happy monday all. hope you had a weekend of grand proportions. ours was largely devoted to household ventures, more on this later, but it also included hot cider and popcorn, carols at church, frosty countryside, shepherd's pie, and shopping to fill our new fridge. whilst at walmart, we bagged some clementine cuties and the makings for our holiday punch; check, and check.

i've realized a new favorite pastime of mine. when driving up the streets of town, i instinctively scan the windows of each house to locate their christmas tree. last night i noticed how much i love this. happily, the bulk of houses around here have their tannenbaum in some conspicuous front window. one time i was even lucky enough to spot a window displaying a lady in the midst of trimming her tree. watching as she hung the shiny silver ball, witness to that peaceful moment, i almost felt like an intruder. but it was such a sweet, rare sight, i couldn't look away.

so this brown bag garland you see up top, let's talk about that. it's for fun, for free. this year i wanted to have a little 12 days of christmas scheme, without spending a cent. so, i strung paper sacks on a piece of twine by way of clothespins, gave them simple number labels, and stuffed each one with cards revealing the name of a christmas carol to sing together and some christmasy business to pull off, via this list. every other day until christmas, grant and i will open one. (i mixed up the cards before stuffing them, so that i can be surprised along with him.) it's been so nice holding the hymnal with my husband and learning the lesser known verses of these great christmas carols. here's the ones i picked to sing..

silent night, angels we have heard on high, o come, o come emmanuel, joy to the world, away in a manger, i heard the bells on christmas day, it came upon a midnight clear, o holy night, the first noel, come, thou long-expected jesus, and o little town of bethlehem.