Hanging of the Greens

Every year the youth group of our church hosts a special service. Its called Hanging of the Greens and it is basically the kick off to the Christmas season. We don't like to admit it, but we are always freaked out about speaking in front of so many people. There was about 60 people there tonight. We each get a few parts, some speaking and some parts that lead a song. I always pick speaking parts because I'm better at talking in front of people than singing even though we aren't required to sing into the mic. Regardless of what parts I had, I was still nervous. I was so freaked out that I started shaking. About halfway through the service my cousin started mouthing something to me. I looked over at Austin to try to figure out what he was saying but he didn't know either. He finally made a motion that looked like he was taking a drink of something and pointed at the pulpit. I then realized that I had left my water bottle on top of the pulpit. It wasn't too big of a deal, but when you are hosting a service the little things kind of get to you. We developed a strategy to try and get the bottle without anyone noticing and I think we succeeded. The next person up to speak took it down while he was talking. It went down very smoothly. After all of my parts were over I was able to relax. The only thing I had to worry about was keeping a straight face. Austin insisted on singing Joy to the World and Silent Night in his high-pitched voice. I wasn't able to sing along because I would've busted out laughing. We had to add a little bit of humor in order to keep from having panic attacks. All in all the service was a success. No one tripped and fell in front of the congregation and we got through all of our parts without messing up any words...too badly. Continuously gave one kid some trouble, but we got many good comments and were happy to have it all over with.