Our eldest son, Trae and his sweet wife Corie come to our house for Christmas every other year. The other years, of course, they go to Corie\u2019s parents\u2019 house.<\/p>\n
We have two other children (whom we adore!) who are with us every year at Christmas. Our middle boy, Mel, is still single and lives about 3 hours away in Austin. He comes to visit about once a month or so and we always have a great time.<\/p>\n
Our baby Jack is married, with four babies, and lives down the street from us. This is the most delightful turn of events, for sure. We get to see those precious boys every few days which is the best.<\/p>\n
I guess what I\u2019m doing is making an excuse for trying to show out when Trae and Corie are here! We just don\u2019t see them that often and I want things to be really nice. Also, Corie is a talented artist and really appreciates home-made things. I\u2019m no artist, but I am an aspiring crafter. So, I always like to have a few new homemade goodies each time they come.<\/p>\n
This is our off year. We have been with Trae and Corie a couple of times this year (which is great). We met them in Santa Fe and then again in Wyoming for the eclipse. They are ultra-fun! But, I always feel a void when they are not here for Christmas.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a busy fall for us, with lots of travel, some remodeling at the beach house, a little babysitting (very fun!) and visiting with Mop in Assisted Living. We started the fall with her evacuation to Houston (for Hurricane Harvey), which had me on the road for about 4 weeks. I was so glad to be able to be with her during that hard time.<\/p>\n
This is my pitiful way to explain why I am SO FAR BEHIND in my Christmas-making. So far behind, in fact, that I am not making Christmas PJs for the kids this year. I BOUGHT THEM. Yes. I sold out to the man\u2026 and I don\u2019t even feel bad about it (well, maybe a little bit, or I wouldn\u2019t have mentioned it).<\/p>\n
If you live in a small town, you will relate to this story. If you are a city slicker, consider this some great travel writing. This will take to a different part of the world.<\/p>\n
In our small Texas town, we just got a new Kroger! Now, this is big stuff. We’ve had a very nice small grocery store for a few years now, but Kroger is exciting. They not only sell groceries, but on this opening weekend\u2026they were selling really cute CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS! $40 (on the tag) for $6..98, with a 25% off coupon which brought the price way on down! (I don\u2019t have my calculator with me, so I can\u2019t tell you exactly how much :)) So, along with the fact that it\u2019s Thanksgiving week and I haven\u2019t even started making pajamas AND I have about a jillion other projects that must be done, that just seemed like too good a deal to pass up.<\/p>\n
And besides, they are really cute. Elf outfits. And ELF is my theme for this Christmas! See how it all just works together?<\/p>\n
Though I usually sew the adult pj\u2019s, I always purchase pajamas for the 4 grands. They are still little and I prefer the flame resistance that is available in store-bought pjs. I had just (the day before) found some adorable elf pj\u2019s for the kids at Target. So, it\u2019s coming together.<\/p>\n
So, anyhow… I am in the beginning stages of Creative Christmas mode. Our house will be a \u201cCookie Stop\u201d on our annual neighborhood Christmas Light Walk-about, so I am making Mrs. Santa and Father Christmas outfits for Mack and me (I didn\u2019t want to do a Santa suit for him because I thought it would confuse the kids. His suit will be green velvet and no beard). I have a vision for painting the garage like Mrs. Santa\u2019s kitchen and serving delightfully decorated Christmas cookies from there. A good plan. Not sure I can pull it off in a month!<\/p>\n
For that evening, I am making elf aprons for the grands. Last year, I dolled up some brown aprons and made them look like gingerbread men (that was last year’s theme). I ordered the green aprons and will get to work on embellishing them this afternoon. I am also knitting elf hats for each of the grands in their favorite colors: red, blue, green and orange\u2026yes! an orange Santa hat. I found some adorable Christmas-y button down shirts with bow ties for the 3 little kids, but fear that I will need to make one for the 6 year old, as I can\u2019t find one anywhere – online or elsewhere. I\u2019m on it!<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s my list, however lofty it may be.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Santa dress (trim only – bought dress)
\nMrs. Santa fur(ish) cape
\nMrs. Santa apron
\nMrs. Santa cap
\nFather Christmas – whole outfit: jacket, pants, vest, hat
\nElf aprons (4)
\nElf hats (knitted) 4
\nDecorated cookies – a million
\nClean out\/paint garage
\nRefurbish cupboard for display of cookies
\nReupholster 3 kid rockers
\nMake 2 camping-related pillow cases (already have really cute fabric)
\nMake one Christmas-y button down shirt
\nInvitations for Gingerbread house party on 24th
\nLuncheon with old friends
\nCello performance at Assisted Living with church group
\nCello performance with my mom\u2019s Memory Care group
\nBook Club Christmas party
\nPhoto Christmas ornaments for Moppy.
\nBookish Christmas apron for Book Club Christmas party<\/p>\n
Unrelated to Christmas
\nPaint chicken over stove
\nMove office from back to front room in house
\nMove furniture back into back bedrooms when carpet finished at beach
\nMove bed from house to beach house
\nMonday\/Wednesday morning babysitting
\nBook Club meeting
\nSew curtains for beach guest room
\nPaint beach porch furniture<\/p>\n
Well, that should keep me busy!
\nBTW\u2026.since a couple of days ago, when I started this post, I have decorated for Christmas, finished the kids\u2019 aprons and knitted hats, finished Moppy\u2019s photo Christmas ornaments and started on my Mrs. Santa dress. I\u2019m on a roll!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our eldest son, Trae and his sweet wife Corie come to our house for Christmas every other year. The other years, of course, they go to Corie\u2019s parents\u2019 house. We have two other children (whom we adore!) who are with us every year at Christmas. Our middle boy, Mel, is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,7,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melaniewallace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}