet. Then she stood and waited.

Finally, they announced that Jolena had made a score of 78. She seemed happy with it. She waved at the camera and then left.

“She qualified (QUAH-lihf-eyed)!” Mandy exclaimed.

“What does that mean?” Pippa asked.

“It means she got a high enough score to go on to the finals,” Mandy explained. “Everyone who got a 70 or above gets to go on to another run.”

At the end of each skier’s turn, some dolls called judges gave the skier a score. Then the scores of all the judges were averaged. That means they were all added up and divided by how many judges there were. All of the skiers went up in the air. Some did the kind of trick Jolena did. Some did something different. Each one received a score from the judges.

The dolls at home watched as the other dolls who were competing came down the course. They were from all over the world. They were made by different companies. They all did amazing tricks. Some held onto their skis for longer than others and got more points. Some spun and flipped in the air more times than others and got more points. Most of them landed correctly, but some washed out, which meant they landed on their side or their rear ends or some part of their body other than their skis. If they did that, they ended up with a much lower score. (The judges didn’t like to see that.)

All the dolls who received 70 or above got to run the course again. This time, the winners would be announced. The TV camera paused to show each doll who qualified as they stood just outside the warming hut.

“Look!,” Pippa cried. “There’s Jolena!”

After a quick break for a commercial, the final runs began.

At home, the dolls watched as each qualifier went down the course a second time. “They do different tricks this time,” Billy said.

“Jolena forgot her poles!” Pippa cried anxiously when Jolena got into position for her run with no poles.

“It’s OK,” Mandy told her. “For these events you can use your poles or not. Jolena told me the special trick she planned to do if she made the finals was easier for her without the poles.”

“I hope she doesn’t wash out!” Pippa exclaimed. “Don’t wash out, Jolena!” she shouted, waving her finger at the TV, as if she were scolding Jolena.

Jolena started down the course as all the dolls at home watched. Suddenly, she went up into the air. She spun around and then flipped over....

....and over....

....and over as she fell through the air, finally coming down onto the snow with her skis under her, while the other dolls watched at home, terrified. (They remembered that Jolena once had a nightmare, in which she landed on her head so hard that it came off her body and then rolled off the course, still in her helmet. That would be embarrassing!)

Jolena's landing was fine, though. She did not land on her head. Her head remained attached to her body. She skied to the bottom of the course with a big spray of snow and came to a stop. She took off her skis, helmet and goggles again to wait for her score.

Finally, the score was announced. “She got 82!” Emil shouted, as they watched Jolena smile, wave to the camera again and leave. “That puts her in first place!” he added.

“Yes,” Mandy agreed. “That’s a great score, but some of the best skiers still have their turn.”

When all the other skiers had had a turn, Jolena's score put her in fourth place, a great position, but not enough for a medal. The dolls at home were disappointed for her.

“Let’s give her a call,” Veronika suggested, “so she knows we thought she was great.”

They all thought that was a good idea.

Jolena answered on the first ring. She was ready for their call. “Did you see me?” she shouted at the phone.

Veronika had Jolena on speaker, so they could all talk to her. They all said that they had seen her. They told her how wonderful her performance had been.

“That’s the best I’ve done that trick,” Jolena told them. “Coach said so!” (Coach is what Jolena calls her ski teacher.)

“Were you disappointed not to get a medal?” Veronika asked.

Jolena thought for a moment before answering. “Well,” she said, “you always think about how nice it would be go get a medal, but the most important thing is to do your best.”

“That’s the first time I’ve had a score over 80!” she told them excitedly.

“You were in first place for a while,” Billy said. “That was good.”

“Yes,” Jolena agreed. “That was fun, but I knew the best skiers still had their turn. Still, when I walked off to the warming hut, where we all got together after our runs, the others looked at me with respect. Some of them gave me high fives and hugs, even the skier who had been in first place before my turn.”

“They sound like great competitors,” Mariah said.

“Good sports,” Charlotte added.

All the dolls thought about that.

“Let's have a party to celebrate!” Pippa suggested, after they had ended the call with Jolena.

“That’s a great idea,” Billy agreed, “but let’s wait until Jolena comes home.”

“Yes,” Pippa agreed. “We will need her to make the food for the party. Then we can all wash out after the party.”

