day 2 on the Advent calendar

It's December 2nd and I'm feeling extraordinarily Christmassy. Sunday evening was the Hanging of the Greens service at church, and I was asked to be the narrator for the service. I wasn't quite expecting that (I thought I was just helping out with a verse or something) but it went really well, was full of Christmas carols, and made me 100% ready for the holidays. If you haven't been to a Hanging of the Greens before (I hadn't) it is all about the different decorations and symbols we use at Christmastime and what they represent for us as Christians this time of year. It is all really interesting to learn where they came from and how we use them. Plus, you can't go wrong with Christmas songs. I took some pictures of the Chrismon tree and other decorations after the service:





I also had to come up with a different place to put my Christmas village that I made last year. Last year we had a shelf over our television before we got the new TV cabinet, but I can't use it as a mantle anymore..so I set it all up on the white farm table in our kitchen. I set up my wire tree (that I got at the Country Living fair and used at Halloween) with my new bird ornaments - I LOVE it! I got the ornaments this year at Target and I love love love the way it all looks - snowy and sparkly and shimmery.









I'm coming along pretty well on my Christmas crafting and shopping. I'm basically done with Nathan's gifts, and that is the hardest one since I live with the guy. But we still have a lot to do for family members and all of our Dirty Santa gift exchanges. We decided on doing a gag gift exchange on Christmas Eve when we host at our house. Should be fun!