Christmas — Jenny Garland

Just Pictures

The Preschool Christmas Program

Oh my, the Christmas Program was cute overload. Of course I got teary eyed the second the doors opened and my angel (literally) walked in! The whole show was around 30 minutes and I had the hardest time cutting this video down to about 4 minutes.

A little sister thought the program was pretty fun too:

Kate was very excited but super nervous on stage. There were a LOT of people in the audience! I would have been nervous too You’ll see in the video she sees me in the audience and waves a few times. She even gives Brad the thumbs up sign once! He was our designated videographer up front. Kate’s group sang a ton of songs:

Oh Come All Ye Faithful

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Estrellita (Twinkle Twinkle in Spanish)

Away In The Manger

Gloria

Jesus Loves Me

Go Tell It On The Mountain

My Jesus, My Saviour

Let It Be Christmas (by Alan Jackson – we are in TX!)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Jingle Bells

Remember the other day when she was singing Gloria and then told me I had to wait to see the rest? Turns out the surprise was she was part of a trio singing center stage! Poor thing had stage fright but still managed to rock it out.

Her trio and Go Tell It On the Mountain were my favorite parts! The sweet girl who had the solo was born to be on stage You’ll love her!

After the performance, Kate had a classroom par-tay. These are a few of her school friends:

Thanks for looking!

And super thanks to Nana, Heather, and Kate for coming to see Miss Priss! It made her day.

Kate’s Preschool Program

Kate has her preschool Christmas program on Wednesday and I’m excessively and perhaps inappropriately excited about it!

She has been talking about it for 6 weeks and has been giving us “sneaky peeks” of the songs her class will sing. This afternoon Kate was singing “Gloooor, orrrr, oorrr, orrr, orrr, orrr, orrr, E, ah ..” and then declared “That’s it. You’ll have to wait to hear the rest!” ha.

I know the whole program will last less than 20 minutes and her class’ part is probably less than 5 minutes, but I simply cannot wait.

… Oh, I made baked chicken tonight brushed with melted butter and chopped basil for dinner. Guess what? It was *almost* great. Good enough for me

What are you all up to this week?

A Christmas Stocking Tutorial Just for YOU!

If you would like to make your own Ballard-esque Christmas stocking, here’s how to do it:

Materials:

5/8 yd ivory duck cloth
24″ x 7″ rectangle of leopard print cotton for ruffle
12″ x 2″ rectangle of leopard print for loop
12″ x 2″ rectangle of interfacing for loop
8.5″ x 4.5″ scrap of cotton fabric for embroidered name (optional)
8″ ball trim
red and green scraps of felt/cotton/flannel/etc for accents (circles, bones for dogs, or fish for cats)

Directions:

Download pattern PDF and tape pieces together.
Cut out (2) stocking pieces (front and back) from duck cloth.
Cut out desired number of accents from red/green fabric and pin to front and back pattern pieces. Be sure to leave space on the front piece for the 8.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle if you are adding a name.
Use a zigzag or decorative stitch to attach accents to stocking. Trim any part that hangs over.
If adding a name, take your embroidered 8.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle. Press under 0.5″ on both the top and bottom. Pin to front of stocking and edge stitch top and bottom. Trim sides to match edges.

Serge or zigzag the top of the stocking (both front and back pattern pieces).
Sew trim to the top of the FRONT stocking piece with a 1/4″ seam.
Place the front and back pattern pieces right sides together. Serge or sew around all sides, leaving the top open. Finish edges with a zigzag if you didn’t serge.
Turn stocking right side out and press well.
Take your 24″ x 7″ leopard fabric and sew short ends right sides together to create a tube.
Press tube in half, wrong sides together. Edge stitch fold. Finish raw edge.
Baste the bottom of the tube twice. Pull bobbin threads to create a ruffle the same perimeter as your stocking opening.
Slide the ruffle over the stocking opening, aligning raw edges.
Sew ruffle to stocking with a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Press ruffle up. Edge stitch in place.
Now for the loop. Iron the 12″x2″ interfacing to the wrong side of the 12″x2″ leopard print fabric.
Sew long sides, right side together. Turn tube right side out. Press. Edge stitch sides.
Fold in half to make a loop and zigzag raw edges together.
Pin loop to the inside of the ruffle. Box stitch.
That’s it! (I just added this step because 20 steps sounds better than 19).