“No, Pippa,” said Mandy. “We can wash up, not wash out, but we should fix the food, too. Jolena will be the guest of honor. Besides, she will be pretending to be tired from her trip. She will pretend to have jet lag, because she has been in another part of the world, where the time is different.”

All the dolls were happy, because they had something else fun to look forward to. Jolena would be home soon, and they would have a party.

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
Emil: Götz Happy Kidz Emilia

Pippa: Götz Little Kidz Lotta
Marmalade: Purrrfect Cats from KTL

Freestyle Photo of Jolena by Jörg Angeli on Unsplash

Freestyle Photo 2 by Jörg Angeli on Unsplash

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

“The Doll’s Storybook” is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.

Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Being Little, Besties and Distraction.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Our book of poems, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll’s Storybook includes Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Available now from BookBaby and other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook. The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll’s Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

If you don’t get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. The Writer’s author’s page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find our books at Barbara’s Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Friday, November 14, 2025

An Interview With Jolena

"Let's sit in the living room, Jolena," Mariah suggested. "That way you can be comfortable."

"I've never been interviewed before," Jolena told her friend. "What do I do?"

"Just answer my questions," Mariah replied. "It's easy. You'll be fine."

The girls settled themselves on the couch.

Mariah had her notebook and pencil. She had already written down some questions she wanted to ask. "Let's get started," she said. "First, when did you realize you wanted to do aerials and slopestyle skiing?" she asked.

Jolena thought for a moment. "Well," she replied, "when I was in my box on the shelf in the warehouse, I noticed I was wearing ski clothes." She thought for a moment, as Mariah wrote. "I mean, I just noticed at first that I was very warmly dressed," she said. "I had on long underwear, waterproof pants, a warm jacket, heavy plastic boots, and mittens. My jacket had a hood. Then I saw that I had skis, ski poles, a ski mask and a helmet to protect my head, and I realized I was meant to be a skier."

Mariah carefully wrote as much as she could of what Jolena said. "So then you thought about doing tricks on your skis?" she asked.

"No," Jolena replied. "I just thought I was going to ski just for fun."

Mariah wrote all that down. "So what made you think of doing tricks on your skis?" she asked then.

Jolena thought back.

"Well," she said, after a moment, "I was on my way to this country, although, at the time, I didn't know exactly where I was going. I just could feel my box moving." Jolena paused and thought some more. "I remember it got very warm, and I was wishing for cooler clothes. I found out later that my box had been sent through through Florida on my way to Utah by mistake. It was May, and it was already warm there in Florida, but at the time I didn't know where I was. All I knew was that I was uncomfortable, so I tried to take my mind off of it by thinking about what I could do on skis. I didn't really know, but it was good to think about all that nice, cold snow. I tried to imagine flying down the hill, and then in my mind, I was flying through the air!"

"What happened next?" Mariah urged.

"When The Writer opened my box," Jolena said. "I found out I was in Utah and that I had three sisters. That was before you came to live with us, Mariah."

"That's right," Mariah said. "I arrived right after the family moved to Oregon."

"Well," Jolena went on, "I found out that we lived close to the Utah Olympic Park, where they have ski jumps and bobsled runs, and that the Doll Ski Team had training in the summer. The Writer told me about it and asked me if I thought I would like to take part in the training. I got signed up right away!"

"Were you excited?" Mariah asked.

"Yes," Jolena said, "very excited, but it was hard work, too. I wanted to make the most of it, because I knew we were moving at the end of the summer, so this was my only chance. I was very tired when I came back from training each day."

"How did you train without snow?" Mariah asked. She knew that Utah didn't have snow in the summer except in the very highest mountains.

"That's very interesting," Jolena said. "You see, at the Utah Olympic Park, the big ski jumps are carpeted with special grass. Not real grass, but some kind of plastic. It lets the skis glide across the grass, so it feels just like skiing on snow."

Mariah's eyes would have widened, but they don't move, so she just looked intent.

"When you get to the bottom of the ski jump, you go flying through the air," Jolena explained. "Then you land in the pool. That's why I had to wear a bathing suit."

"The pool?" Mariah asked. "There's a pool?"

"Yes," Jolena replied, "a pool at the bottom of the ski jumps. So you can do your tricks and land in the pool when you're practicing. That way you don't get hurt."

