Christmas in July

Happy Christmas in July friends!!!  Well... when we first started quarantine back in March, I really didn't think we'd still be sitting here for Christmas in July.  (That's the main reason why Eliot and I celebrated Very Merry Quarantime in April.)  However, now that Christmas in July is actually here, I still feel like celebrating the occasion.

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This entire week has felt a bit festive.  Hallmark has been airing two weeks worth of Christmas movies during their Christmas in July event.  Eliot and I have watched a lot of those.  We've also had them on in the background while cleaning the house.

I've also spent a lot of time working on lots of holiday mouse ears this past week for our Happily Ever Hatter Christmas in July week on Instagram and Facebook.  In 2018, I did a short series of posts with a few of our holiday designs leading up to Christmas in July.  This year, I decided to be ambitious and do posts for the entire week.  It's been a lot of work, but I'm happy to have some new holiday designs to add to our shop!

Speaking of our Happily Ever Hatter shop, I spent part of this afternoon organizing our holiday mouse ears.  Tomorrow, I plan to take and edit product photos of holiday ear samples from our December Disney Cruises and trip to Walt Disney World.  In all of the craziness, I never took photos of them when we returned home from our trips.  Some of our current product listings are still shown as renderings; on other listings, photos need to be updated and some designs aren't listed in our shop at all yet.

But it's not all work and no play as today marks actual Christmas in July.  Since it's another Saturday, Eliot's getting roped into the celebrations again.  This time, I wanted to expand upon our celebrations from Very Merry Quarantime.  However, it was 87 degrees out today so putting on Christmas sweaters or pajamas, even with the air conditioner, wasn't an option.  Most of our Christmas stuff has found it's way to our storage unit while we're busy working on the house, so we didn't look as festive this time around either.  But, our Christmas tree is still up and lit- so that's something!

In a perfect world, I would have made cookies, but with the heat, I didn't want to get into that.  Instead, Eliot went to the grocery store and picked up a small cake and some milk.  I never say no to cake with chocolate frosting!  I'm sure Santa would approve!

Of course, it's not Christmas without a few new toys.  Tonight, Eliot started putting together his new Lego set of a model car.  It's got 970 steps in the instructions so it's going to take a while, but he's having fun with it so far!

You all know how much I love Disney holiday merchandise.  I've been waiting for today to see if Disney showed any sneak peeks.  With COVID I didn't think there would be a lot of fanfare like there was last year.  I figured that some of the designs might have even been delayed.  However, there was still a little sneak peek posted over on the Disney Parks Blog.  I'm really excited to see the gingerbread stuff!  I hope this means that they'll have more gingerbread items this year.  I love the little gingerbread hat and the shirt.  And that cookie baking set!!!  Those will most definitely be on my wishlist!

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Finally, it wouldn't be a Christmas in July celebration without Christmas movies.  Today, we watched a few of our favorite Hallmark movies.  (We've taped so many on our DVR this past week!)  Right now, Eliot's got one of the two Christmas and Hanukkah movies they debuted last year playing while he's sprawled out on the living room floor with his Legos.  I'll be digging into that cake in a few minutes.  It feels like a good way to end our Christmas in July celebration.

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I hope you had a wonderful Christmas in July- if you celebrate!  This year, it feels like we could all use some of the magic of Christmas more than ever.

Happy Christmas in July!!!  °o°