Christmas time is near...

i can just hear the song from charlie brown. and hymns. cause i love the good hymns we only sing at christmas time.

last friday i traveled with a crew from bethel lutheran in bemidji (which, just as a subtle reminder, is the church i work at) to concordia college in moorhead, mn for the christmas concert there. was really good.

and i don't even like choir concerts that much.

my favorite song was the first one. which was performed by their orchestra. a variation of 'o come o come emmanuel.' one of the best hymns for the advent season.

my other favorite was performed by the all-men choir: 'we three kings'. i've always thought that song needed to be sung only by men since i, as a female, cannot be a king. another really good song was sung in an african language (i think nigerian) by the same men.

i'm sensing a theme in my faves. did i mention that i love instrumental music as well as men's voices?

i am really getting into the waiting impatiently for xmas mode.

especially as i watch holiday movies on tv (oh, how i love being spoiled with cable and not fighting over the remote with anyone).

and as i look at my christmas tree. which finally has the ornaments up. like my angel ornament collection courtesy of my godparents (uncle bruce and aunt mary) who sent me angels every year for quite some time. and the ornaments made by my great-grandmother for my parents their first christmas together. and a few others like the new shiny ones i bought this year to finish out the "look".

i have christmas presents wrapped under it since the bottom branches sit about 15 inches above the ground and it looked funny. i think it looks pretty darn good. now if i could just remember to take a picture of it all prettyified so y'all can see it.

some of the boxes i wrapped aren't presents at all.

for example, one box is literally a kleenex box with two jingle bells and some paper. another is all the decorations i took down in order to make room for christmas decorations.

and on the windows, i spent time making pretty ribbon bows to hang and look pretty.

now i just have to figure out what to do in some other rooms. and it may involve boxing up the excess on top of bookshelves or dressers to make some more awesome presents for my tree. :)

which if you stop by my open house on dec 19 in the afternoon, you can view everything with your own eyes...