all sorts of christmas prepping

the last week of school before christmas break is always crazy busy, and this year is no different.  while the cheer practices have let up a little, we've had plenty of school events to attend.  last friday was the annual "christmas sing," where all of the classes from grades TK-5 practice for weeks in advance and then perform triumphantly in front of their friends and family.  it's kind of sad to think that this is the last year i'll get to see the bean in this show.

i love that her favorite guy friend always dresses to the nines for these occasions.  his mom receives a ton of compliments, and she always tells everyone that it's all his idea.  i mean...check out the suit:

the bean was pretty excited to wear a top that i'd made for her using fabric i'd bought months ago.  i knew she'd love it, because it has pusheen the cat all over it - and her pusheen is my hello kitty.  the love runs deep.

as soon as the performance was over we headed to the office so i could sign her out for a few hours.  the second annual "lucy cub day" at nearby st. lucy's high school was that morning, and i knew she didn't want to miss it.  

a couple of nights ago was the elementary band and choir christmas concert.  the kids have been practicing songs for this all year, and they all did a fantastic job.  the new band teacher seems to be pretty effective, because the 5th grade band definitely sounded much better than last year.  and the choir is now under the direction of the school's drama teacher, which is also a step up from before.  too bad i couldn't see much of it, because parents always seem to lose their damn minds at these things - common courtesy and basic manners always fly right out the window as they elbow for the closest seats and then proceed to block everyone's view as they shift and move and hold their phones up to get video and photos of their preshus onstage.

afterwards, she and her bestie posed happily for a few photos.

as for me, i've been working on all sorts of fun stuff.  one of my mom friends asked me to make matching shirts for the lady who runs our cafeteria.  she's been in and out of the hospital and during one of her visits told my friend "i never ever pictured myself as a 'lunch lady'!"  and so she wanted to make up a fun gag gift for her and her husband.  here's what we came up with:

another mom friend asked me to recreate a t-shirt that her daughter wore to school one day that her teacher loved:

my friend AMP requested a couple of those cute little sushi zipper bags for her girls, and i added an adjustable crossbody strap to them:

as for my own teacher gifts, i decided to bust out a couple of those infinity scarves with a hidden pocket.  both of the 5th grade teachers listed purple as their favorite color and so here's what they'll be getting:

i tucked a starbucks gift card inside the pocket and called it a day.  i hope they like the scarves.  and i was kind of excited to add my little tag in the pocket, because it's fun:

i spent yesterday running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pick up all sorts of stuff for the class party.  we're serving breakfast to the kids, and they're going to do a book exchange and play a couple of games before the half-day dismissal.  i'm thinking we'll take one last trip to disneyland before our passes are blocked for two weeks.  since she'll be out of school by noon, it seems like a pretty good idea to me.

ah, the holidays.  gotta love 'em.