Mariah continued to write as Jolena answered. "So the pool had water in it, then, right?" Mariah asked then.

"Yes!" Jolena exclaimed. "It wouldn't have been very good empty."

"But didn't you get water in your eyes?" Mariah asked.

"That could happen," Jolena agreed, "only the dolls on the Doll Ski team who train in water have special ski masks that keep the water out. We could fill up with water and sink, so the special masks help with that, and the coaches who teach us get us out of the water quickly."

"Was that all you did?" Mariah asked. "I mean, did you just go off and train on your skis every day?"

"No," Jolena said. "I got to know the other dolls in the family. We did stuff. Read books. We sat around and talked."

"One day," Jolena went on, "I decided I should start learning to dance. One of the trainers said that dance and gymnastics were good training for aerials and slopestyle skiers, so I started learning ballet. It was good for stretching, for one thing, and it was good for balance, too," Jolena went on.

"Now," Mariah said, "you have gone to South America two summers in a row, so you can ski and practice in real snow. What's that like?"

"Oh, it's wonderful!" Jolena exclaimed. "I get to spend a couple of weeks practicing all kinds of new tricks on real snow with other members of the US Doll's Ski Team and trainers. Last year we went to Argentina (ar-jen-TEE-nah). This year we went to Chile (CHIH-leh). Both of those countries have mountains with great ski resorts, and now I'm learning to speak Spanish. We have plans to go to Australia (os-TRAYL-ya) and New Zealand (new-ZEE-land) next summer and the summer after."

"Do you always see the same dolls?" Mariah asked.

"A lot of the same dolls come each year," Jolena replied, "and we see each other at competitions, too."

"Have you won many medals?" Mariah asked then.

"Not yet," Jolena replied. "I've only been at it for a couple of years, and it takes a lot of training and practice, but I keep getting better, so I'm pleased."

"Yes," Mariah said. "That's how I am with my writing. Now tell me please what you think is the most important thing you have learned since you started skiing."

"I really like dancing," Jolena said, "but I'm happiest when I'm in the snow."

"I think," Jolena said finally "whoever put those skis in my box with me knew what they were doing. I think that the people who work in the doll factory must be very smart."

"Well, I'm sure glad they did," Mariah said. "Skiing and doing tricks on your skis sure seems to make you happy. Now," she went on, "I have one more question: The first story in The Doll's Storybook was about you, so you sort of helped get this story blog started. Tell me how that happened."

Jolena thought back. It had been a long time, but it was very important to her, so she remembered it well. She just wanted to be sure she explained it correctly. "Mandy knitted me a blue dress," she said.

"I was wearing it," Jolena continued, "and sitting in the rocking chair on the front deck, pretending to eat some cottage cheese."

"The Writer's husband had found a spider––a toy one," Jolena continued, "and put it on The Writer's laptop, for fun. It made her laugh. She put it on one of the posts for me to look at so I could pretend it was a real spider."

"Then the story hit her," Jolena said. "I think that was how she put it, but I don't think it hurt. It doesn't hurt when a story hits you."

"So," Mariah exclaimed, "the stories started because of a spider!"

"This spider didn't spin a web; it spun a story!" Mariah added.

Jolena did go to visit Australia and New Zealand. If you would like to read about her travels, here are some stories about her trips:

A Ski Trip for Jolena?

Back from Down Under

Skiing With Kiwis

Knitting patterns used in the costumes for the dolls in this story:

Mariah's lavender cardigan: Janet from Dan-El Designs from Pixie Faire.

Jolena's white cardigan and Mandy's pink cardigan: Charlotte's Twinset, free pattern on Ravelry.

Veronika's gold cardigan: Steampunk Halloween Freebie Pullover by cataddict on Ravelry.

Charlotte's black cardigan with collar: Wonderland Turtle, free pattern on Ravelry.

Jolena's blue dress: The Viipuri Dress, free pattern on Ravelry.

You can follow The Doll's Storybook here.

Do you have questions or comments for us? Would you like to order an autographed copy of one of our books? You can email us at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com.

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.

Do you like our stories? Some of them are available in print:

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties and Distraction.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Our book of poems, Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook includes Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Available now from BookBaby and for presale from other booksellers: Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook. The Stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your library to get them for you.