Meet American Girl's 2015 Girl of the Year: Grace Thomas!

Enter to win a doll apron, Grace book and Grace folder!

New Year, New Doll!  American Girl revealed their 2015 Girl of the Year on New Year's Eve and she's already a hit.  Grace Thomas, 9, is a baker and entrepreneur who visits Paris and starts a French bakery when she gets back home.  Grace went on sale on New Year's Day, and we joined the hordes of girls at the American Girl Store at the Stanford Shopping Center to welcome her!  Here are some photos of our experience:

To celebrate Grace's arrival, American Girl provided free doll aprons, free luggage tag craft, and a free cookie decorating craft on New Year's Day. I had been seeing photos of long lines at the stores on social media all through the morning, but by the time we got to the store (around 11:00AM), the line was less than 50 people long.  We waited less than 20 minutes and there were still lots of free doll aprons available (although by the time we left the store, 40 minutes later, they had run out of aprons!).  I'll show you a photo of the apron later in this post!

The American Girl Store is filled with new Grace Thomas signage and displays.  Her colors are black, light blue, red, and various shades of pink -- talk about Parisian chic!

There is a life-sized display of Grace standing in front of her French Bakery, La Patisserie, with a red bistro table and chair set so girls can sit down and have their photos taken with Grace.

The Grace doll ($120 with book) has long brown hair with bangs, blue eyes, and a light dusting of freckles.  She comes with a pink Paris tshirt, a pink skirt with a black bow, and grey boots.

Grace's Welcome Gifts accessory pack ($32) comes with a pink beret, a flower bouquet, postcards, an iced sugar cookie, and a box of French macarons.  The macarons are adorable, and I can see myself making more doll-sized macarons and other baked treats from Fimo clay!

If you have a reservation at the American Girl Cafe, you can buy a Grace recipe box for $10. The box includes recipe cards, sticker labels, a doll recipe book, and a cookie cutter shaped like the Eiffel Tower.

You need to be seated at the cafe to purchase the recipe box (I tried, they wouldn't let me!), but the lady in charge of reservations said this offer would be good throughout the year. Let's see how long supplies last....

Grace is a baker, so I'm totally in love with all her playsets and accessories. I think I like Grace's accessories more than any other Girl of the Year so far!  Check out her adorable Pastry Cart ($150) which includes a ton of dainty pastries. It even has boxes for the pastries, a chalkboard menu, and a tiny bell!  In the photo, Grace is wearing her Opening Night Outfit ($38), but the money belt on her waist is actually part of the Pastry Cart set.  Check out Grace's sparkly silver sandals!

I have a ton of photos to share, but I'll stop here because I want to get to the good part -- a giveaway!

Win a Grace Thomas Prize Pack

One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a Grace Thomas prize pack! I'm giving away the Grace doll apron that was given to me at the American Girl Store as a special free gift to celebrate Grace's arrival. It's not available for sale online, in stores, or in the catalog (although I already see it on sale on eBay!) so it's an exclusive item!  Along with the apron, I'm giving away a Grace book and the folder that American Girl's PR department sent me with Grace's press kit.

The giveway ends 11:59PM midnight PST on January 25, 2015.  I'm trying Rafflecopter this year, so enter via the Rafflecopter widget below!  Good luck, and Happy New Year!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.
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