…Have you seen that QuickTrip commercial where the girls remember the note from their teacher right before their mom takes them to school?

Last night we got an email from church telling us that if Max could show up to the Christmas party with a “shepherd costume” (today) he could be a shepherd in the Nativity play. Now, we didn’t have a shepherd costume, and keep in mind, my craft supplies look like this right now:

Max was really excited about it, though, so no way was I going to let a little thing like a costume set us back!

I took a (conveniently no longer needed) uniform undershirt – basically a large tan t-shirt – and a pair of outgrown, worn-out, torn up corduroys for my materials and set to work. Any sort of contrasting material would work, really, but the pants were unpacked and the old corduroy lent nice texture to the whole thing. First, I sliced the elastic waistband off in one piece to use as a headband. Then I cut off a leg and separated the front from the back (so I had two long pieces). Then I cut things like seams and pockets off of the legs, and I had basically two brown rectangles. I sewed the narrow ends together so that I had one long one to use as a sash, folded it in half, and tied it around Max’s waist. Then Charlie wanted a shepherd costume, so I grabbed another t-shirt, did the same to the other leg of the pants, and used discarded seams to make another headband (one that tied, let’s not get too fancy here).

If I do say so myself, they look pretty adorable.

They wore their ‘costumes’ over shorts and t-shirts – you know, since it’s in the 70s here – with sandals for ‘authenticity.’ (Max’s sandals light up, which was pretty funny during the nativity play.) See that sheep he’s holding? It’s from the Noah’s Ark set I made for him lo, these many years ago for his first birthday. He carried that sheep all night and ‘took care of it.’ What a good little shepherd.